Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Keep calm and carry on'

Not much good news from George Osborne yesterday then: six more years of austerity, even more public sector jobs to go, falling household disposable incomes, earnings growing slower than inflation until 2014, only 0.7 percent growth in the economy for the whole of next year, and potentially even worse if the Eurozone can't sort itself out. And I'm writing this in a London coffee bar with hoards of police outside in anticipation of a planned march and the biggest strike action for years.

Yet despite there being plenty of reasons to be depressed there was a moment that tickled me during the Chancellor's statement in the House yesterday when the Speaker stopped him mid-stream and said: "The House needs to calm down; one Honourable Member has probably already shouted enough for one day"! The antics of our politicians never cease to amaze me with behaviour that you'd see nowhere else, except perhaps a playground!

So what can we do about it and is bemoaning our lot going to improve things? I think not. I was struck by a tweet by Richard Tyler, Enterprise Editor at the Telegraph. Richard and I don't always agree but I couldn't argue with the sentiment he expressed when he suggested - in response to the expected grim statements in the House and the OECD saying Britain may have another recession - that we should all decide 'not to say it and it won't become true'.

We're surrounded by economists forecasting gloom; most of our businesses are probably struggling, and yet if we keep reminding ourselves how bad things are, we're in danger of talking ourselves into a depressing vortex.

As credit professionals we make a valuable contribution to our businesses in maximising cash-flow and mitigating risk. It's time for us to raise our professionalism further by actively looking for opportunities that the sales team can exploit, by finding ways of doing business that we might otherwise have to reject, and by being seen as the bright corner of the organisation where people can think - and act - in a more positive light.