AICM Member in Spotlight with Janice Thomason (BlueScope Steel)

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DA: It's an absolute honor to spotlight a ICA member, Janice Thomason Manager, credit and Working Capital at BlueScope Steel. Janice, welcome and thank you for your time today. You know, really, you're a, a very well recognized and respected leader and professional within the Australian credit management industry. Of all the things you've done and achieved, what's been the most memorable career highlight for you? That's really an interesting question. There's lots and lots of highlights, but I think the most, most, um, prevalent one is some guidance in South Africa. I was a credit manager in South Africa many, many moons ago, and I was able to be instrumental in guiding some young African, um, ladies from a packing line assistant through to becoming one, became a credit manager and is still a credit manager, and the other one, um, became an accountant. So I think that's the most, um, I, I think the most spotlighted achievement. I love to see people grow and I love to help them grow into their careers.

JT: So Janice, technology's really driven a lot of change, um, over the years, and you've clearly led the charge having built and motivated teams. Uh, how did you initiate automation projects, especially those targeting manual systems?

JT: Um, this really interesting question, Dion. Um, I think that the first, the first this, this, um, the response to this would go in steps. Um, the first is your people. How do you motivate the people? Then how do you motivate the business? Um, people are feared of change and their feared of automation for losing their jobs. So the biggest thing is educate the team not to be afraid of automation, that they're not gonna lose their jobs. This is an enhancement to their job. Um, document the As is, make sure that you've got a, an absolute map, a roadmap of what is the as is, and then prepare a business case. Make sure that you've got some easy wins in there and that you've also put in your big rocks. Um, make sure that we are being really inquisitive about status quo and make sure that we've been resilient and that we've got, um, a pathway and a roadmap that we can follow that is easy and accessible for all. So whether it be our managers or whether it be our teams, they need to be able to access that roadmap. Um, make sure that we celebrate some wins along the way so that people celebrate with us and we, we are broadcasting what we are doing. Um, share the future vision. Constantly talk automation. Get the lingo right. Talk about data lakes, power bi, AI robotics, RPA, robotic proceed automation. Make sure you understand the little buzzwords and you, you can actually have those conversations so people understand that you're spreading the knowledge. But then people also start thinking, well, what can I do differently? And then finally what I would suggest is that you take all of those repeatable actions and activities that occur on a day-to-day basis, the pain points of everyone's jobs, because those are the things that we want to automate, create capacity for people to do better things, to learn and to be more involved and to be more strategic. Um, and those, those are the things that I've presented to my business and has been accepted, um, when I've been putting projects together.

DA: Thank you for joining us today in member in Spotlight for the Australian Institute of Credit Management. Many thanks Dion.