Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'A reason for good cheer'

As we enter the Christmas break, it's good to pause and reflect on the last 12 months.  Our Regional Roadshow programme, for example, has been really successful and it was great to end the year with a superb event at the premises of Schuco in Milton Keynes.  It was an excellent venue with great speakers, and proved to be a fantastic example of the ICM credit community at its best.

 

Looking at our wider activity, we've had some notable success too.  By the end of the 2012 there will have been 125,000 downloads in the year, over 50,000 more than in 2011, and almost 400,000 downloads in total of the Managing Cashflow Guides that were written and launched in 2008.  The Prompt Payment Code (PPC), which we host and administer for BIS, featured in a November House of Commons debate when the ICM received no less than eight mentions, and we've seen a surge in sign-ups in the last few weeks - particularly from large organisations - with signatories now standing at over 1,240.

 

Even more encouraging however is recent research by Experian showing that the PPC has had a positive effect on payment times.  It found that on average those who had signed up to the Code paid five days earlier than those who had not.  Furthermore, there has been a sizeable improvement over the period amongst PPC signatories who now pay 12 days quicker than in December 2008.

 

The Code was launched late on Christmas Eve, 2008 and, while I accept that there is much much more to be done, it's great to see independent evidence that it is has made some progress in changing the culture it was designed to achieve.

 

I'm looking forward to an exciting 2013.  In the meantime, may I wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous and productive New Year.

 

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'A Christmas wish'

I asked a question on the ICM Credit Community group on LinkedIn recently and have had some interesting responses.

 

The question was: if Father Christmas were to bring you one gift that would really help you and/or your team be more effective in 2013, what would it be? There's still time for you to respond at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=94851&trk=hb_side_g but posts so far can be split into three broad categories: practicalities; economic outlook; and professionalism.

 

The first comprises a wish-list including such things as: a crystal ball; a dictionary and thesaurus; more time; a cure for arthritis; better management systems; paying clients; sight of customers' management information; and a tool to force people to tell the truth! The second includes a wish for a steep economic upturn and a positive, optimistic view of the world. And the third, professionalism, covers: the desire for more networking; investment in the recruitment, retention and development of good credit people; and the resulting improvement that such investment delivers.

 

I'm afraid the ICM's ability to deliver some of the aspirations in the first category is limited, particularly in the field of arthritis (a cure for which I would certainly welcome if it were possible) but I'm pleased that our members are able to influence the second through our contact with the business/political community. I'm even more pleased that we're able to play a significant role in achieving the desires expressed in the third.

 

As I've often said in these blogs, we are all about driving professionalism, and developing services to support this ambition. As the recognised standard in credit management, our motivation is to raise the professionalism of people working in credit management by providing them with the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge, and expertise in such a way that credit management is seen more and more as a profession in its own right.

 

I'll share some more thoughts from the discussion next week and also the wishes of the senior management team at ICM HQ; in the meantime I'm off to prepare for the ICM's Regional Roadshow in Milton Keynes where I'm looking forward to meeting a large number of our members and learn from an excellent panel of speakers.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Making the headlines'

Notwithstanding the Chancellor’s Autumn statement, and the undoubted noise that will follow, I’d instead like to reflect on a couple of reports I've read recently.

 

The first is the SME Finance Monitor (Q3 – 2012) produced for BIS that was published last week. I was struck by a couple of things. Only 46% of SMEs were aware of any of the Business Finance Taskforce initiatives with 22% aware of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, 18% aware of the National Loan Guarantee Scheme, and 21% aware of the network of business mentors. Given the amount of publicity and airtime generated during their launch in 2010, these statistics are disappointing.  Even more interesting was the lack of confidence SMEs have in availability of finance.  Overall, only 33% were confident that their bank would agree to their request for finance (the lowest level seen in the six surveys to date), and yet the outcomes are markedly better.  The success rates for renewal applications are c90%, compared to 53% who were confident ahead of the application and, for new applications, the success rates are c56% against a confidence level of 21%.  Both of these aspects show how much more needs to be done in raising awareness.

 

The second is a report written by Duncan Cheatle, who I've met through my involvement on the Board of the Start-Up Loans Company.  Duncan is CEO of Prelude Group and has authored; 'The Unsung Heroes of Business'.  This report tells the story of seven entrepreneurial businesses and analyses their tax accounts.  It shares the views of their owners about taxation, their attitude to it, and their recognition of the value they add to the economy and society through the contributions of their businesses.  The foreword talks about ‘the perpetuated myth that successful business owners are the sole and selfish beneficiaries of the fruits of their business's output’ and delivers the message ‘that we need to do all that we can to encourage and support the relatively small cohort of business innovators who drive value into our economy and make such a significant and mostly overlooked contribution to public finances in the UK.

 

It's a refreshing read at a time when Starbucks, Amazon, Google and others are in the headlines for all the wrong tax reasons.