I doubt any business today anywhere in the world regardless of size, can boast perfect consensus between all its departments or among the directors.

Near perfect maybe, but room for improvement will always exist. Having all stakeholders ‘on message’ is important to a company’s health and prosperity.

We all know that differences of opinion up and down the hierarchy between and within departments can be used very effectively to result in balanced and agreed views about the direction and growth of the business. But where unresolved differences exist, interpreting and delivering the message to each link of the organisation’s chain can result in the seeding of tribal rivalries. Yes, I use the word “tribal” to define what has most likely happened at the business you are working at. You are working for a tribe. Your tribe is called the Credit Department.

For example, across the aisle from you where Sarah sits, is the Billing tribe. Sales and the Account management tribes are located on the 4th floor. The Customer Services and Support tribes were relocated to Birmingham last quarter and the other tribes such as Finance and Marketing, Design and Provisioning are located on different floors.

No matter what you name the collectives, all of them have a common interest at risk – they are stakeholders in the business and every stakeholder depends on the continued prosperity and growth of the business to ensure a monthly salary cheque arrives or quarterly/annual dividend payments get issued.

The Stakeholders Ripples of Influence

Higher up and elsewhere in the chain, sinister undercurrents of attempted or actual dominance over key individuals and organisation heads goes on. This power-basing guerrilla rivalry is not good. Each stakeholder department generates an energy that ripples across the business out through the doors, across the country and even continents to influence customers where certain preferences can reside about which supplier should be used and who to deal with at that business. Ever known a Sale Executive or Account Manager tell you to channel all communications with their customer through them? So powerhungry stakeholders best beware that they don’t jeapordise the business.

It is the internal ripples of influence that matter more to you and me as credit people. And I cannot stress enough how important the relationships are between you and your stakeholders.

How do these stakeholders work? How do they influence what you, your customers and other stakeholders do? How can you a mere credit controller connect with and engage the tribes to help you in your work to collect overdue debt, ensure customers pay according to terms and resolve disputes that hold up payments?

Many thanks for reading and for visiting my site!

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