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Feature 28 www.thefis.org them. This trickle-down of confidence helps to drive a better payment culture. The Code plays an effective role in achieving it.” Speeding up the payment process Liz feels her role is to galvanise the small business sector in any way she can, by representing their interests and concerns around poor payment practice to as many influential stakeholders as possible. She said: “The exciting thing is, there seems to be much enthusiasm and willingness to help speed up the payment process. I will continue making the case to business leaders that prompt and timely payment practices are ethical, enhance their reputation and are increasingly important to potential investors. “Themain opportunities are created by getting really passionate people around the table to look at ways to use technology and data to improve payments to small businesses. Technology companies, law companies and data analysts are thinking seriously about how they canmake a difference. There is a window of opportunity here that we need to use. “The pandemic seems to have led big businesses to understand the key role of small, flexible suppliers better. A combination of this growing entrepreneurial confidence and greater ethical awareness of good payment practice feels like a genuine opportunity for a cultural shift around payments.” What needs to change There are some areas of improvement that the sector should concentrate on over the next few years, for example, Liz said, it’s important to understand the needs of suppliers. Poor payment practices need to be called out and rectified and if that means looking closely at a whole payment management system and making it better because of that evaluation, that’s the thing to do. There are likely to be times when cashflow is more challenging, but committing to pay people quickly and fairly, without unexpected changes to contractual agreements, sends a wider cultural signal about how your business works. Be the change you want to see and let others follow your example. We asked her how the supply chain can work better together and what needs to change? She feels that it’s about trust. “Everyone needs to be as honest with each other as they can. Economic challenges, whether a result of COVID-19, the UK’s relationship with other countries or more widespread trade supply problems, as we are seeing, can have a spreading impact on distribution and supply. Where it’s possible to project ahead, and supply issues look likely, those up and down the supply chain need to communicate with others affected as best they can. “Taking the time to nurture and mentor smaller suppliers will make a real difference. Everyone needs to understand and respect the role of everyone else in the supply chain, because if one link breaks the whole chain breaks. The whole point of a supply chain is that no part of it works in isolation.” She recognises that one of themost important qualities in a business leader must be empathy, saying “Someone can be ruthless, creative and technically brilliant, but without empathy and an understanding of work’s human challenges it’s much harder to attract other people to your vision. We’ve heard enough about the need to be ruthless to achieve. If a leader can demonstrate positive behaviour and bring others with them, whether that’s in the sphere of good payment practice or elsewhere, they deserve to be celebrated.” Finally, we asked her what she would like her legacy in her role as Small Business Commissioner to be and she said that it would be to remove the need for the role at all. “If I can drive enough of a change in how business thinks about paying small suppliers, there should be less work for us all to do on the issue. However, more seriously, I want small businesses to have the confidence to approach larger ones and feel supported in asking for what is rightfully theirs. If the combination of business, political and technical advocacy I’m currently trying to manage succeeds, I’d hope that small businesses will feel empowered and respected. I think that would be a legacy I’d be comfortable with.” The Small Business Commissioner (SBC) is an independent public body set up by Government under the Enterprise Act 2016 to tackle late payment and unfavourable payment practices in the private sector. The SBC covers the whole of the UK - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk Growing entrepreneurial confidence and greater ethical awareness of good payment practice feels like a genuine opportunity for a cultural shift around payments.