A decade ago, I was invited into a closed-door team that had gathered in urgency. The company was facing intense cost pressure on one of its products — the margins were vanishing, the market was unforgiving, and the board was desperate to understand: “Where is the money going?”
Despite multiple internal reviews, everything appeared normal. From raw materials to logistics to overheads — all cost heads seemed accurate. But the financial bleeding continued.
This is where my journey into the psychology of comfort systems began.
What Are Comfort Systems?
These are processes or calculations that have been running unchallenged for years. They’re neat, reliable, and deliver consistent numbers — so consistent that nobody dares to question them. They’re embedded in Excel sheets, ERPs, and team habits.
But here’s the truth:
Comfort systems create the illusion of accuracy.
They’re not questioned. They’re not audited deeply. They hide in plain sight.
The Shock That Changed Everything
While reviewing each layer of cost, I stumbled upon the labour cost calculation system. Charges were being calculated “per minute,” which looked something like this:
- 60 seconds = 1.00 minutes
- 75 seconds = 1.15 minutes
- 90 seconds = 1.30 minutes
- 105 seconds = 1.45 minutes
At first glance, it made sense. But when I began applying actual logic to it, I realised the flaw.
Let’s say the labour charge is INR 100 per minute:
- A 90-second task should cost INR 150 (since 1.5 minutes × 100)
- But their system charged 1.3 × 100 = INR 130
That’s a loss of INR 20 per job — and over thousands of cycles, this was no small amount. The costing system was quietly bleeding money, masked as a precise model.
When I pointed it out, the team said, “This is how we’ve always done it.” And that sentence still rings in my head as the costliest sentence in business history.
What Boards Need to Realise
Boards rely on data. But what if the data source is flawed?
- Your pricing decisions become flawed.
- Your profitability analysis is misleading.
- Your cost control efforts fail to show results.
It’s not about who made the error — it’s about the system that no one questioned.
Comfort systems do not trigger alarms. They appear to work. But they don’t. And the boardroom often wakes up only when it’s too late.
My Learning That Still Guides Me
- Don’t chase cost savings. Chase flawed logic.
- Never trust a number that no one questions.
- Precision without correctness is dangerous.
Comfort systems exist everywhere — in costing, in forecasting, in budgeting, in HR planning. And the ones who spot them early are the ones who save their companies millions.
I wasn’t a cost accountant by title. But I asked questions no one else did.
And that made all the difference.
Have you ever checked if your comfort systems are actually correct? Let’s just say — sometimes the most expensive leak is one you’ve stopped noticing
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