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Leadership Training/Mentoring Corner - October Situation Responses
THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING/MENTORING CORNER
In the August 2025 Newsletter, we started a series called “The Leadership/Mentoring Corner” in which we posed a thought-provoking situation for you to think about and put yourself into the situation, detailed and ask yourself – “What do I do now?” and “What precautions should I have taken?”. Below is the situation that was in the October 2025 Newsletter.
OCTOBER LEADERSHIP SITUATION
You have recently taken over the Company that your grandfather started 50 years ago. Your father has been the CEO for the past 30 years, and now it is your turn to lead the family business.
Your business philosophies regarding growth and profitability are more in line with your grandfather, who believed in double-digit annual revenue growth and who was OK with single-digit profitability growth in order to expand revenues. Under your father’s tenure, the Company had slow, steady growth, and profitability was above industry benchmarks.
You want to grow the Company through expansion into new markets or acquisition of a similar smaller company down the street. You are not sure if the talent is in place at the Company to take on your more aggressive growth strategies while settling for smaller profitability goals.
We polled some of the Silver Fox Advisors, and below are some recommendations on what your next steps should be:
- It would be a good idea to meet with both the grandfather and the father to determine why they made the decisions that they did at the time so you have a better understanding of the internal and external factors and circumstances that went into making the decisions they did.
- The father’s business model over time is a good one (slow and steady growth and profitability above industry benchmarks), thus it might be a good for the father and son to get together, with maybe a third advisor, and develop some common ground, especially if the father is going to remain is some capacity at the company.
- Having financing available is always a critical element of any planning process for a company’s future; thus it would be a good idea to develop at least three years of financial projections to determine what, if any, additional financing may be needed to achieve a plan going forward. Once those projections have been developed and agreed upon, it would be a good idea to have a meeting with the company’s banker to present the plan and make sure if financing is needed that the funds would be available to support the plan.
- Finally, it might be a good idea to schedule meetings with some of the company’s larger clients and confirm as much as possible that any change in the company leadership or business model does not present a potential loss of revenues already in place.
“Do You Know Your Banker and Does That Banker Know You?"
BUSINESS TIPS FROM THE EDITOR
November 2025
Richard T. Hendee, Editor
The Silver Fox Advisor
“Do You Know Your Banker and Does That Banker Know You?"
When was the last time your banker was at your place of business, either on his or her own or by your invitation? Your banker can be a great business advisor and advocate, or one of your biggest problems. However, you can control how your experience goes with your banker by maintaining contact with him or her and driving the relationship.
Bankers all have sales call quotas that they have to meet, and many of them focus their sales call efforts on prospects or potential new customers. But usually, sales calls on their existing customers also count in achieving their monthly goals.
Inviting your banker to your place of business and giving that banker a tour of your operation, and providing an overview of your business processes and strategies, can be one of the greatest beneficial investments of your time you will probably ever make.
Bankers hate surprises, and when you have never formally met them, they have never seen your business and you have an immediate problem, like a shortfall in your cash flow because a big customer couldn’t pay an invoice on time, and you need a short-term loan or an overdraft covered how do you think your banker is going to react if that banker has never met you and doesn’t know a thing about your business?
Conversely, in that same situation, if your banker knows who you are, has seen your business operation, and you have provided some financing data to him or her, you are in a much better position to ask for help when you need it.
Further, having been in banking for more than 45 years, I have always enjoyed meeting and visiting my clients at their businesses. I learned a great deal about a lot of different businesses and frequently was able to provide the business owner with a solution to some issue that further cemented the relationship I and the bank had with that customer. In addition, I received numerous referrals from my customers of business owners that my customers knew because of relationships I developed with them.
One final point I will share is that if your banker knows you and your business and you have a loan request that has to go to the bank’s loan committee, your banker becomes your voice at the table with other bankers who will all be making decisions on your loan request. Wouldn’t you rather have a banker representing you who knows you and your business so they can answer questions that may be asked with authority, instead of I don’t know, but I can find out? Trust me, have sat on many, many loan committees, and you want your banker to have a good understanding of you and your business if you want a positive decision on that loan request.
If you need help with developing a relationship with your banker, I would recommend you seek an experienced business advisor, coach, consultant, or mentor with a financial or business background for your business: Contact a Silver Fox Advisor. Remember, having experience on your side always helps.
We encourage you to visit our Website at www.silverfox.org or www.silverfoxadvisors.com to select a Silver Fox Advisor and also to learn more about the Silver Fox Advisors and their businesses, as well as our great programs and community outreach endeavors.
