Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co. Ltd., (Chola) the financial services arm of Murugappa Group, will focus on three broad areas to improve as an organisation, according to Vellayan Subbiah, chairman and non-executive director.
Chola would hence first focus on frontline productivity viz. sales and collection teams, followed by talent management and ‘lean’ implementation, he said in a call with analysts.
The implementation of the ‘lean’ process, traditionally done in a manufacturing environment — meant to add more customer value with fewer resources — has much applicability for Chola. But, it had been unfortunately delayed following COVID-19, said Mr. Subbiah.
“So, those are the three broad areas we are looking at in terms of improvement across the system,” he said.
In terms of broader strategy, he hinted Chola was looking at more successful models such as HDFC and Bajaj Finserv. “It requires further broadening of the portfolio in terms of what we offer, and which is what all of the successful guys have done.”
On Chola’s participation in Vishwakarma Payments Pvt. Ltd. that has applied for a new umbrella entity (NUE) licence for retail payments with the RBI, he said, “If you look at financial services firms, four of the 10 largest such firms in the world are basically involved in payments in some form or shape.
“So we see that as a very core fundamental platform on the top of which other things are built. And therefore, we see it’s important that we at least have the opportunity to participate in that platform.” He added that it was difficult to predict the business trend and prospects for the full year given the uncertainties.
“Our thinking is April and May will be bad and then, hopefully, things will turn around in June. And that’s predominantly driven by the lockdowns, affecting both earnings potential and also our collections capability.”
