I recently wrote about the situation at Keeping Kids Company Ltd which is known as ‘Kids Company’. The media have been busy giving details of what appears to have gone wrong at the Company even though it appeared to be carrying out a lot of good work to young people in the community.
It is more important than ever to get paid and make sure you carry out due diligence on your customers ensuring you look at all aspects of the business. ‘Kids Company’ is a charity with a very high profile person, Camila Batmanghelidjh running the company and was described as the chief executive.
It is more important than ever to get paid and make sure you carry out due diligence on your customers ensuring you look at all aspects of the business. ‘Kids Company’ is a charity with a very high profile person, Camila Batmanghelidjh running the company and was described as the chief executive.
Camila Batmanghelidjh resigned as a Director on 28th October 2003, nearly 12 years ago
It is therefore strange that records at Companies House showed that Camila Batmanghelidjh resigned as a Director on 28th October 2003, nearly 12 years ago. In fact Mary Robinson is described as Chief Executive at Companies House. This little known fact regarding the resignation of Camila Batmanghelidjh would have rung an alarm bell if I was a supplier.
‘Kids Company’ is a charity and many people feel that Charities are good credit risks without carrying out further investigation. They often have high profile people on the Board or acting as trustees. In the case of ‘Kids Company’ Alan Yentob Creative Director at the BBC is a Director which may have given suppliers comfort. Mr Yentob is a busy man and on the Board of a number of Charities and one would not have expected him to be involved in the detail of the business.
‘Kids Company’ is a charity and many people feel that Charities are good credit risks without carrying out further investigation. They often have high profile people on the Board or acting as trustees. In the case of ‘Kids Company’ Alan Yentob Creative Director at the BBC is a Director which may have given suppliers comfort. Mr Yentob is a busy man and on the Board of a number of Charities and one would not have expected him to be involved in the detail of the business.
So lessons to be learnt when selling to Charities. Look at the accounts, the auditors report and do not put too much emphasis on high profile Directors. Hopefully all suppliers to ‘Kids Company’ will be paid but there were a number of warning signals which were in the public domain many months ago.
There are thousands of Charities that do essential work in their various sectors but some are run by people who have little experience of sound business management and that are so committed to their cause that they take their eye of the ball.
There are thousands of Charities that do essential work in their various sectors but some are run by people who have little experience of sound business management and that are so committed to their cause that they take their eye of the ball.
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