Artificial Intelligence: Your Greatest Ally or Hidden Risk? What AI really means for credit management

Following their independence from Malaysia in 1965, the island country and city-state of Singapore, or the Republic of Singapore, has evolved into a thriving and dynamic economy. The region’s economic growth is attributed to its reliance on industrial exports of high-quality and competitively priced consumer and IT products. These products have attracted attention from foreign direct investment (FDI) in pharmaceuticals and medical technology products.

Metrics are a key part of how credit managers track their company’s performance, from how many customers are paying late to the number of new credit applications. There is a lot of internal data to consider when working in credit, but how often do credit professionals look outside their own metrics?

When doing business, it’s easy to assume that our own cultural norms are universal, yet the truth is that what’s considered polite or professional in one culture can be completely misinterpreted in another. The world is vast, encompassing seven continents, 195 countries and 72 regions and territories, each contributing to thousands of unique cultures and subcultures. These cultures influence the way people think and behave, as well as how they conduct business.

For many credit professionals, burnout does not happen all of a sudden—it creeps in slowly, like a phantom in the shadows. The pressure of the job, from managing high-risk accounts to chasing down mounting receivables, can begin to haunt even the most experienced professionals.

China’s Communist Party mapped out their five-year economic goals, with an emphasis on industrialization and achieving technological self-reliance. The Central Committee of the Chinese Community Party, a small group of the party’s elite, continues to prioritize manufacturing and investment, with moves that reflect the increasingly tense relationship with the United States.

Gathering job information for a construction project is critical to the work of a credit manager, collecting pertinent information on the customer and the key players in the project so that you understand the degree of risk incurred as you embark on a project. While this process is intrinsically tied to the work and concerns of a credit manager, the responsibility of gathering information can also fall on the sales team.

With economic uncertainty mounting across the board, the agricultural industry continues to slump. With input costs rising and profits dropping, trade tensions add increased instability as they stifle previously high agricultural exports.

In credit management, proper risk management begins with knowing your customer—from their legal name to their industry and risk tolerance. In global trade, it means digging deeper to understand who truly owns, controls and benefits from the customer.