CRF: Research in Review
By Eugene Waters
Recognizing the need for research, education, and training in the field of credit, forward looking members of the National Association of Credit Management launched the Credit Research Foundation as its educational and research arm on March 17, 1947 in Cleveland, OH. Paul W. Miller of the Marlborough Company, Atlanta, GA served as the organizing chairman of the approximately 525 member organization.
CRF represents a body of knowledge emphasizing the impact and contribution of the credit function on individual businesses and the national economy. Its forums, reports, surveys, and other publications provide valuable information on new techniques and trends in credit and accounts receivable administration and practices, along with information technology applications to support credit, accounts receivable, and cash management functions. Many of NACM's educational programs grew from the framework set forth by the CRF.
At the November 1952 meeting of the board of directors of the National Association of Credit Management, it was duly passed that all phases of the educational activity heretofore carried out under the auspices of the NACM henceforth be carried out under the auspices of the Credit Research Foundation. In addition, the sponsorship of the Graduate School was automatically placed under the Foundation. Recognizing that education and research were so closely correlated, all NACM educational functions would be in the capable hands of Dr. Carl D. Smith, managing director of CRF and NACM's director of education.
One such function was the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management (GSCFM). Its first session was held at the Babson Institute, Boston, MA in 1941. This program was begun in order for companies to develop key credit and financial personnel for new and greater responsibilities. During the war years, the school was discontinued. In the 1940s, the school GSCFM joined the begun at the University of Wisconsin with the first graduating class taking place in 1949. In 1950, the school began what would become its long tenure at Dartmouth College under the sponsorship of the Amos Tuck School of Business. Among the school's first graduating class was a young energetic gentlemen, O.E. (Barney) Barnum of U. S. Steel Corporation. He became one of the school's greatest supporters, serving in later years as an assistant director of the school at Dartmouth College, member of its Administrative Committee, its Admissions Committee and chairman of the joint NACM/CRF Education Committee and president of the Foundation 1965-68.
A second session of the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management was opened at Stanford University on the West Coast in 1952 under the sponsorship of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. The Graduate School continued its growth under the direction of Dr. Smith and Mr. William J. Dickson. In 1961, Dr. Peter C. Peasley became executive director of the school. Enrollment continued to grow to a high of 579 students in 1979. The school became one of the top educational training programs for commercial credit men as well as bankers interested in business credit. Graduates of the GSCFM earned the Executive Award.
Over the years, sessions were held across the United States and Europe: Harvard University, 1967; Tulane University, 1968; London Business School, 1973; Williams College, 1974; and Tufts European Centre, Tollories, France, 1983.
Envisioning the need for corporate training at the mid-level, the Credit Research Foundation began its Mid-Career School in 1972. Initially, two sessions of this program were conducted annually until demand required that a third session be added. At the senior level, the Foundation conducted the Advanced Credit Executives Program, as well as Credit Management Workshops and its Senior Credit Executives Forum.
Today's CCEs, CBFs, and CBAs can trace their origin back to CRF. A method of certifying credit executives was a long-range plan for NACM. Following several studies by various sub-committees of the NACM/CRF, it certification was decided in 1959 to be premature and that a society might be formed to be known as the "American Society of Credit Officers."
In 1972, the task force in certification suggested an International Society of Credit and Financial Executives. Suggested membership credentials would include an elite group for holders of the Executive Award of the GSCFM. Associate memberships would stem from CRF's Middle Management Program. The national office of NACM took over and completed the certification process.
In November 1969, CRF announced a competition program for doctoral candidates who complete dissertations dealing with business credit. A number of publications have been distributed to members of the Foundation as a result of this program.
One of the very early long-range projects of the CRF and the NACM was the preparation and publication of a credit handbook. This project is designed to bring together all pertinent and useful information of value to credit executives and their staffs. The development of such a publication would require several years to accomplish. Finally, this goal was achieved in August of 1958 when the Credit Executives Handbook, a publication of the NACM, prepared and edited by the CRF, was released. In the first two years, 7,000 copies of the book had been sold. The Credit Executives Handbook was revised in 1965 and is set for another revision in 1997.
Today, the CRF has several key research and educational projects currently in place. The CRF Benchmarking Survey: Credit, Collections, and Accounts Receivable was accepted by the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse in their Directory of Metrics Sources. Likewise, the National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables is well received in the credit community. With additional reports, surveys, and other publications, the CRF continues as the foremost non-profit, member supported education and research organization dedicated to the credit and financial management community.
