Credit Management magazine October 2017

OPINION
NEVER
PAY
LATER
Derek Scott reflects on his experiences presenting to
business professionals, Rotary Clubs, and local Ladies
Groups on his life in credit management.
I
have now passed the 100-mark
with my ‘never pay later’ talks.
I have spoken to groups ranging
from 20 to nearly 200, so if I take
a moderate average audience
of 30, I have now presented the
facts about our profession, including the
work of the Chartered Institute, to over
3,000 people.
These have been my attempt to explain
the world of real credit management to
people outside of our profession, and
whose view is often tarnished by what
they read in the press!
Certain undercover TV programmes
on certain debt collection companies,
for example, have served to portray us
as though we are still a group of hobnail
boot ruffians who will use any method to
collect money.
This same audience appear to believe
we have very few scruples and little
sense of what constitutes right or wrong
conduct. Our main problem is that too
many people read the more popular press
– the ‘red tops’ – who enjoy publishing
negative stories, and the positive news
that appears in the more more ‘up-market’
press does not get the recognition it
deserves.
Like most things in life, this journey
started by chance. I met a gentleman
from down my road late one evening,
who like myself was walking back home
having had to leave his car two roads away
due to the problems in the area with
parking. He turned out to be a Rotarian
AUTHOR – Derek Scott FCICM
and asked if I would like to attend a
meeting. The outcome was that I joined
his club!
It is regrettable that the Rotary Club,
rather like our own profession, is very
unfairly portrayed in the media. Members
are considered as boring, but the
charitable work this organisation carries
out is outstanding, and, as I found out,
in many ways very rewarding. It would
take several pages to list all the projects I
became involved with.
TALK IS CHEAP
One talk I was asked to undertake was
a ‘job talk’ and thus the ‘never pay later’
presentation was born, and initially
it seemed to go quite well. Rotarians
exchanged names of speakers they
consider good (and probably cheap) and
I suddenly found myself in demand to
speak at other clubs in London and the
Home Counties.
As I was still involved in running
my credit management consultancy, it
limited how many I could undertake, but
then I had my first stab at retirement and
moved to the South Coast.
Here these presentations really took
off as having joined a new Rotary Club,
not only was I speaking at other clubs, but
soon also at Inner Wheels, the WI, and
other organisations – including a church
group. This last one I remember very well
as nearly 200 people showed up and there
was almost two hours of questions. One
of the questions I was asked was: ‘what
did I think of Robert Maxwell jumping
overboard from his yacht?’ It was not an
easy one to answer.
My speaking slots took me all over
the South, including one presentation
I remember well in Guildford when I
bumped into one of the senior partners
of the firm of Chartered Accountants who
were my first employers! The partner was
certainly amazed that this ‘office boy from
hell’ as he called me was now a successful
speaker. Fortunately, he did tell me he
had enjoyed my talk.
At this time, there were, I suppose,
what you would call ‘spin offs’. I was asked
if I did any other presentations, and soon
found myself talking about a particular
passion of mine, paper weights. I then
started to receive requests from ladies
groups who wanted an hour, and not my
usual 30 minutes, to undertake double
handers. So, I would spend my usual
time on ‘never pay later’, and then follow
with tea and biscuits and usually paper
weights. Maybe it was a question of
economics!
This led to some interesting encounters
at one WI meeting. Having answered
the questions on credit management and
had my break, the president announced
that I would speak about weights,
and then comment on all those that
members had brought along. As I am
a collector and not an expert, it was a
good job I had long learned from my
credit seminars how to speak ‘off the
cuff’.
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / November 2017 / PAGE 42