Purging obsolete files and preparing for new beginnings. It is a new year and time to take inventory of the mistakes made in 1997 and the necessary action to take in 1998 so that those mistakes are not repeated.

I read over the holiday that the trend will continue through the end of this decade to replace credit professionals with collection specialists. That point was brought home with the first year edition of the classified employment pages where I could find only one company looking for a credit manager but no less then thirty looking for collectors.

It is sad commentary that the three C's of credit; Character, Capacity & Capital are being replaced by Competition, Conjecture & Convenience.

So what is the answer? Is it really as bleak as it appears? Not really if we simply begin to change. Begin by looking at the credit tools as collection tools. Every aspect of the credit process is designed to minimize risk. In the majority of cases our organization is going to take the risk because those decisions are being made elsewhere and with a lack of common sense. How then can we position ourselves to make the collection process easier and maximize our collection efforts?

We're going to discuss these changes in upcoming columns. As always I'm very interested in your ideas and thoughts so don't be shy. Write and let me know what is on your mind and what would you like to discuss.

I wish you well!