The reviews of the second year of forum-style "Executive Exchange" sessions at NACM's 2011 Credit Congress were as glowing as they were in last year's debut. Attendees from all industries gathered for high-level discussions on certain skill sets and timely topics, spread evenly across sessions focusing on building and construction, collections, credit management, international credit, legal issues and performance metrics.

Moderated by Dawn Wallace Cook, CCE, Newton Manufacturing Co., the International session dealt with several country-specific issues that aimed to reduce the attendees' chances for cultural faux-pas. Panelist Richard Gref, CICE, Export Credit Consulting, LLC, joined by Past NACM National Chairman Jim Fried, CCE, CCM, Timex Group USA, Inc. and Tom Demovic, CCE, CICP, of Sharp Electronics Corporation indicated that the first step toward avoiding these mistakes is simply to be aware of the vast differences between countries and cultures. "If you go down to Latin America, they're going to hug you. If you're going to Brazil, they're going to kiss you," he said. "Be prepared for it." Sometimes this awareness has to be considered along with the purpose of the international meeting, Gref added. "In Japan, watch how far you bow," he noted. "If you want their business, you'd better bow lower than them."

Japan and other Asian cultures were a hot topic at the session, as Demovic continued, noting that certain other non-verbal gestures are extremely important in these countries. "I work for a Japanese company and even something like business cards," said Demovic. "they hold it with both hands."

"We think the world's going to do business our way," he added. "The best thing is to learn the customs and have people on the ground there."

The Legal Issues session featured some of NACM's best-known attorneys, as well as equally esteemed credit professionals, providing the audience with both the technical and practical applications of the material. One of the biggest topics was the increasing regularity of customers using purchase orders to dictate unfavorable terms to the seller. Purchase orders will typically come from a salesperson, meaning that, in many companies, credit managers won't see them and be unwittingly signing on to something they never get a chance to see.

One attendee offered insights into how to fix this: "We have a statement in our agreement that if you use POs, you use it for internal purposes," they said. "We say our contract conditions are binding." By adding this provision, the attendee was able to largely circumvent any issue with a purchase order. "You are not bound by any contrary changes that you do not agree to in writing," said panelist Bruce Nathan, Esq., Lowenstein Sandler PC, reminding the audience of the fundamental law of sales documents.

Other topics discussed included personal guarantees and Chapter 9 bankruptcies, which are filings by municipalities.

As trite as it may sound, credit professionals continued to be asked to "do more with less." Evidence of this was quite noticeable during at least two of the Credit Congress Executive Exchange sessions as the need for technology weighed heavily on the minds of credit professionals.

During the Executive Exchange session on Collections, corporate reorganization expert Lynnette Warman Esq., Hunton & Williams LLP, noted that using the Web and various social media platforms has proven very helpful not just in brand building for business, but with collection of information on debtors and would-be borrowers. However, when using any of these to promote said business or service, credit and business professionals have to be careful to ensure their own content is fresh, because users won't come back if information is out of date, she contended. Moderator Scott Lee, CCE, Esq., NACM Business Credit Services noted his collections people use social media as well as Google searches to find those debtors who don't want to be found because they don't want to or aren't able to pay. He quipped, "We use it...It's amazing what you can find out" simply from what people post themselves.

Additionally, being careful about who is "friended" on places like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook is key because so much information tends to get out there into public consumption, including those who are competitors or potential fraudsters.

"They have some great elements about them, but there are also some significant issues of privacy," Warman said.

Meanwhile, in the Credit Management session, an interesting exchange revolved around the advancement of online credit applications and their pros and cons. Former NACM Chairman Venable, CCE, Ascend Performance Materials LLC, said they can be very helpful for a credit department if it's used for business-to-business transactions only. The moment one collects any type of personal information on the party, such as a social security number, the credit department becomes exposed to privacy protection mandates outlined in places like the Federal Trade Commission's oft-misunderstood Red Flags Rules. But, in the B2B context, it allows speed, easy manageability and paperless options that can be desirable for a credit department.

"Asking for individual information puts you into privacy issues; you'd need a whole new level of security," said Venable. "It's a wonderful tool as long as you have things like an electronic signature disclaimer box must be checked by the customer. Don't let it be a default, make them check the box. That will help you down the road when they say ‘I didn't know I would have to pay a late fee' or ‘I didn't know what the terms were.'"

The panel also talked about mergers and acquisitions, and how activity appears to be revving up again as the economy rebounds, albeit at a snail's pace. Venable said there can be quite a culture shock when a merger of credit departments occurs, and it's up to credit managers to keep people motivated. Toni Drake, CCE, TRM Financial Services, Inc., agreed saying extensive and early training was key to combating the "that's how we've always done it" attitude toward change.

"The earlier you can train people, including the decentralized the field people, and tell them why they're doing this instead of the cram-down method, the easier it's going to be," Drake said.