Weekly blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Sharing the golden nuggets!'

I spent a day this week at the ICM's Quality in Credit Management Best Practice Conference in London. The event was for organisations that have achieved, are on the journey towards achieving, or aspire to achieve the Quality in Credit Management accreditation award. What a great day.

 

I'm not going to bang on about the benefits of the Quality in Credit Management Award accreditation scheme (though clearly I could) but rather I'm keen to talk about the benefits of sharing best practice. When you get a group of people in a room who are at the top of their game - either personally or from an organisational perspective - it's amazing what comes out.

 

At the conference, we heard a series of speakers sharing their experiences and giving examples of best practice. Of course, what works for one organisation might not work for another, but hearing and filtering ideas is a great opportunity to improve, and helps meet one of the objectives of QICM, that of facilitating continuous improvement for people and organisations.

 

Some of the ideas were incredibly simple and others far more sophisticated. For example, we heard about the huge impact of introducing very simple and cheap 'music on hold' which made a great positive impression on both customers and the internal organisation.

 

More than one presenter talked about their plans to educate customers to improve their own credit management processes and procedures on the basis that, if they were more effective at collecting cash, they'd be better able to settle invoices promptly. A good example of sharing best practice with the wider business community and particularly with SMEs and micro-businesses who may lack relevant experience and expertise.

 

We saw some impressive dashboards and an explanation of how they can be used to best effect. Letting commercial people understand the value of overdue debt in terms of a number of new salesmen or replacement delivery vehicles, for example, is not a new idea but is very powerful.

 

Afternoon presentations addressed how to energise and motivate teams through periods of change and how to make step changes in performance. Some innovative and invigorating ideas on how to create a culture that is focused, cohesive and driven. The case studies came from large organisations but contained concepts that could be adopted in a variety of environments.

 

What's even more interesting about events like this is that people can contribute more than they realise. Participants turn up expecting to learn from the wisdom and experience of the presenters without realising how good they are themselves, and what nuggets they also have to share. Whether we call it networking or by some other grand name, sharing what we know, what we do, and what we've learnt is one of the most powerful business tools, and we should do more of it.

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.