October 2016 Credit Management magazine

OPINION
PASSING
THE BATON
Bryony Pettofor reflects on an exciting and eventful
two years as CICM Chair.
I
am writing this article at the end of a very
busy month for me personally, during which
I have taken some time to reflect on the past
two years in my role as Chair.
There has been a great deal of activity within
the Institute during this time and I have been
honoured to serve in this position, particularly
as this was at the time that we gained our
esteemed Chartered status. The change to the
CICM confirms its position as the recognised
professional organisation that represents a
membership that carries out an extremely
important and valued role within business.
Our recent members’ survey has now also
helped to give us some real insight in to what
you, our members, would like (or not like) and
give your opinion and feedback in to the work
that we undertake. I have been lucky enough to
be involved and/or attend a number of CICM
events and I feel that there is a real buzz now
within our network as we build confidence in
credit as a career and firmly move our role to
the forefront of our businesses, supporting the
strategic plans.
We have an active working party group made
up of Advisory Council members, who are doing
some great work to get close to universities,
schools and colleges to raise the awareness of
credit as a career of choice. This, combined with
the Trailblazer Apprenticeships (Levels 2 and 3)
means that we will soon be able to offer access
to the wide variety of credit functions to all ages
and abilities and this can only serve to make
more people more aware of what we do.
During the past six months I have taken on
additional responsibilities for my employer,
Anixter, and now have an extended credit team
in Europe, covering the full Order to Cash
process, including Risk. I can’t say that my
timing was particularly good (in relation to the
Brexit vote and likely challenges that will bring)
but what it does mean is that the strength of my
CICM qualifications and the UK team’s recent
CICMQ re-accreditation are definitely being
recognised by the business, which is great!
All of this is testament to the strength of the
CICM offering and, as a team, we are now
actively planning for our year-end focus. This
will include attending the CICM Regional
Workshops to help develop team members’
personal and leadership skills as well as the
start of Virtual evening classes for a number
of them, to gain what I consider to be essential
Credit Management qualifications.
Having signed off at my last Advisory Council
meeting as Chair, I am excited about the future
for our Institute as we work on key strategies
and plans to deliver new initiatives. It is key that
we keep moving with the times and embracing
change. Those of you who may have heard me
talk about Anixter’s Blue Book may know that this
is one of our key principles as to how we think
and behave and I believe is extremely important
for us all ‘We welcome change because: Change
= Opportunity = Growth’.
Finally, I would like to thank all of you for
Having signed off at my last
Advisory Council meeting as
Chair, I am excited about the
future for our Institute as we
work on key strategies
and plans to deliver new
initiatives.
your support during my two years as the Chair
of your Executive Board. I have been honoured
to serve in this role and have really valued
the experience. I will continue to serve as a
member of the Advisory Council and, having
met the newly elected Council at last week’s
meeting, can share with you that we have a really
motivated and energetic group that I know
will continue to help direct and lead the CICM
forward.
Bryony Pettifor FCICM(Grad)
The recognised standard
www.cicm.com October 2016 15