“Good opportunities will always be those that are risky, confusing, maybe even hard to recognize. Moving beyond your comfort zone is where the magic happens. As a good marketing leader and strategist, it is integral to know what the customer needs even before they do.”
Education is the foundation for the future. It is the empowerment to make choices and emboldens the youth to chase their dreams. Availing an education loan is the first step taken by a majority of students to realize their higher education dreams in India or abroad. With this vision of transforming lives, HDFC Credila , an HDFC Ltd. company pioneered the concept of specialist Education Loan lender and embarked its name as India’s First Dedicated Education Loan Company.
Education is the
foundation for the future. It is the empowerment to make choices and emboldens
the youth to chase their dreams. Availing an education loan is the first step
taken by a majority of students to
realise their higher education dreams in India or abroad. With this
vision of transforming lives, HDFC Credila , an HDFC Ltd. company pioneered the
concept of specialist Education Loan lender and embarked its name as India’s
First Dedicated Education Loan Company.
As a new age company, the
aim was to simplify and streamline the process of availing a loan and offer
solution based customised products. Another strong differentiator that sets
HDFC Credila apart is it’s unique marketing style. Ms Chandini Sehgal set up
the marketing & business channels division when she joined the founding
team in 2010, scriptedwriting brand HDFC Credila as we know it today.
SERVICES
HDFC Credila works with
the mission to transform lives by enabling students to have financial abilities
to choose better academic institutes globally. Pioneering the concept of
Customized education loan solutions, HDFC Credila home delivers education
loans. HDFC Credila provides an opportunity for the students to know how much
money would be available to them even before applying to any university.
Chandini Sehgal, Head-Marketing & Channels says, “As a brand, we believe in
handholding the student through the financial process – from guiding him to
understand how much money he should plan
for, offering value-added platforms to interact with experts from the education
industry across the globe and even curating offers to help them save on
products and services bought through the students life cycle.”
Using robust technology
tools with multiple channels of communication, Brand HDFC Credila helps
students in a number of ways by offering a range of features that legacy banks
maynot provide- a tech enabled process and more flexible terms that are better
suited for the modern educational needs.
Till date, HDFC Credila
has funded education dreams of thousands of students, studying across 38+
different countries, and has become one of the most familiar and trusted names
in the higher education loan sector.
STRENGTH
Chandini Sehgal, Head-
Marketing & Channels shares that that the best practices they adopt from
all around the world is the biggest strength to her and the Company.
Remembering the days, she says, “HDFC Credila is also a story of scaling up
during the turbulent times. It has grown to over Rs.10000 crores of Education
Loan disbursed in a short time span of time. In an industry already dominated
by large financial establishments- ‘The Goliaths’, HDFC Credila (initially
known as Credila Financial Services) spotted an opportunity of an untapped
education loan market! The challenge was to be the David in the ‘David vs
Goliath story’ and seize the opportunity with sheer grit, determination and the
belief that one could make a marked difference in the education loan industry.”
Until the economies of
scale comes into play, remaining focused and leveraging resources is highly
critical. Chandini says “It is much more rewarding to do more with less. Over a
period of time this became a culture at HDFC Credila. A culture to be
innovative, to be impactful even with limited spends.”
Multiple innovative value
added marketing initiatives sets them apart as the thought leaders of the
industry. Talking about the ethos of the company, Chandini says, “The ethos of
the company comes from its leaders and then gets passed on to each one who
works along with you towards the vision of the company. The culture, the ethos,
the vision has to be lived every single day. It’s not always easy to do the
right thing but doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.
This is what HDFC Credila stands for.”
COMING UP WITH HDFC CREDILA
When asked for the idea
behind HDFC Credila, Chandini said, “Education Loan is the second-largest asset
class in the USA, with over $ 1.2 Trillion worth of total student loans
outstanding. Despite India’s population being four times that of the USA and
putting up all lenders together, the total Education Loan portfolio outstanding
is just about $12 Billion. The underlying bedrock idea, therefore, was to
pioneer the private education loan industry in India by launching India’s First
Dedicated Education Loan Company, which would focus exclusively on funding
students for their higher education in India and overseas. Where HDFC Ltd. is
for Home Loans, Credila wanted to be for Education Loans.”
This idea has served
thousands of students and helped them in their education. Most of the
initiatives are directed towards, understanding unstated problems, predicting
customer needs and providing tailor made solutions.
With a continuous effort
to be the change-maker of the education loan industry, HDFC Credila has led
several key transformations of the sector, carving its own path to success
THE MARKETING MANTRA
Chandini Sehgal started
her journey with the company in the year 2010. Currently, she Heads Marketing,
Business Channels and Corporate Communications of the company. Having an
experience of over 18 years across the Financial Sector & FMCG sector, she
along with a very passionate team has made HDFC Credila touch glory. With her
creative streak and passion for innovative marketing tools, she has led the
company pioneering trend-setting marketing initiatives and channel development
tools.
Chandini has also been a
part of various MNCs like ABN Amro Bank & Glaxo SmithKline Consumer
Healthcare, where she held multiple positions across Marketing, Sales &
Business Development. She has also been honored with the ‘100 Top Most
Influential Business Leaders in the BFSI sector’ by World BFSI Congress &
ET Now and conferred with ‘India’s Top 100 Women in Finance’ by AIWMI,
recognized among the most respected and successful women professionals based on
the success in her roles & contribution to the sector.
Chandini is passionate
about learning. She says, “Growth and comfort do not go hand in hand. I learned
to always take on things I had not done before and continue this journey of
learning and leaving footprints behind.” Passion gives Chandini the energy to
wake up daily with the same excitement and to work with a purpose. Chandini is
not only passionate about implementing new ideas at work but for her passion
extends to everything she takes up- be it her morning run, her love for
adventure, a hobby dance class or while adorning her role as an involved
mother. Chandini is greatly inspired by the first Indian defense personal who
became the Field Marshal- Sam Manekshaw. His energy and leadership skills
inspired her to become a leader who leads from the front. Sharing about her
leadership style, she strongly feels that as a leader it’s important to have
everyone aligned to a common goal and yet give them the freedom to work towards
it with their own strengths and creativity.
Future Ahead
While talking about the
future of the company, Chandini says, “HDFC Credila has been evolving
constantly. While we integrate technology to simplify and automate the process,
we still continue having a personal touch and engage at multiple stages of the
life cycle of the student. We envisage the company to continue growth at this
fast pace as a thought leader of this segment and empower many more such
brilliant minds to achieve their education goals without downgrading their
dreams!”
Challenges are part and
parcle of everyone’s life and Chandini’s believes that at HDFC Credila, the
challenge has been to grow in a complex and dynamic environment and to
constantly stay ahead of the curve. The effort has been towards predicting
customer wants before they do & making the brand relevant in the journey of
the student.
HDFC Credila has grown immensely since its foundation and has marked success as a trusted and preferred brand. Chandini shares with pride, “For HDFC Credila success is also about the difference you make to people’s lives and I am privileged to be a part of an organization where one gets the opportunity to empower the next generation of highly qualified Indian professionals across the globe”.
For More details: http://hdfccredila.com/