It is beginning to look as if the world is slowly hauling itself out of the deep pit of recession. Some countries and industries are in better shape than others, some further along the recovery road than others, and some even left with fewer anvils of debt hanging round their necks than others.
The cry that has gone up, however, seems to be the same all over the world, and Malta is by no means an exception - "Never again".
Easier said than done! But if "never again" really has to mean something, then we must look further than just banking controls, caps on bank bonuses and blaming others for the catastrophe of 2008/9.
If businesses are to climb out of the deep hole and stay out, every business which thrives and survives on the granting of trade credit has to ask itself a number of questions. Besides, if businesses are to prosper, they have to answer them truthfully as well, and put into place those reforms necessary to strengthen their respective positions for the future.
As a business organisation, are you segmenting your market and targeting those profitable segments and market niches which will set you in pole position for profitable growth, and is your credit function an integral player in that exercise? It should be, in the same way that it should be recognised by the business owners, from shareholders to CEO as the valuable asset that it is.
Other issues that should be analysed are whether the objectives of the credit function are truly in line with those of the corporate objectives, and identify if there are any areas where it is thought that the credit function is failing to match the corporate objectives.
Hand on heart, CEO and top management team, because if the answer is no and yes, then you have a problem which needs immediate attention.
One also has to acknowledge that the credit function does not, and can not, operate in splendid isolation, so is there synergy between it and sales, distribution, despatch, production, and all those other departments that make up the whole? Are the credit people customer focused, and as such striving to maintain long term customer relations, encouraging repeat profitable sales, thereby minimising costs?
All credit personnel should be out there, meeting and getting to know their customers and you, Mr CEO and top management team should be making sure that they are skilled, trained and equipped to do just that. Perhaps you are happy to have them by the telephone or at the PC all the time, blistering the ether with telephone calls, emails and internet contact?
Wrong - credit is a people profession, and the more you know the customer, the better you are at dealing with the unexpected or the unusual.
In Malta, we have the luxury that within few minutes, the credit controller can be anywhere on the Island meeting with customers and getting to know him and his expectations.
Furthermore, do your sales people know the value of information for credit and the golden egg which is prompt and efficient sharing of that information? What about your systems - do they enhance or restrict the communication process internally? Does production know the current position as well as sales, marketing and credit? Is it part of the company ethos that whoever we are and wherever we work, we all work for the same company and have the same aims - profitable growth?
There should always be room for improvement, whether in risk assessment, account opening, collections, cash allocation, customer service, internal and external communications, delivery performance, product quality - the list is seemingly endless. Are we, therefore, continually striving to improve, innovate, enhance or is it just "business as usual"? The answer has to be quite categorically yes, because if we stand still, we do in fact go back.
There is a big but, however, and that is that every improvement, innovation and enhancement has to be measured and quantified against customer satisfaction and customer service. After all is said and done, the most important person to us all is the customer - without him we would have no business at all, and life would be one long never ending recession.
Mr Busuttil is director general of the Malta Association of Credit Management.