Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'A week of contrasts'

It's been a mixed week with some very contrasting news and eperiences.

Being invited to speak to a Policy Specialist at No 10 and walking through 'that' famous front door was exciting and, I believe, a real watershed moment for our Institute. I felt proud that we are recognised as true experts in our field whose voice and opinion is valued. The ways of government are never easy to understand but I'm hopeful that the discussions will lead to more engagement and real activity that will raise awareness of the impact on business of late payment, and raise the profile of credit management and the critical importance of cashflow. Time will tell but if future activity levels are determined by volume of emails exchanged since the meeting, then we can expect plenty to happen!

A few days earlier we'd received good coverage in the Financial Times (third Saturday in a row!) about the Prompt Payment Code (http://www.promptpaymentcode.org.uk/) that we host and administer for BIS. The debate had been started in the FT a couple of weeks earlier in a piece that extensively quoted Martin Williams from Graydon. I'm sure most reading this will have heard of the tragic and untimely death of Martin last week. He was one of the best known and most likeable people in the credit industry - a thoroughly good guy - and, since I came to my current role five years ago, has been one of my strongest supporters (though often with useful and constructive criticism attached), always a staunch supporter of the ICM and a real expert in anything and everything 'credit'.

I came out of Downing Street last Friday and reflected that, if it had happened a week earlier, I would have shared it with Martin and thanked him for his contribution to the debate that led to the meeting being set up. The petition we have just launched - urging government to rethink its plans to exempt micro-businesses from filing accounts - came about as a result of a conversation between Martin and I after the last ICM Think Tank meeting. He was passionate about credit and business and, when we created the Think Tank a couple of years ago, he was one of the first names on my invitee list.

RIP Martin Williams, we thank you for everything you've done for the credit industry and profession, and we commit to continuing the work to which you so effectively contributed. Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8KGN5BH to sign the petition refereed to above.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'To tweet or not to tweet'

Tweeting to Rachel Bridge of the Sunday Times, recently, made me realise just how far we have come in our social networking strategy.

We've now been actively tweeting for over a year (philipkingicm: 1,244 tweets; 389 followers / icmorg: 313 tweets; 145 followers), I've been writing this weekly blog for almost ten months (this is my 41st), and our LinkedIn group (ICM Credit Community) has amassed 1,745 members. These numbers both impress me by how quickly they've grown, and disappoint me in that so many people aren't engaging.

The reality of course is that we are all different; we all want to consume news and communicate in different ways. For some, our magazine Credit Management is the only communication they want to receive; others want email contact; and others want a mix.

And this of course isn't limited to contact from organisations like the ICM; it flows through all aspects of life. I can't remember the last time I watched the TV news yet I'm an avid listener to news on the radio; I've recently become a Kindle convert yet I always insisted I never would because I love books so much.

So what's my point? I've recently seen examples of just how powerful Twitter and LinkedIn can be in generating contact and communication (particularly with the press) that otherwise wouldn't happen. The Sunday Times coverage for the ICM ten days ago came as a direct consequence of a Twitter conversation between me and the Enterprise Editor. I'm making contact with some of our Members in an informal way that would not take place by phone or email, simply because Twitter and LinkedIn provide the opportunity to do so, and those conversations sometimes lead to deeper, 'real' conversations as a consequence.

We shouldn't be afraid to embrace new technology and ideas. Some will fail early, some will last a while then diminish (Friends Reunited is a good example), and others will get stronger - although there's already talk that Facebook's popularity is starting to decline precisely at the point when some of us are just beginning to understand its value. Twitter, too, will no doubt one day reach saturation point and outgrow itself. For now though, by being selective about who I follow, Twitter provides me with access to news, views, information, and contact that I might otherwise miss or at least not see so quickly. It is therefore useful. And I've talked to credit professionals who use these media as a way of knowing their customers better and that can pay real dividends!

http://twitter.com/philipkingicm
http://twitter.com/#!/icmorg
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=94851

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Do skills make a difference?'

I shared an interesting discussion with several business organisations and accountancy bodies at BIS this week, focused on the 'skills agenda' for SMEs. Of course it set me thinking: How does a small business identify what skills it needs to help it get established and grow? How does it know which are essential as opposed to merely 'nice to have' and which will make a real tangible difference? When issues are identified, how does it differentiate between those that are caused by a skills gap and those caused by external factors over which it has no control?

And it made me think of other questions: How does it deliver the necessary skills it identifies to the owners and/or staff? Can the skills be taught or would they be better learned on the job through a hands-on approach? How can it ensure the skills learned feed through to the benefit of the business? And how does it calculate payback, establish whether the investment was worthwhile, and validate that it's really making a difference?

Small businesses don't have Training or HR departments, they certainly don't have big training budgets, and often won't have a mechanism to encourage staff development. The consequence may be that the employees fail to grow and the business misses the benefits that would result from the investment. I've started a related discussion on the ICM Credit Community LinkedIn Group http://linkd.in/jCFJGi and would be interested in views from credit professionals.

I'm writing these words in the grounds of Leeds Castle after another successful ICM Regional Breakfast Roadshow - there were over 500 years of credit management experience in the room and that's where the real value of the ICM credit community shows its worth.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Missing the point'

So the Prompt Payment Code received some negative press at the weekend - described as 'nothing more than window dressing' and 'complete nonsense'. The ICM administers the Code on behalf of BIS and so you'd expect me to react to such comments.

Firstly, I wish the FT had asked the ICM for a view. Since we administer it, we are better placed to comment than people who have never even heard of it.

Secondly, I find it frustrating when the point is so obviously missed. The Code aims to ensure that the terms and conditions agreed between two parties are adhered to. It is NOT about whether the agreed payment terms are 30, 60 or 90 days; that is a complete red herring. What is critical to small businesses, and indeed any business, is the certainty of payment. It is this certainty that allows businesses to manage their cashflow accordingly.

I agree that the Code needs to be better promoted, and lack of compulsion is a real issue, but it should be remembered that the PPC was one of a range of initiatives launched by BERR (now BIS) in partnership with the ICM including a series of Managing Cashflow Guides of which there have now been more than 225,000 downloads.

What's equally frustrating is the lack of recognition that the real requirement is for good credit management across the whole sales life cycle from beginning to end. The challenges we have received about Code signatories almost without exception display an element of basic credit management practice being missed - order number not being quoted or terms not being agreed in advance for example. Large businesses exploiting smaller suppliers is abhorrent but those smaller businesses need to recognise their own complicity in creating the very circumstances about which they complain.

Managing Cashflow Guides

Guest Blog by Sean Feast - Managing Editor of Credit Management - 'Slap dash Olympic hash'

Hands up anyone who managed to get tickets for the Olympics? Not many that I know. I found myself yesterday in the bizarre situation of watching my bank account online and willing the balance to go down - a sign, I hoped, that my ticket application had succeeded rather than my wife buying yet another eternity ring from an online auction. Sadly - nothing. Neither the tickets - nor for that matter an eternity ring - were forthcoming.

In the car this morning I listened as seemingly hundreds of other potential punters called Five Live with their tales of woe - proclaiming undying love for a particular sport or event that they had been saving all year to see, and yet now they wouldn't. Their hopes had been cruelly dashed. Hand Ball - the game rather than the footballing offence - appears to be the only event for which tickets are still readily available. Not surprising really, given that over here we have no idea what it is, and even if we did we wouldn't play it.

As the radio presenter attempted to calm the madding crowd, someone suggested that Seb Coe would have a lot to answer for if there were seats at major events left vacant, having been given over to corporate hospitality and not used. Which set me thinking...

At a recent ICM Think Tank, we were discussing by way of idle banter during the luncheon interval the pros and cons of corporate hospitality, and how it appears that all the major sponsors are obliged to spend additional monies on tickets and entertaining their guests. One killjoy - I think it was me - then raised the issue of the Bribery Act, and how many 'guests' were inevitably going to have to decline on the grounds of breaching ethical - if not legal - rules. Which means there might still be great rows of seats left vacant where well-heeled big cheeses should be sat, which in turn means that if Lord Seb works this out quickly enough, there might still be time for me to watch the 100 metres final. Or not.