CREDIT (R)EVOLUTION

There are undoubtedly many who are happy to fulfil roles comfortably ensconced in roles narrowed simply to cash, risk management and order to cash processes. Clearly, these elements remain critical and so they should be; they contribute greatly to working capital, managed bad debts with efficiency and savings in the OTC process, all of which secure or aid profit retention and business growth.

But are these sufficient? The answer is no, these are no longer ‘singularly’ the answer or requirement.

Technology has driven business thought and pattern, accelerated enormously with the advent of the web in the late nineties and globalisation that followed beyond 2000. Consumerisation and global markets along with increased competition have pressured ‘old style’ corporate structures, rendering many of those old recognised divisional structures and silo’s redundant.

Companies continue to change the way they do business and their composite divisions simply have to consider new ways of delivering more of what they so, more cheaply, more efficiently and above all, with greater value-add and delivery to business growth and profitability.

Successful companies are those that encourage and nurture an attitude in which every employee is a direct contributor to business growth and profit. This has never been more relevant in traditional roles, many of them threatened by the relentless march of technology, innovation, robotics, automation and now artificial intelligence. One has to diversify and look at broadening the range of services offered and this means some overlap across divisional silos. As an example, I found that Sales Directors and Sales Managers were so pressured to hit targets they had little time to research and review what they sold and to who, so consumed were they with time constraints and working with excel spreadsheets. I created new ways of stimulating sales activity and business development using tools and information readily held by finance and credit.

Assuming ‘there will always be a place for risk and collections’ and nothing else will eventually render the role of Credit Manager obsolescent, given the speed and acceleration of changes we have witnessed. It’s true indeed that in the last 15 years we have seen a gradual shift away from recognized finance delivery and a progression to process delivery, automation and efficiency.

To remain pivotal and retain value, the credit manager of today and the future will need to extend the boundaries they work within, even at the risk of losing the ‘credit’ tag.

Some dislike mission statements. I did too until I created one of my own that I felt more at ease with.

“Provide the company with a quality credit/business management service designed to create, stimulate, expand, secure and support business opportunity and profit”

You will note there is no specific reference here to words like cash, debt, risk, bad debt, or process.  

To achieve this, one must broaden activity, deliver real change and influence decision makers with tangible positive return. Delivering just what one is asked for is no longer sustainable.