BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

INTRODUCTION

Comfort N Care is an organization, which deals in personal loan, home loan and credit card. For Comfort
and Care retention and uplifting employees as well as customer satisfaction are most important. Comfort
N Care was established an ICICI’s franchisee on 15th October 2000 with joint effort of Mr. Ajay Sharma
and Mr. Agarwal who happened to be the vice president of ICICI Ltd. On 27th October 2000 ICICI
awarded him the franchisee of home loans too.

Comfort N Care slowly positioned itself as one of the strongest franchisee of ICICI Ltd. The key points of
success of Comfort N Care are human values, personal motivation, and it focused more on attitudes
behavior and ethics. With well coordinated ideas good segmentation, philosophy and innovative
organization structure Comfort N Care is more focused on customer satisfaction.

Besides that Comfort N Care has changed focus from intra relations to inter relations, from independence
to dependence with changing environment. Its customer and external customer have an open ended and
transparent feedback mechanism. By such transparency and commitment Comfort N Care got a good
position in the industry and started fulfilling the dream of it’s customer of “home sweet home” in an
effective way

Comfort N Care has achieved target three times more than it was fixed by ICICI bank Ltd. Comfort N
Care was also rewarded as the 4th best franchisee in India and the best in north India in the year 2002.

Analysis

General Environment

Demographics- If we look at the in Indian Demographics the approximately 82 % of population is

residing in Rural Areas and remaining 18% in Urban Areas. And rural areas still have time to grow for
good infrastructure

Sociocultural – Indian lifestyles range from traditional village farming to modern agricultural to modern
industrial. Poverty is a problem as more than a third of the population is too poor to be able to afford an
adequate diet (35 percent of the population lives below the poverty line).

Economy – India’s international payment position is strong with adequate foreign exchange reserves,
with recent turmoil in global economy the Industry had a tough time. But now since the market has started
to stabilize more the industry is showing the positive response, with the 1.54% as inflation rate.

Political/Legal- All the Banks and Housing Industry have a legal binding with RBI. They all are regulated
by RBI. All the lending rates are fixed as per the RBI Guidelines.

Technology- Using latest software makes operation to be smoother. This makes good customer base. Use
technology to make data base of customer which helps in one to one interaction.

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 1

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1478045

 BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

Global-Global environment for this kind of Industry has been challenging in recent times, Recession was
due to sub prime lending which has its impact across the globe. With the effect industry showed a drastic
downward trend for the industry.

Industry Environment

Industry Definition –

Comfort N Care is one of the key players in financial sector which competes in the Indian market. This
industry includes personal loan, home loan, credit cards.

Products and Services:

The products and product services ranged from retail banking, personal financial services, non resident
Indians services, Home loans, credit cards, corporate banking etc

Life Cycle Stage –

Indian financial sector are maturing and have experienced recent growth as the economy of India has
expended.

Growth Rate – With a reduction in house loans to 5% the market is expected to expand by 30%.

Rival Concentration –

Both the global and the Indian financial industry are highly concentrated pace of industry change high.
New entry of financial service provider along with entry of companies of different background into the
market has set the pace for industry.

Pace of Industry Change – High, new entry of financial service provider along with entry of companies
of different background into the market has set the pace for industry.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS--- HIGH

It was a bit late but participation by new entrants was taking place yet they were struggling for their
survival in this segment. Some competitors are as follows:

1) Standard charted bank

2) State bank of India

3) Punjab national bank

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 2

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1478045

 BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

4) Citi bank

BARGAINING POWER OF CUSTOMERS--- LOW TO MODERATE

The kind of value added services were providing by the C-N-C with a faith, ethics and backing up with
commitment was the main driving force for customer orientation. As a result the customer base is
increased from 1200 to 2000 with tenure of 3 years.

Competitions the services, product and rate at which services are provided sustain a level in the market.

BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS -----LOW

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES-- LOW

The operating policies were unique, which were nourished with a vital moral and social attributes.

RIVALRY AMONG COMPETITORS - HIGH

Global competition has been intense and the service and performance bar is continually being raised.
High rivalry is expected to continue into the coming future.

INTERNAL ENVOIRNMENT

What are Comfort N Care’s tangible and intangible resources? Which of these will be critical in
developing capabilities and core competencies?

TANGIBLE RESOURCES

• Improving profit profile for every share holder

• Participative visioning process
• Ethical management and progressive business philosophy
• Progressive employee practices
• Transparent feedback mechanism
• Low attrition rate
• High focus on customer delight.
• Awards and recognitions by institutions and authorities.

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 3

 BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

INTANGIBLE RESOURCES

• Strong organizational culture

• Reputation for good relations with customer and society
• Workers give more on the job because Comfort N Care’s forms a employee friendly environment
• Good segmentation philosophy
• Good brand equity and customer’s mind share.

• Precise time management.

• Value added services.

• Passion brings about changes fast.

CAPABILITIES AND CORE COMPETENCIES

• Positive/progressive employee relations

• Innovative, progressive, ethical and socially business/management practices
• Hit and follow policy.
• First in the segment thus reaping first-mover benefit.
• Value added services backing up with commitment.
• Avoidance of fake and fraud practices and pro-activeness towards the concern.
• Accordingly trained and committed sales force enriched with intrinsic motivation
• One to one relation with customers.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH:

• Participative visioning process

• Ethical management and progressive business philosophy
• Positive labor relations through Joint Department Councils
• Fair play governs the aspect of their business
• Communication/cooperation with workforce concerning company finances/needs
• Its unique market oriented structure, which had acted as a major driving force for the rising up of
C-N-C in such a pace. .
• Its two main divisions which are functional presently. Firstly, Home loan which is the initial
division catering to a larger segment & secondly, Credit cards division which has been added off
late as the second line of forward integrated diversification.
• Each Strategic Business unit (SBU’s) lead by Team Leaders, with a variety of experience in
Marketing, Operations, Finance, and Accounting with adequate qualities of appreciating Public
relations.
• Credit Card divisions headed by three team leaders who are supported by 13 Executives each.

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 4

 BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

• One to one mapping with clients, and eye watch on competition, speed & accuracy of delivery
with the clear goal outpost in mind, which play as code of good governance and practice.
• Clear Segmentation philosophy, i.e. where to target, whom to target, how to target & how to do
Positioning.
• The Core competency of the organization and its individuals which runs around financial
appreciation of the projects and its viability study, on time.
• Bridging of the gap between the employees and ICICI corporate and heading/supervising of the
total quality perspectives.

WEAKNESS:

• Over enthused and unfair practices, some executives in their over ambitious drive for business.
• Scarcity of financial resources (short capital) at the initial start up to run the pilot programmes.
• C-N-C’s smaller organization size presently just over 70.
• Does not have strong brand equity.

OPPORTUNITY:
• Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Business graduates, all those who were in
Government or Private Services with reasonable disposable income.
• Business class people which desired for a face lift as it gad an ever increasing Economic
advantage. If this was to be catered, it would act as a driving force.
• To introduce/implicate Personal Innovation Model, which explicitly focuses on individual
motivation (intrinsic)? “It strengthens the desire to perform willingly and by desire”.
• The commissions earned as franchisee from ICICI limited itself is an opportune for
forward thrust
• Value added services for reduced service charge.
• To explore rural market.
• To facilitate the need of housing finance for the grow
• To increase its customer base because of changing demand pattern.
• To successfully handling 5000 new aspirant.
THREATS:

• The active participation by private and government forces has created a high competitive aura,
due to which survival & dominancy has been a major threat.
• Market challenge put up by Standard Chartered bank, Punjab National Bank housing division,
State Bank of India, HDFC and Citi bank which cannot be ignored.
• Risk of uncertainty & alteration in the Monetary as well as Fiscal policies.
• Capitalization of increased market size.
• Government policy may inhibit ability to compete effectively on global scale
Threat from new entrants as well as the existing players

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 5

 BPSM Sec A- 2009- Case Analysis: Comfort N Care

Course Instructor: Professor M Joshi, Ph.D

• Changing RBI policies in the banking industry.

STRATEGY FORMULATION

• Merging of interest or innovative idea into profession or career.

• Focus on human values (honesty, integrity, discipline,) personal or individual motivation attitudes
behavior and performance under ethics.
• Social cause for building houses became the inspiration to rise up towards growth i.e. to provide
house to every individual due to tremendous increase in population became an opportunity to
grow and expand.
• Segmentation of the local market was the strategy which helped them to establish their foots in
the competitive market
• Strategy of bridging gap between the employees and corporate motivated people to make the base
of the organization strong and rigid.
• Concept of forward integrated diversification i.e. SBU’s had made the organizational structure
more focused.
• Customer satisfaction strategy had provided new heights to the organization. Initially C-N-C had
intra relations but the focus shifted to intra relation. Value added services to reduced charge have
been the “HIT & FOLLOW POLICY”.
• Career oriented individuals were hired and propagated on faith and trust and long term
association principle , through proper & extensive training
• Capitalization of market size through enriched experience of STP principle based on logics and
ethics.
• Total quality management and satisfaction has been his unique approach.

Compilation by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Scholar, Sec A /Input: Entire Scholars of Section A 6