Unfounded IPSA attack on the HIP Industry

I was incensed by remarks recently made by the Chairman of the Independent Personal Search Agents in response to news of the collapse of an energy assessor training organization. Using this news that was upsetting enough for the trainee energy assessors left high and dry, the Chairman Mr. Lister took the opportunity to lambast the home information pack industry for lacking ‘honour’ and ‘morals’!  His anger appears to stem from his belief that members of his industry have lost money because of rogue HIP providers.

Commenting on an article Mr. Lister, a director of a personal search company with franchisees spread across the country wrote:

‘The DEAs who gave up paying work and took the entrepreneurial leap in to a new industry and the search companies who have been left with close to 1 million pounds worth of bad debt, who also took the entrepreneurial leap to support the industry entrants with no track record, no credit history, no honour and no morals, leaving last but not least the consumer with a very justified sense of frustration and anger’.

What irritates me the most is the self-righteousness that sits behind these comments and the total disregard he has for the greed I have witnessed in my dealings with certain suppliers of personal searches within the HIP industry.

In fact it is the greed and how this has blinded otherwise ‘streetwise’ businessmen that lies at the heart of the problem. It really has nothing to do with ‘entrepreneurial leaps’

Mr. Lister members who have suffered with bad debt through the collapse of customers only have themselves to blame.  The HIP came along and personal search companies saw this as an opportunity to expand their operations and join what many saw as a lucrative ‘gravy train’. They took on new staff and invested heavily in technology.  They then went about courting business from HIP suppliers and in the process and despite the recession made far more money than they ever did before the HIP was introduced. Unfortunately greed got the better of some and basic commercial considerations such as credit checks was thrown to one side.  This combined with over capitalization and bad business decisions led to some businesses struggling.

I find it insulting to energy assessors for Mr. Lister to make a comparison between his member’s plight and the uphill struggle faced by this group of individuals who have consistently been let down by Government.  I bet certain energy assessors would love to be in the position of some of Mr. Lister’s members despite their apparent hardship caused by bad debt. The fact is that search companies have in the main done very well out of HIPs and the only reason some are reminiscing about their lost past is that they are now finding it difficult to compete in a market that has become very competitive.

Mr. Lister may be better off focusing his time and efforts on re-educating some of his members on basic business considerations.