Articles — Proving Your Value

Arti­cles

Prov­ing Your Value to Management

Prov­ing Your Value to Man­age­ment
Sep­tem­ber 1, 1999, By Jerry Kaplan

Why do I feel that prov­ing your value to man­age­ment is one of the most impor­tant top­ics for credit peo­ple to study today?
In the more than 40 years that I have been involved in the com­mer­cial credit/collection pro­fes­sion, I have met thou­sands of peo­ple involved in credit, finance, man­age­ment, bank­ing, and about every other type of business.

I have observed many peo­ple who strive to be credit professionals-who have obtained the edu­ca­tion, skills, expe­ri­ence, and cre­den­tials that should earn them man­age­ment recog­ni­tion. They have worked long and hard hours, have moved, have trav­eled, and have made many sac­ri­fices to do an out­stand­ing job for their company.

They are always on the look­out for sav­ing their com­pany money. They are ded­i­cated, hon­est, loyal. They have devel­oped the dis­ci­pline and skills that should take them to higher lev­els in the busi­ness world. But they have not found the real key to unlock­ing the respect, man­age­ment team involve­ment, and finan­cial rewards they deserve.

Com­mer­cial credit is my indus­try, my busi­ness life, and the foun­da­tion for many old and new friend­ships. When I see how many large and small com­pa­nies are miss­ing the boat by not mak­ing their credit man­ager part of their man­age­ment team and not directly involv­ing them in mak­ing future plans for the com­pany, I get angry and frus­trated, not only for my friends, but for the busi­ness in which they are involved.

Those busi­nesses are miss­ing a great deal and as a result are not putting in the atten­tion nec­es­sary for the credit pro­fes­sional to grow. I have decided that the best con­tri­bu­tion I can now make to our pro­fes­sion is to try to pass on the things I have seen and expe­ri­enced that have devel­oped into the credit posi­tions you deserve.

Besides my day to day involve­ment in the busi­ness and watch­ing, lis­ten­ing to, and ask­ing ques­tions of the thou­sands of credit man­agers I men­tioned, I have recently inter­viewed about two dozen credit man­agers who have found the path to higher com­pany respect, involve­ment, finan­cial reward, and per­sonal hap­pi­ness from their profession.

After hours of dis­cus­sion, I believe it all boils down to one word – communication.

Jerry Kaplan is a Part­ner in Kaplan Group, 805–541-2639