EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE By Ed Dahlka LL I CAN SAY about my 43 years in leasing is what a wonderful experience it has been. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best in the business, both as colleagues and customers, and I’m happy to share four valuable lessons learned over the years. A Four Lessons Learned from Four Decades in Leasing 1 A good manager makes all the difference. Before I found the leasing industry, I served in an entry-level accountant position with a major auto manufac-turer and in a credit training position at a major Midwestern regional bank. I learned a great deal in both positions, but it became eminently clear to me that I did not want to be an account-ant or a banker. But I did have the op-portunity to work for some wonderful managers at both organizations. For me, the real takeaway was that if you had good manager, you had your best chance to learn and to succeed. ered the team with greater decision-making authority and recognized them for their accomplishments. It was all about getting them to feel good about themselves and to work well with all of the departments they interfaced with to process our transactions. 4 even in the early years, banks loved fee income! In fact, this fee-focused ap-proach is a pattern that I have followed many times since those early days. Throughout my career, it has been our strategic advantage to stay focused on value-added pricing. Thanks to the TBTs, our group enjoyed excellent in-creases in net after-tax profits. In large part as a result of that profit growth, I was promoted to President of MNLC. Talented leaders foster loyalty. 2 Value-added pricing works. I landed my first job in leasing in 1972 at Ford Motor Credit and had the good fortune to work for Bernie Mc-Kenna , one of our industry’s very ear-ly leasing experts. After learning the business at Ford Credit, I was recruited to join Maryland National Leasing, where I found another excellent leader in President and Founder Mike Har-ris . Mike was an extremely effective leader for a number of reasons, but first and foremost he was a true value-added salesman. When we saw our competitors offering unreasonably low pricing, he coined the phrase “profit-less prosperity.” While the competition focused only on price, we monitored and coached our team to find what the prospect truly needed—in short, an early version of solution-based selling. In 1981, when Congress passed a new law creating Tax Benefit Trans-fers (TBTs), we made a highly focused effort to source these transactions, which became a big fee generator as we captured most of the volume. Yes, My last stop before I finally retired was the Cole Taylor Bank (CTB). Mark Hoppe , who had served as my boss at LaSalle, was the President of CTB. Because of the stellar reputation that Mark and his leadership team had developed, many of the top-perform-ing LaSalle bankers followed him to CTB—myself included. I found that the encouragement I received from top CTB leadership allowed me to again in-vest in top talent, and that allowed me to bring along many of my loyal team-mates to build the CTB leasing team. Looking Ahead My goal for CTB was to set up a first-class team over a three-to five-year time frame and to find my replacement before I retired. Last year, when MB Financial Bank acquired Cole Taylor, it became clear that this was a perfect time for me to retire. I believe the MB Leasing team will enjoy great success as a result of this merger, as MB has a long history of lend-ing to leasing companies. It is my goal to remain a friend of the leasing company and to watch them continue the success so many of us have enjoyed. ■ Ed Dahlka retired in March 2015 after 43 years in the equipment leasing and finance industry. He served as ELFA Chairman from 2002–03 and as Foundation Chairman from 2008–10. 3 Recognize the contributions of each employee. Later in my career I was given the op-portunity to serve as President of La-Salle National Leasing. Norm Bobins led the bank, and under his steward-ship it became the premier Chicago-based commercial lender. We soon learned that when you have outstand-ing leaders at the top of an organiza-tion and they create an atmosphere that promotes and recognizes top tal-ent, great things can happen. I was a believer in the reverse-trian-gle organization approach, which puts those staff members who are closest to the customers at the top. We empow-40 MAY/JUNE 2015 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE