Word: hellers
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That experience began accumulating when Walter Heller, the son of a wealthy sausage-casing maker with plants around the world, went into the jewelry business at 22, after a year at the University of Michigan. Says Heller: "My father thought I'd lose less money there than anywhere else." Six years later, Heller got out of the business after thieves took off with $600,000 worth (insured) of his jewels. In 1919 he set up a commercial-loan company, was astounded when a bank offered him a $100,000 line of credit. He chalked it up to the favorable...
...Lend? "Heller's attitude was not "Why should we lend this man money?" but "How can we lend this man money?" Tough and opinionated in sizing, up a deal, Heller nonetheless pushed his company ahead by treating many a nervous corporation head as a person instead of a risk. He often turns down a borrower with a sharp "nonsense" before the businessman has even finished making his case. Yet he also startles businessmen by granting them huge loans over the telephone-and telling them to work out the details later...
...Heller can do this because he has a vast knowledge about most businesses, is back-stopped by a staff of experts. Four hundred strong, they breathe gently down a borrower's neck, go over his books thoroughly three or four times a year, shoot out a barrage of advice and warning that keeps companies on their toes. Through this method, Heller not only protects his own money but often prevents companies Tom becoming overextended, accumulating too much inventory, falling into ill-advised deals. He sometimes makes bad guesses: he backed Sydney Albert's overexpanded Bellanca empire before...
With a sly slap at the banks, Heller describes himself as a foe of "institution-alization," gives his men great latitude to make their own judgments. "A man can assume his own responsibility here," he says. "I never rub a man's hair in a mistake." Because the firm's response is so fast and sure, many clients who have graduated into the "bankable" class prefer to continue working with Heller...
Still trim and vigorous at 69, Heller gets to his office at 7:40 in the morning, keeps a strong personal hold on the company. He sees nothing but growth for his type of lending, figures that in a growing economy there will always be enough firms on the way up who need a firm but friendly guiding hand...