Cutting Down on Staff - or Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face?

Experienced credit personnel are more valuable than ever in the current climate, but many businesses are looking to cut costs by cutting down on staff, and a survey by The Institute of Credit Management has raised fears that it is smaller businesses that are primarily responsible for the highest number of redundancies where credit personnel are concerned.

I am a great believer in DIY, but frankly professional credit managers - who are, after all, responsible for keeping the cash flowing - are the last employees that anyone should think of getting rid of in order to cut costs.

Philip King, the Director General of the ICM, remarked that "It seems illogical that companies are seeking to make redundant those professionals who could be their very salvation".

He's right, of course - and if you substitute the word 'mad' for 'illogical' then you'll have my opinion in a nutshell.