Business Credit articles from April 2005

Business Credit archives from April 2005

Conference justification: some tips: still having a hard time getting authorization to spend your company's money on attending Credit Congress? Time's running out! Here are a few suggestions that might help towards making the case.(front page)
April 1, 2005... You are an asset to your company. Art assets require maintenance and enhancements. If instead of being a person, you were a piece of machinery, part of the corporate budget would go towards maintaining and upgrading you. Your company should be...

NACM applauds senate on passage of bankruptcy bill.(Commentary)(National Association of Credit Management)
April 1, 2005... The National Association of Credit Management (NACM) applauds Senate passage of S. 256, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The Senate...

Rewarding customer complaints: how to turn a complaint into a morale booster.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... A past-due customer informs his sales representative that someone in the credit department was rude and argumentative and the complaint has landed on the credit manager's desk! The customer is threatening to take his business elsewhere and the...

Improved relationships through agile receivables management.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... In today's nearly real-time business environment, better communication across departments and better communications with your customers is essential Unfortunately, many credit departments are hamstrung by manual processes and struggle to...

Top 7 tips for maintaining a team connection.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... Thousands of love songs portray sad stories of the fire going out in a romantic relationship. Business teams face the same danger. Members of a team can become too familiar and stuck in patterns of doing the bare minimum when it comes to...

Part II: the benefits of commercial credit & collections scoring.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... In part one of this article I discussed why now is a good time to start using credit and collections scoring. Old barriers such as model accuracy, implementation costs and access to technology have been broken down, and the increasing...

Coffee and credit.(Member Profile)(Terry Rudd)(Community Coffee Company LLC)
April 1, 2005... Terry Rudd, CCE began his career in sales in 1984 after graduating from the University of Alabama, then moved into consumer finance--and eventually, into business credit. The experience and education he acquired over the years in the field of...

Understanding financial covenants.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... Borrowers sometimes fail to understand the use of financial covenants by banks, the ways in which the covenants are derived and applied, and the protections that covenants can provide the borrower as well as the bank. What Are Financial...

The S.E.C.R.E.T. to successful team dynamics.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... You have just joined a team of specialists who have worked together for six months on a potentially Lucrative contract. At your first Monday morning meeting, you sit at the conference table listening to your teammates sort through project...

The secret power of networking at Credit Congress: play the host.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... When you're cruising the Beer-n-Browse reception, or making your way through a packed Expo hall, how do you make the most of your networking moments? The answer: play the host. Combine the warmest qualities of a greeter, entertainer, and master...

Shut up and stop whining: start living by design, not by default.(Selected Topic)(self motivation)
April 1, 2005... Yes, I just told you to shut up and stop whining. Not many people would dare start out like that. But then again, I'm not like most people and this isn't your typical self-help or self-motivation article. I want to make you uncomfortable and...

Reclamation rights vs. floating inventory lien: a victory at last!(Credit Column)
April 1, 2005... Introduction The prospects of a trade creditor prevailing on its reclamation claim have been looking more and more bleak where the debtor has a secured creditor with a floating inventory lien. However, the taw is a wonderful maiden and...

Credit management's changing relationships.
April 1, 2005... Credit departments are becoming more integrated with the rest of corporate and business structures. The days of credit managers operating in relative isolation from other operational personnel are over for many businesses. Credit departments...

Government-mandated ethics codes do littte to influence executive behavior.(Headline)
April 1, 2005... Regulatory or governmental mandates that call for the implementation of corporate ethics codes do less to influence the strategic decisions of financial executives than pressure from key market-related stakeholders with economic ties to the...

The premier event for business credit professionals.(Calendar)
April 1, 2005... NACM'S 109TH CREDIT CONGRESS & EXPOSITION JUNE 12-15, 2005 ERNEST N. MORIAL CONVENTION CENTER NEW ORLEANS, LA "The NACM Conference is a great venue for Credit Professionals to keep pace with what is new and exciting in the world of...

The human factor in turnaround.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... Location, location, location--that is the catch cry of real estate agents when discussing property People people people--that should be the slogan of turnaround specialists when discussing turnaround management, says Riad Tayeh. As...

Kansas Bitt promises to speed up payments on construction jobs.(Lien Law)
April 1, 2005... A bill that unanimously passed the Kansas Senate Commerce Committee on March 10, sponsored by the American Subcontractors Association, could result in speedier payments by owners of construction projects to contractors, as well as payments to...

Hot spots: India.(International Section)
April 1, 2005... While most Asian nations will experience economic slowdowns in the months ahead, India is likely to enjoy a pick-up. The after-effects of the late-December tsunamis will not hurt growth. With improving monsoons, the performance of agriculture...

Basel II: a framework for measurement of Bank loan risk.(International Section)
April 1, 2005... Major changes are on the horizon for many banks around the world as result of Basel II, an international banking policy relating to bank capital reserve requirements. If you are not a banker, should you still be interested? The short answer is...

Scrutinize your preference settlement: are you giving up your replacement claim?(Credit Column)
April 1, 2005... The credit professional is well aware of the pain that a major customers Chapter 11 firing brings at the front end of the case, with the unsecured claim for unpaid invoices. But the back end of the customer's Chapter 11 may be even more painful...

Coaching your CEO toward improved delegation.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... The CEO is often the CEO's most trusted subordinate; the one to whom the CEO vents; the one with whom the CEO shares highly sensitive information; the one in whom the CEO honestly confides. In such conversations with you, does your CEO ever...

What are you committed to?(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... What do you think of when you hear the word commitment? Perhaps you picture a loving husband caring for his sick wife. Maybe you envision a business owner who puts her resources and reputation on the line to lead her company through a...

Top 7 ways to exhibit extraordinary leadership in tough and challenging times.(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... Every human organization goes through tough and challenging times, because, well, we're human! We need to expect that tough times will come, but know that by exhibiting extraordinary leadership during those times, the group can come out of them...

NACM credit manager's index: report for February 2005.(Credit Manager's Index)(National Association of Credit Management )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Sparked by economic growth in the manufacturing sector, NACM's Credit Manager's Index (CMI) increased 290 basis points in February 2005. New credit applications and new sales drove the manufacturing sector up 510 basis points, while the service...

Bankruptcy filings drop in calendar year 2004; second heaviest year in history.(Headline)
April 1, 2005... Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts dropped nearly 4 percent in calendar year 2004, according to data released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Total bankruptcies fired in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2004,...

Four-in-ten finance workers plan to change jobs this year.(Headline)
April 1, 2005... Forty percent of finance workers are counting on a new job in 2005, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com the nation's largest online job network. Dissatisfied with pay, workload and management, one-in-ten finance workers say they...

Customer relationship management can work for you, but is it?(Selected Topic)
April 1, 2005... In 2003, some studies reported that only 30 percent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementations were successful. That is an extremely low satisfaction rate and points to the fact that installing a CRM system does not necessarily...

U.S. job satisfaction keeps falling.(Headline)
April 1, 2005... Americans are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs, The Conference Board reports. The decline in job satisfaction is widespread among workers of all ages and across all income brackets. Half of all Americans today say they are satisfied...

Companies considering offshoring must carefully weigh risks vs. rewards.(Headline)
April 1, 2005... Most experts see no end in sight to the offshoring trend, as growing numbers of companies seek the cost savings and competitive advantage offshoring promises. But with an estimated half of all offshoring operations destined to fall short of...

Managing deductions--negotiating for success: "helping the other person to see things your way".
April 1, 2005... How much of your life is spent negotiating? If you are like most people, you have probably not spent a lot of time thinking about this before. Do you realize that every time you are having a conversation with someone who has a different point...