EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE By David Mirsky Nurturing Our Independents fi nance industry. Many strategies have been proposed to increase its youthfulness and diversity. One of these is the Guest Lecture Program, which has been eff ective in introducing leasing as a realistic career option to business students. Another involves the conscious hiring of a more balanced workforce in terms of gender and ethnicity. In addition to these steps, I think that we should be paying close attention to the health of our independents and smaller companies if we are to accomplish the goal of building the future of the leasing and fi nance ecosystem. T HERE HAS BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF THOUGHT L ATELY about ways to attract new people into the equipment leasing and Our Changing Industry My fi rst exposure to leasing computers came in 1978 when I was hired by Memorex Corporation. It was a wonderful time to be in the trading and leasing business, as it was wide open and pretty much unregulated. At meetings of the Computer Dealers and Lessors Association (CDLA), I was excited to meet the founders of the companies that I admired. Complex deals and trades were done every day and there were exciting profi t opportunities and interesting personalities. Nearly 40 years later, our industry is very diff erent. It has matured. Trading of IT equipment has pretty much become insignifi cant. Many of us who attended the CDLA conventions are now members of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. Th ere has been a massive winnowing and reduction in the number of lessors and a great deal of M&A-driven consolidation. ELFA at times seems to be dom-inated by the very large banks and captives that do win the bulk of the business. Surprisingly, however, the largest num-ber of ELFA members today are still independents. We can learn from each other. Th e large captive lessors and banks understand people management, systems, effi -ciency, automation and regulation. Th ey are experts at run-ning large organizations and can teach us about workforce motivation and dealing with intergenerational and diversity issues. One of the great benefi ts of ELFA is that we get to meet and develop relationships with executives of these fi rms. Independent Entrepreneurs Independents are where the entrepreneurs live. Th e inde-pendent sector is where the ideas, new niches and bold en-tries into new markets come from. Good entrepreneurs are brave, determined, aggressive, creative, diverse and intelli-gent. Th ey may be ignorant about the latest securitization rules or management techniques. But they are the risk takers who will try to be the fi rst to lease a new product or to pro-vide liquidity for tougher credits. Entrepreneurs fl y close to their clients, exhibiting great fl exibility and the will to take chances. Th e health of our 52 MARCH/APRIL 2017 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE David Mirsky is Chief Executive Offi cer of Pacifi c Rim Capital, Inc. He is a member of the ELFA Board of Directors and serves as Board Liaison to the Independent Middle Market Business Council Steering Committee, which he previously chaired. SIRA ANAMWONG/ SHUTTERSTOCK industry requires that we encourage new entrepreneurs who will show the rest of us how to maximize via the latest tech-nological delivery systems, structures or assets. Most impor-tant to the subject at hand, it is the new companies that create net additional jobs. Th ey are the ones that oft en hire and train new entrants into our industry. We older companies learn from the tech-savvy and the mistakes made by new enterprises. I believe that it is in our association’s best interest to promote their formation. â–