Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'The power to make a difference'

I was privileged to chair the 5th National Consumer Debt Conference, organised by Utility Week, in Birmingham on Tuesday. It was a full and interesting day with the order of subject matter judged exactly right.

 

The first section focused on the economic landscape looking at issues around ability to pay, the implications of the current welfare reforms including Universal Credit, and the mechanics of the government's Green Deal scheme. The second section looked at customer management including the use of analytics to identify the most vulnerable in our society, and a cross section of good practice examples of customer-driven strategies. The final part of the conference addressed billing and collections, exploring areas as diverse as fraud and meter-tampering, landlord web-portals, risk management strategies, and smart metering.

 

You'll probably guess from some of the subject matter above that the delegates were largely from the utility and energy sectors where there are some particular credit management issues. The water industry's problems arising from the obligation to supply, and difficulty in identifying customer details, particularly in tenancies, for example, are well known and equally well documented.

What always strikes me at events like this, however, is just how many themes are common across industries and sectors. While each has its own peculiarities, trends, and concerns, the principles and elements of good credit management practice are largely shared.

 

At the end of the conference day, I hosted an interactive workshop where we discussed, amongst other things, what best practice looks like. One of the common themes that emerged was the need to drive professionalism within organisations through the engagement and development of credit professionals within them.

 

Driving that professionalism is one of the key objectives of the Institute of Credit Management and I'm always proud to hear examples of where we're succeeding, and to be playing a part in raising standards and performance as a result.

 

 

 

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 - 'Re-arranging the deckchairs'

The report from Lord Heseltine released this week - No stone unturned in pursuit of growth - contains some interesting proposals. I'm writing these words within hours of publication so I won't pretend for a minute to have read and digested all 89 recommendations but I have scanned the chapter focusing on localism, and building on our strengths.

 

The report says we must 'reverse the long trend to centralism' and goes on to propose we should 'empower local places by letting them take the initiative to generate local growth, in partnership with central government', and 'we must ensure that the incentives and structures of local places are organised in such a way as to secure the greatest possible economic contribution, with each area able to play to its natural strengths.’

 

It's difficult to argue with this - local people should be more aware of the needs and opportunities in their area - and this should therefore be more effective than funding being handled, and activity controlled, from the centre. However, if the 29 current Local Enterprise Partnerships, and their predecessor Regional Development Agencies have demonstrated one thing, it is that some local organisations are better than others.

 

Lord Heseltine says ‘...growth is everyone's business. Government can set national policies and create an environment where business can flourish, but success depends on businesses and individuals working together. As we prepare for growth we must - each and every one of us - do all in our power to advance it. It is not someone else's problem.’

 

Good true words but if a local infrastructure is going to work as we all want, then it needs to deliver consistently well and effectively across all regions. If it doesn't, we're in danger of just rearranging the deck chairs under a new name.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Pre-holiday blues!'

Holidays from work – what a strange phenomenon!

We spend days or weeks planning to ensure things are taken care of while we're away; we work harder to make sure everything is as up-to-date as it can be; we look further ahead so that we're ready for events occurring soon after we return; then we head off to relax, even if a ‘holiday’ is just time at home to ‘chill’.

Then we return to an overflowing inbox and spend days or weeks working extra long days to catch up on those emails, meeting with colleagues to bring ourselves up-to-speed on what's happened while we've been way, sorting out things that might need attention, and complaining that it would have been easier if we'd never gone away! How many times have you heard someone say they'll need a holiday to recover from the effort involved in catching up from the last one!?

Of course, life goes on perfectly well without us. The economic travails of the country continue, and a couple of weeks passes in no time. We know holidays are a good thing to refresh and recharge the batteries so that we can bring the best to our roles through the rest of the year. I know I've seen some colleagues return from a holiday recently and been pleased by the positive effect their break has so obviously had as they settle back into routine. I'm currently going through the pre-holiday stress and will no doubt go through the post-holiday catching up trauma in a couple of weeks, despite those well intended resolutions while I'm away to get a better work-life balance and create more 'me time'.

This is the one time in the year when I genuinely turn off email, Twitter, LinkedIn and voicemail and switch off from the routine, and I have to say I'm really looking forward to it. For the first time in 28 years, I'm going abroad for a holiday with my wife unaccompanied by any of our children – just the two of us. I fear Mary might just need another holiday to recover from two weeks away with me!

While I'm away, I'm delighted to introduce two guest blog-writers. Next week, Nigel Fields Credit Director at Twentieth Century Fox and a Fellow of the ICM will be sharing some thoughts, and the week after it will be the turn of my very patient, loyal, and long-suffering Executive Assistant, Tracy Carter. I'll look forward to returning in a couple of weeks if I'm not too busy catching up on all those emails, meeting with colleagues to bring myself up to speed on what's been happening while I've been away, and needing a holiday to recover from all the catching up from the one I haven't even started yet!

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Seeing is believing'

After years of planning and anticipation, the finale of the Olympics Games is fast approaching. The predicted transport disasters have failed to materialise, the Team GB medal haul has been better than many expected, and generally people have little to say other than praise for an event that has done the UK proud and for plans brilliantly executed.

On a personal basis, I remain gutted that I was unable to obtain any tickets and attend an event in person, an emotion that has been heightened by the fact that I was in London for several days and sharing the tube with people who had been, or were going to, events. Nevertheless, there was a palpable feel-good factor in the capital and it was great to see people's joy and excitement. And the army of volunteers visible all over London seemed to me to be doing a fantastic job whenever I saw them interacting with visitors.

What is perhaps more interesting is the contrast between predictions and reality. There have been many stories in the press over the last day or two to highlight the point: hotels speak of block-bookings made for officials being released too late to allow for replacement guests to be found; the gridlock on the roads never really materialised; shops expecting a bonanza were disappointed as they found that Olympics visitors were doing no more than commuting from hotel to the Olympic Park and back. Other attractions found that the usual influx of visitors had stayed away so numbers were down, and huge numbers of staff worked from home so normal business was reduced.

So, why did people get caught out? Did LOCOG over-state the potential problems to ensure that the risk of them occurring was minimised, or did the media hype things so much that there was an over-reaction? Or, perhaps, the publicity had the desired effect and allowed the Games to be pulled off successfully and without the disasters that we'd all, if we're honest, probably expected to happen!

The lesson in this is that, although businesses need to listen to advice and take account of what they hear and are told, they also need to plan for themselves and apply basic rules of common sense in their planning. None of the situations outlined above can be that surprising when considered in the light of experience over the last few days. I know hindsight is wonderful but, if we always believe what we hear, we're likely to get caught out. By the same token, we should perhaps stop believing that there is no hope for an economic recovery and maybe, just maybe, we could turn the tide for our own organisations by applying our own positive spin to some of the things we hear.