The Institute of Credit Management of the United Kingdom (ICMUK) did a series of articles under the banner of Credit Management … and Beyond. By kind permission, these articles are included as they are relevant to our world of credit in South Africa.

1. Credit management and beyond ... the working capital route

Skene, Shaun
Shaun Skene FICM (UK) offers his top seven tips on how to get on in the credit industry, underlining the fact that your destiny is in your own hands.

How many of you reading this article can say truthfully that when you were at school your future career aspirations were to be working in credit? None of you? I thought so. For most of us, a route into credit happened by accident rather than design. To a certain extent our progress in the industry is the same. However looking back on my life in credit there are a few things that I can pick out that might help you with your career.

Like many, my own credit path came about by accident. I was working for a utility company calling on customers to empty their coin operated meters and calculate their bills. Another section carried out the collection and disconnection visits. Nobody really wanted to do this for obvious reasons but there was more money to be had, so I gave it a go!

Customer retention - a vital lesson
The goal was as much to disconnect as many customers as possible as it was to collect. Pretty quickly I realised that this made no business sense at all, never mind the social implications. If a customer did not have supply then we failed to generate any more money from them. This proved to be a vital lesson that I still use today.

Tip No.1
Understand we are in credit to help stimulate sales. If we are measured on negative results we will not achieve the correct objective, which must be to maximise profitable sales at the same time minimising risk and maximizing cashflow.
From this role I moved into the collections office. I managed to persuade my bosses that we could collect more money calling than we could knocking on doors. The next phase was calling customers at an earlier stage in the cycle, and working with them to help them to budget. You may think that this is not exactly rocket science, but 20 years ago it was a culture change within that industry.

Tip No.2
Look at the processes in your workplace. Is there a better way of doing things?
Do we have the wrong targets? We are at the end of the customer process and have a great opportunity of finding out what went wrong (i.e. why we did not get paid).
You have a choice. Either continue to clear up the mess or take responsibility to get it fi xed before it becomes a problem for you later.

Tip No. 3
Learn the difference between the ‘can’t pay’ and the ‘won’t pay’. Develop your collection methods to suit. One size does not fit all. Since I now had a “career” in credit I wanted to be prepared for it academically, so I persuaded the company to sponsor my further education.

Tip No. 4
If you do not already have the education you think you need for the job then go and get it. I am a great believer in learning on the job as long as you are learning from somebody who knows what they are doing and how it’s structured. Having some academic qualifications rounds this off nicely. The next happy accident was being invited to a credit circle. This was a great way of networking with like-minded individuals and obtaining free accurate data on your customers. At one of these credit circles I found out about the Institute of Credit Management and subsequently attended a branch meeting.

Tip No. 5
If you have not done this already, join the ICM. Get actively involved in their regional committee’s, attend their conferences - and study. I can honestly say that joining the ICM has opened so many doors for me in my career. Indeed, if I was to pick one thing that has helped the most it is becoming a Member. Once you have joined, always keep up to date with what is happening in the industry and strive for your own professional development.
Once you progress up the ladder you will become responsible for managing people.

Tip No. 6
Always treat your team they way you would want to be treated. Assemble a good team around you. Be honest with them, motivate them and encourage them to take over from you when you move on.

Tip No. 7
This is my final tip for you. Our industry is evolving. We are raising professional standards so that one day someone in school will actually consider a career in credit management. The future belongs to those of you who strive for continuous improvement in yourself and in your company. Do not think it is somebody else’s job to suggest improvements. It is yours. If you fi x things so that there is no barrier to getting paid your collections will improve accordingly and you will be rewarded with a worthwhile career.
Shaun Skene FICM (UK) is Global Director Credit & Collections,WeatHerford.

2. Credit management and beyond ...the contract and billing route

King, Philip
ICM Director General Philip King looks back at his previous lives with Olivetti and Vodafone, explaining how his background in credit led him on a challenging but rewarding career path. When I joined Olivetti as Credit Manager in 1989, it was just reaching the end of a boom in personal computer sales; resellers and PC assemblers were just about to hit the market with a vengeance, the various sales and service channels were feeling the effect in different ways but worst hit was undoubtedly the dealer business.

The ‘real world had arrived’
Many of these businesses had been established during the 1980s by someone with a successful career in computer sales. They were generally very small, very under capitalised, and were very surprised when sales - and previously healthy profit margins - suddenly started to decline. The ‘real world’ had arrived; one that they hadn’t previously encountered! Business failures among the base increased, margins got tighter and tighter, and orders were increasingly hard to come by.

The dealers would tender, across the private and public sectors, for contracts to supply, install and maintain networks and systems. Sometimes they would add their own proprietary software, thereby giving them a differentiator, but this was unusual.

I had two problems. First, the contracts being tendered for by the dealers involved the supply of hardware that we desperately needed to ship. Second, at a very difficult and challenging time, we could not afford to suffer bad debts. The dealers represented our route to market and the last thing Olivetti needed was a credit person who ‘liked to say no’!

Different territory
Alongside the normal credit management activities that I was accustomed to, such as assessment, collections, litigation, insurance, insolvency, I was moving into new and different territory. The typical request made of me at that time was not “will you sanction this order, or increase this credit limit, or agree extended terms?”, but “can you find a way for us to do this business?”

My role became one of identifying a solution that would allow the supply of equipment while at the same time protecting our financial position. To name but a few, we implemented escrow accounts, back-to-back deals, consignment supply, end user and personal guarantees, flexible payment terms, and third-party finance. It was a time that demanded creative thinking and it was a time when I came to understand just how much credit management could bring to the business.

When I left Olivetti, the sales director wrote in my leaving card “The best salesman I never had!” This was an exciting, eventful, and empowering time both for me and for the business.

Three interesting years
After seven years employment with Vodafone in a variety of credit roles, encompassing consumer collections, corporate collections, risk and fraud, I was asked to take responsibility for bill production and delivery. Initially focusing on the corporate customer base, the role broadened to the entire UK base of six million customers, and I spent three interesting years in an area not directly ‘credit-related’ but nevertheless hugely impacting on credit, before I moved on from Vodafone.

Traditionally bill production had been managed by people with either a financial or a technical background. My own customer focused credentials, involving many years of face-to-face customer interaction, were deemed to be more appropriate and a logical step forward. Also, I suspect that there was an element of “he moans about the impact of billing on collections so let him try and do better!”

A real challenge
Certainly, I knew some of the difficulties faced by large corporate customers who had to process massive bills with huge amounts of data. A customer with 1,520,000 handsets could expect to have several million call records on their bill and the need to apportion costs to the right employee and business area could be a real challenge.

I had met many of our key customers over the years to discuss collections issues so talking to them about their billing needs was easy.

My task was to ensure that we developed solutions that would enable them to process the bill, manipulate the data, allocate the charges and – most important of all - pay us on time. This involved using a number of media including paper, web, CD and SMS to get the information to the customer, and finding innovative solutions to help them to manage the information they received.

Engaging with colleagues
Credit people need to understand, and work with, all areas of the business and because of this - I was in a good position to engage with colleagues across disciplines. Invoicing is a legal requirement but, that aside, its primary purpose is to ensure that payment is received. In a smaller business the credit manager may well have responsibility for invoicing as an integral part of the ‘Order to cash’ cycle. In larger businesses, it is inevitable that there are functional responsibilities and this can lead to the ‘bigger picture’ being overlooked.

Expertise in credit management is more than just cash collection - it can deliver real value across the entire business.
Philip King FICM (UK) is Director General of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) UK.

3. Credit management and beyond ... the customer services route
Page, Jerry
In 20 odd, or, as Jerry Page puts it, 20 ‘odd’, years in credit, he explains that he has “done a bit of most things”. Here Jerry describes his move from credit to customer service, and the strong links between the two disciplines.

To have managed to spend so long in credit must demonstrate how many related job development opportunities there were along the way. I have a three-year shelf life with most job roles so moving on and developing is essential for me. In particular I have enjoyed linking up the experience from credit management into underwriting loans - on the ‘set a thief to catch a thief’ principle. From that point I enjoyed opportunities in scorecard design and data management.

During those 20 years I managed secured and unsecured credit, and personal and corporate lending, as well as the ‘sweeping up’ end - consumer and corporate debt recovery, asset recovery, litigation, tracing, and debt sale and purchase. In 1996 I pitched up at Mercedes-Benz Finance as General Manager for Risk. Although I left the company for a couple of years to run a debt recovery business I rejoined them in 2001 as Services Director. Subsequently I moved on to take up the Customer Services Director role for Daimler Chrysler UK, initially with the importer, and then with the Mercedes-Benz Retail business that owns all of the Mercedes- Benz and Smart dealerships within the M25, Birmingham and Manchester. The After Sales Director role has also been incorporated into my Customer Services Director role as there is such a lot of crossover, particularly in the area of improving customer satisfaction. There are many natural links between credit and customer services management.

Many areas in credit management are part of the customer service ‘chain’, for example, early collections. In the collection cycle (especially, for example, at one payment missed) you have to create a buffer space where errors, on either side, can be detected and dealt with. A ‘crash and burn’ approach to handling customers who have missed the first payment in ten years, will lead to serious complaints.

Customers who can be helped out of their problems by the use of a constructive approach will remain advocates this, your cheapest form of marketing, is still a positive recommendation.

At times, customer services management inevitably involves dealing with dissatisfied customers, and there are hugely transferable skills learned in the credit arena that stand you in very good stead - not least being able to spot a tall story at a safe distance!

So how do you engineer a transition to customer services? Well, assuming that your employer agrees on the interchangeable nature of the skills required and encourages the personal development of the staff, a good way to try it is through an internal ‘job swap’. This gives a good perspective of the job content as well as the challenges and opportunities. It is the best form of ‘test drive’. Alternatively, visit the Institute of Customer Services website at www.instituteofcustomerservice.com, which deals with the relevant skills and qualifications.

As with all of life’s outcomes there is an element of chance. I was hugely lucky in that my employer wanted me to go back to work for them and being ‘known’, as well as crucially ‘knowing’ our customers compensated for whatever absence of specific customer service background I had at the time. In truth there was very little about customer service that did not fall under the heading of ‘blindingly obvious’. The truest test is to ask oneself if what the customer is asking for is unreasonable given his/her spend, the brand reputation, and so on. It is certainly an avenue worth considering even if it means applying to new employers for customer services roles within the same industry.

Post script - by the time Jerry had written this article his role had been reorganised again to include customer services, after sales, sales, and marketing, all encompassed within the new job title of Commercial Services Director. All change!
Jerry Page MICM (UK) is Commercial Services Director of DaimlerChrysler Retail Ltd.

4. Credit management and beyond ... the accounts receivable/accounts payable route
Linger, Brenda
Brenda Linger FICM (UK) discusses the possibilities of extending a credit role across the payment cycle, something she has achieved with some considerable success.

Little did I think when I left school at 16 with no hope, or inclination, to go to college or university, that I would have a career in credit management. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I ended up working for Lloyds Bank, and by a circuitous route I ended up some 14 years later with my first ‘serious’ job in credit control.

One of the things that soon became clear was that although there were, even then, many credit jobs available, it was difficult to step beyond the perceived credit management function and to have something ‘extra’, not only to offer future employers but also to add to the scope of an existing role.

In 1986, almost by chance, I was offered the opportunity to extend my existing department and take on responsibility for running the Accounts Payable department of the company. Not only that but they were implementing a purchase order matching system. The task appeared daunting and I found myself asking myself what extra skills I would need. I could have easily talked myself out of the job but I turned my thoughts around and instead focused on what I could bring to the role:
•I was used to dealing with customers on the telephone
•Reconciling accounts was second nature to me
•I was already risk assessing suppliers to ensure they were reliable
•I was already managing a team
•I understood quite clearly the importance of agreed payment terms.

I could also see the significant benefits of one person being responsible for both Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable:
•Cash flow forecasts would be easier to produce - and they would be more reliable
•Teams would be more cohesive, and there is the possibility of cross training of skills

In this particular instance, the existing Accounts Receivable team were more than capable of helping me to manage the transition.

I was also fortunate that my employers believed in training and development (although I discovered that Accounts Payable training courses were more difficult to find than credit related training). Managing both teams enabled me to ensure that both departments clearly understood the importance of cash flow management and, as someone put it, it was equally important to manage the credit we took from our suppliers as it was to manage the credit we granted our customers.

Did it help my career? The answer became quite clear some two years later when I saw a credit management role advertised on the south coast with the requirement to also run Accounts Payable. The department was larger than my existing role, but I was told at my final interview that it was my experience in running ‘both sides of the coin’ that had made my CV stand out from the crowd.

Going back to college

I further extended my skills and qualified as a teacher by going back to college and studying for my Certificate in Education, and then decided to work for myself not only as a teacher and trainer but also as a credit consultant. Again I was asked to manage a project on the Accounts Payable of a large national company - without my previous history that would not have been possible.

To conclude - I did not set out for my career to cross-pollinate into Accounts Payable but along with my teacher training it was one of the best moves I made in my career as more and more employers are looking for staff who are adaptable. I was fortunate that in managing the cash fl ow requirements I was able to pay suppliers on time - so I wasn’t in the position of asking one thing of our customers and then being flexible with the truth with our suppliers!
Brenda Linger FICM (UK) is an AP/AR Credit Consultant.

5. Credit management and beyond ... the consultancy route
Inamdar, Sunil
So how does one get to become a successful credit management consultant? Is it something that happens by design or accident? Sunil Inamdar draws on his experiences.

To shed some light on the route to becoming a successful credit management consultant, and with the benefi t of some input from a couple of my fellow consulting friends, I have raised a few FAQ’s below and provided some brief thoughts that might be of use to would-be consultants within our profession. What is the common background of successful credit management consultants?

Whether the current crop of credit management consultants have arrived at their destination by design or accident, there are in essence two key background types. They are:
•Credit management professionals who have subsequently developed additional
consulting skills
•Consulting professionals (generally with performance improvement/process related backgrounds) who have specialised in broader working capital offerings.

Most of the senior consultants I have worked with have come from either of the above and have been equally successful in delivering solutions on all manner of receivables related projects.

What is the nature and range of the advice provided?

The subject of focus for consultants may cover any part or all of the ‘client acceptance to cash’ process. The provision of advice and implementation support would cover the following areas:
•Policy, strategy, process and procedures
•Redesign of structure and organisation
•Management information, reporting and targets
•Systems functionality
•Interaction with sales, customer services, operations and other areas of finance

The output may be in the form of presentations or detailed reports outlining findings, impacts and recommendations.

What are the key characteristics/ skills that should be developed by the would-be consultant?

In addition to possessing sound technical credit management skills, sharpened over a number of years across several industry sectors, it is imperative that the individual displays the following:
•Broad commercial awareness and gravitas
•Facilitation skills and project management methodology
•An analytical and inquisitive approach
•Professional presentation and report writing skills
•Aptitude to get to the core issues and deliver tough messages
•Ability to set and manage client expectations
•Remain detached from the detail and other internal client distractions
•An open mind and a desire to constantly seek improvements
•Capacity to work alone or as part of a team.

What are the client’s expectations?

It is important to note that many clients are used to engaging consultants and therefore have high expectations. The client is engaging an expert and will rightly expect quick results and value. Clients also do not like the word ‘no’. Apart from knowing your subject and having a clearly defined methodology, you will be required to demonstrate considerable flexibility, integrity and professionalism. Awareness of sector analytics and performance benchmarks are also a must.

What are the ‘pro’s and cons’ of a consultant’s lifestyle?

Most consultants would cite a flexible and varied lifestyle as the key reason for moving away from a more routine corporate environment. The prospect of travel, varied work and relative independence is certainly attractive. There is also the promise of a better income.

Another source of satisfaction is often derived from the challenge and opportunity to influence change within a much shorter timeframe than is usually achieved in a permanent role.

On the flip side, it would be wise to acknowledge that the above lifestyle will not suit everyone. Excessive travel, being away from loved ones, long hours and the constant pressure to deliver can take its toll. Increasingly, there is a desire to achieve a better work-life balance even amongst hardened consultants.

And unless the consultant is salaried or has a healthy contracts pipeline, the expectation of a higher income may not necessarily materialise over the long term.

What do I need to do to prepare myself for a consulting career and for my further professional development as a consultant?

On a technical level, it is vital that the individual maintains a sound understanding of best practice in credit management and all related performance improvement measures. Efforts should be made to understand and advance every step within the ‘client acceptance to cash’ process. As part of an effort to keep on top of latest developments within the profession, individuals should participate in relevant seminars / events, subscribe to journals and undertake selective research across the various professional bodies and service providers on the internet. It is equally important to maintain an on-going programme to develop broader consulting and other softer skills.

To conclude: For those who are determined, have what it takes and are willing to move out of their comfort zones, there is a viable and highly challenging option available as credit management consultants.
Sunil Inamdar FICM (UK) is a Senior Consultant within the Receivables Management Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, London.

6. Credit management and beyond ...the professional services route
Moyle, Peter
Have you ever wondered why credit managers so often end up with additional roles or even branch out into another discipline completely? When Peter Moyle looks back on his career he is sometimes surprised at the different duties he has undertaken.

When I left The Port of London Authority in 1979, I secured a post with a shipping company as its credit manager. Within a short space of time I was heading up a small unit responsible for reconciling income from passenger services and looking at the profitability of each sailing.
Unfortunately, the company relocated to Felixstowe and, due to family commitments, I was unable to follow.

My next role was with a thrusting software house unaccustomed to the disciplines that I had learned in my previous roles. Heavily sales driven, the ability (and courage) to say ‘NO’ to sales people was a lesson to be absorbed very quickly. These were professional, tough negotiators and a logical argument to support a case meant little. However, the fact remained that I had created a strong working relationship with them, while still being able to remain detached. This led to me getting the job of writing and enforcing the remuneration packages for the ex-pat sales people we sent around the world. With the expansion of the business, a new accounting system became necessary - and my IT skills required a radical upgrade. I quickly found myself designing the reports and statements that were essential for an effective credit management function.

My next job took me into a completely different area, a law firm, which presented new challenges for me and a different style of environment. Anyone who has moved from commerce to professional services will know what I mean. I was fortunate enough to work for a very strong administration director and I learnt from her how to adapt to this environment, where every partner is your manager and their needs must be met, notwithstanding the conflicting pressures from every other partner. One of the challenges I faced was attempting to bring into this environment the more aggressive credit management techniques from the commercial world, while not alienating the support of the partners or our clients.

Those experiences led me to my next role as the credit manager at Ernst and Young (E&Y). With much wider responsibilities and a team to match, my next lessons were as much to do with staff management and motivation as managing a substantial portfolio of debts. When E&Y decided to bring in its new practice management system, my previous experience made my secondment to the project team an obvious choice. Training was also crucial.

I now work for Clifford Chance, the world’s largest law firm, and once again my core skills as a credit manager have led me into a variety of different roles. When Clifford Chance decided to implement a global practice management system, I was soon drawn into the project. Initially, my focus was naturally in the working capital aspects of the project but this soon shifted to how we created new clients, culminating in being given the project to cleanse our global client data.

It is true that while my career has centered on working capital management, I have enjoyed an interesting and fulfilling variety of roles. Personally, I have chosen to stay in and around credit management but other opportunities were there. Careers in project management, accounting, consultancy and even counseling were options at different times in my life, but I doubt that I would have been as successful as I have been in my chosen path. I also suspect that I would not have enjoyed it as much. Nevertheless I know of many people who have used their transferable skills to move to a different working environment.

This leads to the critical question: “How do credit managers get involved is so many different tasks?” I think the answer lies in the inherent skills they possess that lead them into credit management in the first place. It has to be said that it is a big step from credit controller to credit manager. To be successful, one has to possess certain key qualities that employers have identified as essential for a task that doesn’t naturally fi t one single person or discipline.

These attributes include:
•Robustness - Chasing debts is not for the faint hearted. And if that is not enough, try running a team of credit controllers!
•Thirst for challenge - There is often reluctance on the part of many people to step out of their comfort zone. Perhaps because credit control is not a comfortable existence, this reticence is not generally apparent amongst credit managers.
•Pragmatism - The “rules” of our profession are frequently vague. Our skills are a blend of training, experience and an ability to know when to push, when to back off and when to walk away.
•Willingness to learn - This is both in the academic sense as well as the school of hard knocks.
•High exposure - A credit manager usually has a broad exposure within his/her organisation. To a greater or lesser extent there is regular dialogue with accounting, sales, production and marketing (whatever they are called in the organisation). Thus he/she will have a significant insight into most parts of the business. They will be known and therefore not seen as a complete outsider when something new comes along.
•Ability to make decisions - Be it responding to an urgent request from the sales force or deciding whether to allow a period of grace, decisions often have to be made quickly. The worst decision is to decide not to make a decision.

In my view it is the breadth of knowledge that makes people from the credit function so valuable. Few other disciplines allow one to see the broader picture in this way and truly understand the interdependence essential to a thriving business. Little wonder we often find ourselves undertaking roles that go outside our job description.
Peter Moyle MICM (UK) is Manager, Client Data Maintenance, at Clifford Chance.

7. Credit management and beyond ... the litigation route
Richards, Ian
Ian Richards says that like most people in credit management his career path was never planned in any great detail - however his CV now shows that he has left no stone unturned, mastering some tough challenges - and his ICM qualifications - along the way.

The main turning point in my career came when I suggested to my old boss that I should start studying for an accounts qualification to progress my career and stand out from the crowd. Instead, my boss suggested that I should start studying for the ICM qualifications as she felt it would be more relevant and interesting (I was at the time a ‘collections controller’ and had already developed an interest in making people pay on time and in full).

It was taking up these studies that enabled me to progress quickly into an underwriting role rather than a collector’s role. If I hadn’t been studying for these exams I doubt I would have been offered this promotion at that time.

This role was a steep learning curve but I quickly found that looking at companies’ accounts, payment records, references and so on could be very interesting - particularly early on when a company went bust the day after I had approved several thousand pounds worth of credit insurance ...

After a couple of years and just after I became an MICM (Grad), I stumbled across a job advertisement in Credit Management magazine that looked interesting. It was advertising a position in the field of litigation for a well known brewery. I applied for two reasons, first because it was in the one area of credit management that I really had no experience, and second it offered a reasonable jump in salary. Again, I am pretty sure my ICM qualifications stood me in good stead and I was offered the job.

This turned out to be a fascinating role purely devoted to recovering as much money as possible by whatever was the most effective (legal) method. I didn’t prepare particularly well, but even if I had, I believe that it would still have been a baptism of fire. It soon became the most interesting and varied of my roles to date. The additional experience gained in that position left me confident in the field of debt recovery and all that it entails (enforcement methods, retention of title clauses, court hearings, meetings with debtors and much more).

From this role I progressed to the position of credit manager with the same company and, in so doing, I filled what I considered to be the last glaring hole on my CV at that time, namely team management experience. I remained in this post until redundancy appeared in the shape of a brand new call centre built in Scotland.

Redundancy led me to my existing role as Credit Risk & Revenue Audit Manager for GlaxoSmithKline. I was interviewed and then offered the job quite quickly. I found out later that as soon as it became apparent I had extensive experience in setting credit limits and meeting customers they were keen for me to accept the role. This role basically involves overseeing the sales ledger for the company and any issues that arise from any credit-related problems. I have now been in the role for almost four years yet I still find the ongoing challenge of achieving our credit management objectives a real incentive. I take pride in how clean my company’s sales ledger is, and I enjoy the challenge of keeping it that way.

To summarise, although I am certainly no expert in planning a credit management career, I would say that to progress quickly you have to stand out from the crowd or have something to offer that other credit people may not.

To achieve this I would offer the following advice:
•Obtain a relevant qualification (ICM, of course).
•Seek out roles/experiences in all aspects of credit management (i.e. from granting credit, right through to collecting cash from a delinquent debtor) Don’t allow yourself to shy away from an area where you feel your knowledge is exposed.
•Don’t be put off by new roles being tough at first. The tougher they are the more rewarding they will be when you have mastered them.
Ian Richards MICM (Grad) (UK) is Credit Risk, Revenue & Database
Manager at GlaxoSmithKline UK Ltd.

8. Credit management and beyond ... the international route

Burniston, Andrew
Andrew Burniston MICM (Grad) reflects on a career which has offered him extensive experience in Europe and beyond, proving that the sky really is the    limit when it comes to a life in credit.

When asked to provide an article for this supplement I was naturally flattered. I then started to think about the topic: “Beyond credit management” and began worrying. It was not the dread of trying to produce an essay for homework or in an exam. It was instead the concern that there is not much that does not affect credit and collections in any business and therefore I ask myself what more is there?

Let me explain my thinking by summarising my career, highlighting the skills acquired and personal development. My first role as a credit controller focused on learning the basics: organising the sales ledger, prioritising calls, telephone and letter collection skills, investigating disputes and preparing credit note requests. I also started studying for ICM qualifications at evening classes. Back then the course comprised eight modules covering law, accountancy, communications and credit management. This knowledge allowed me to move into my first managerial position - when all of a sudden you have staff welfare and training to look after as well as performance monitoring and reporting.

Building the tool box
My next career step took me into consultancy. Focusing on developing credit management functions (people, processes and systems), I was also involved in cross functional projects in the areas of working capital - treasury, stock and work-in progress and accounts payable. I now possessed a tool box that included most business processes, project management, performance gap analysis, solution design and implementation, including change management. Another piece of good fortune meant I was involved with international projects. That meant working in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Korea, Japan and Singapore, therefore building my knowledge of other cultures, other processes and an appreciation for other ways of thinking and approaching problems.

Experience and qualifications
While working in Asia, I met my wife. Being American she encouraged me to add the academic rigour and qualifications to my experience by taking a Masters degree in Business Administration. This provided me with an in-depth and cutting edge awareness and understanding of all areas of business, including decision making at the highest levels. Since receiving my MBA, I have worked in senior roles covering combinations of collections, payables, treasury, and billing. In addition, the geographic spread has grown so that my current responsibilities include 28 countries and 62 direct staff, plus two outsourced process centres.

I cannot say that my career has been wholly planned or mapped in advance. Some of my job changes were planned in order to take a step up, but some have been forced, including two redundancies. Many organisations recognize the importance of the credit function by ensuring it reports to a director or business unit head. My current position reports to the Global Head for Collections and Payables.

Widen your horizons
What is there beyond “Credit Management”? Given my experience there are plenty of opportunities to develop skills in other functions like treasury, payables, finance and IT, or to widen your horizons with broader geographic responsibilities working abroad or with overseas teams reporting to you. My advice would be that you can take a career in credit as far as you want. But if you look at the foot of this article you will see that I am still a credit manager. What’s in a title? Now, that could be at least another article, if not an entire book.
Andrew Burniston MICM (Grad) is the Regional Credit Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa of Kodak Ltd.
“These articles first appeared in Credit Management, journal of the Institute of Credit Management, UK.”