Change: the 6th "C" of credit.(Commentary)(Column)

While at the NACM Central Region Conference in 1998, attended an educational session on the changing role of the credit professional--and was astounded by some very interesting statistics. If you were to gather all the knowledge in the world at the end of the 16th century, it would double in just 200 years. In the next 50 years, it would double again, and from 1950 through 1960 (just 10 years) it would double again. In 1998, the world's knowledge base was doubling every six months. Now it is being measured in nano seconds! I don't have a clue what--or how long--a nano second is, except it must be faster than a speeding bullet!

Most of you reading this do not have any first-hand memory of Pearl Harbor; many of us were not even born yet. Therefore, you would have no way of knowing that it took three hours for the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor to reach the mainland, and twenty-four hours before President Roosevelt addressed the nation, broadcast to the world, via radio.

On September 11, 2001, one minute after the first attack on the World Trade Center, CNN began live national television broadcasts. Millions were "real time" witnesses to terrorism ... and America under attack. In less than 12 hours, President Bush addressed the nation via TV. An estimated 80 million viewers watched.

This is a very strong example of how technology has changed our world from the world of our parents.

In my article last month, I touched on the subject of change, and how the role of today's credit professional has changed as a result of technological advances. For some time, I've thought CHANGE should be the sixth "C" of credit. No longer will credit procedures and policies remain the same from one year to the next. Every day brings changes to the tools and techniques we use in our daily business routines.

The focus of this month's Business Credit is Collections and Deductions. There's an old adage I have posted on a wall in my office. It reads: "A sale is not a sale until the money is collected". All of us are very aware of the importance of the timely collection of our accounts receivable. Past due receivables are a drain on company cash flow and can adversely affect the company's financial objectives.

In preparing for this article, I knew I had some research to do. I turned to the NACM Resource Library, clicked on Business Credit magazine, and discovered that the Resource Library has archived all Business Credit magazIne issues dating back to 1995. I typed in "collections" and hit the search button. Four hundred eighty-eight matches were returned. Talk about your resources!