Credit Management November 2023

RISING STAR
A Cut Above
How a former hairdresser has risen
from junior credit manager to CICM Fellow.
AUTHOR – Melanie York
LOUISE Morris FCICM
joined the award-winning
independent law firm
Brabners two years ago,
and even after almost 25
successful years in the
industry, continues to climb and take on
new challenges. Louise spent her first 21
years in the waste management industry,
before switching to the legal sector. She
joined Brabners as a Credit Manager and
a year later became a Working Capital
Manager, and she has been advancing
credit control in the firm.
Like many young people today, credit
control wasn’t Louise’s first choice of
career. Her original passion throughout
school and college was hairdressing, and
after her A levels, she became a full-time
hairdresser and beauty therapist. Then,
suddenly, life threw a curve ball, and she
went to Australia to rethink her life. A
year later, she returned, unsure of what
she wanted to do. She worked in a couple
of call centres until she found a job as
a customer advisor, resolving disputes
for Clean Away, the waste management
business. “That’s how I ended up falling
into credit management,” she says, “and I
suddenly developed a passion for it.” She
had found her second calling.
Success breeds success
Louise joined a local team with the lowest
dispute rates in the region. It was so
successful that her manager was asked to
run a country-wide department. The team
grew as disputes shrank to a level where
local depots could take back dispute
management. Success breeds success, and
the team was given more responsibility:
“We took national accounts which were a
separate entity because of the size of the
clients,” she explains.
Again, disputes fell dramatically to an
all-time low, but there was a problem; the
money still wasn’t coming in. So, during
the summer of 2005 the Finance Director
asked Louise: ‘Would you be the guinea
pig to take credit control in-house for
national accounts?’
She jumped at the chance but then
realised that no one could teach her how
to do it: “If I'm running a team, I need to
find out the legalities of this.”
Not knowing where to go, she Googled
credit management qualifications, found
“If you want to
progress, companies
are looking for
CICM qualified
people, Brabners
was looking for
somebody who
understood the
Quality in Credit
Management
accreditation
(CICMQ), so my
CICM qualification
helped me succeed
in the recruitment
process.”
a CICM course at Salford College and
enrolled. Suddenly, life was hectic, she
says: “I was setting up the department,
teaching staff and learning all at the same
time, but it worked.”
That summer, Clean Away and Veolia
merged and Brian Morgan FCICM, the
Group Credit Manager, gave her the
national accounts for both. Louise’s team
went on to win the CICM Team of the Year
Award, and Louise became a Fellow of the
Institute.
Growing the business
Two years ago, Louise was brought into
Brabners alongside the CEO and CFO to
improve efficiencies. Switching industries
was challenging: “It couldn't be so far
apart really could it, going from bin men
to solicitors,” she jokes.
Louise implemented new standardised
processes and procedures with her
team and the departmental managers,
management assistants and fee earners
by creating buy-in from the business:
“The clients are very precious, and you
need the trust of fee earners to achieve
anything — it's about inspiring them to
help Brabners grow.”
Success factors
Louise attributes her continuing success
to her love of learning and being part of
the CICM community. She encourages
everyone to do the same so that they can
find inspiration in their career and grow.
She helps her team use the different
routes to CICM qualification available
today: “If you’ve been in the job for
years,” she says, “you can do work-based
assessment for the MCICM graduation.”
Louise supported a member of her team
with 11 years of experience to use CICM’s
knowledge-based approach which she
says is similar to the fellowship award
process: “It’s about objective work-based
proof that you have the required skills and
experience, rather than study and exams.”
Another team member also recently
completed the Level 2 qualification
through coursework alone.
Louise champions the CICM
qualifications because they are essential in
anyone’s career: “If you want to progress,
companies are looking for CICM qualified
people,” she explains. “Brabners was
looking for somebody who understood the
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / November / PAGE 52