Ariel Tavor, Founder & Principal of Lions Financial 

They say it takes a village to raise a child, similarly, it takes a village and a few to run a successful business. While starting any business, the major part all new entrepreneurs must focus on is taking the business on the right financial path. Finance & Investment keep any business running, making them the most crucial aspects of any industry.

Ariel Tavor, holds over a decade of experience in the financial services industry, specializing in insurance and investment companies. Having experience in working with executives & CEOs from a wide range of industries, his work involves counseling CEOs, Boards of Directors, and Capital Investment Funds. He specializes in advising the top management on executive compensation, business plan designs, mergers & acquisitions, due diligence, and asset financing. Being an expert in financial analysis and strategy, Ariel masters in advising the clients on allocations based on their business objectives and analyzing the economic factors, to keep a long-term perspective. With a vision to provide his array of expert services to more clients with a dedicated team, he started his firm ‘Lions Financial’. His company specializes in real estate asset management, e-commerce, automotive distribution, management consulting, financial services, corporate travel, manufacturing, food concepts, and enterprise technology. 

Lions Financial – Making A Mark

Lions Financial focuses on providing holistic business management solutions by working as a business advisory and wealth management firm for their clients. Ariel & his team manages a diverse portfolio of companies & help businesses build financial management strategies to enhance their business for high growth and long-term success. Not just that, they also have expertise in giving their clients a key solution for three major areas[1] , which include business consulting, capital markets, and last but not least, risk management. They use four specialized disciplines like financial strategy, organizational structure, processes, communications, and technology to fuel better financial management of the clients. Their skilled team serves a variety of industries making them one of the most diversified financial firms that cater to different industries like automotive, hospitality, retail, e-commerce, commercial real estate, financial services, healthcare, engineering, renewable energy, and biopharmaceuticals.

 The New Era of Businesses

Ariel believes in advancing his techniques and adapting with time. According to him, ‘Industries have evolved a lot over time, and with the digitization of modern technology and businesses, the traditional methods are no longer seen. The industry has adopted the new trends, and businesses are now operating on the factors that can help them move a step forward into the future.’ To maintain pace with the constantly changing market, Ariel advises companies to change their traditional strategies and opt more for online operational methods. He believes every business aspect is different and unique and requires a niche solution that fits their needs. Besides, there is no doubt that technological advancements have shown a drastic effect on the way people used to do business. According to Ariel, successful companies have a thorough understanding of what the future will hold through research and development teams that plan for many ideas and identify future prospects for aspects sought. The recent pandemic has made it a need for companies to transform themselves and be more ‘internet-friendly’.   

Significant Challenges & Setbacks

In the initial period of starting the business, Ariel has had his share of ups and downs with connecting segments and analyzing bits and pieces that can make a huge difference in the business strategy. As with many companies, Lions Financial had a business plan; but since it was not updated to reflect the current situation early on, it led to miscalculated assumptions. Keeping track of what happened afterward and evaluating it was a time-consuming and ineffective process, Ariel and his team implemented software technology and created an operations team for effective and fast results. In the early days of starting Lions Financial, Ariel focused on companies that had a difficult time obtaining financing, but this created challenges for them to have a longer-term engagement and underfunding for initiatives needed to improve their business. Ariel did not get dispirited by these obstacles and learning from his experiences, shifted his focus to target established businesses that could leverage more complex financial strategies. They started acquiring clients with better potential by arbitrating their clientele by leadership structures such as; multigenerational family businesses, companies with a board of advisors, and companies with successor CEOs.

Leadership is an Action, Not a Position

A successful leader doesn’t just preach the ideas but makes sure to adapt them to his own work ethic and leads the way while everyone around them learns, grows, and prospers along with the company goals.

“I believe in prioritizing my clients’ needs. Our business purpose is defined as providing financial services & solutions to businesses during their different life cycles. We focus on building a team that has this same concern for deciding what is best for clients and making sure solutions are tailored to their needs. I do my best in having discussions with the team and listening to their ideas and concerns. Learning from people on the team helps me look at the bigger picture and gain perspective for effective decision-making,” says Ariel Tavor on leading a diversified team of experts.

Lions Financial SIRE Strategy By Ariel Tavor

Any business or organization that wishes to bring a revolution into the business world needs to have something unique that others don’t possess. What sets Lions Financial apart from its competitors is its Four-Step value-focused and closed-loop process called SIRE strategy. It includes various factors that comply with the client’s work culture. SIRE process entails the Survey, Insight, Recommendation, and Execution. The strategy has been tried and tested by Ariel Tavor for years and provides a diversified solution to niche problems. Let us understand how this works:

The Initial and most crucial stage of this strategy is gathering primary & secondary data through surveys and research to evaluate the business situation. The latter part is the ‘Insight’ stage that extracts data from the pool, identifying a unique blend of skills, business value, competency, threats, and weaknesses. The recommendation stage involves recommending two to three best solutions based on the problem evaluated and the insight gathered. And last but not least, executing the idea for achieving the desired outcome while addressing the hurdles and ensuring a better result for the client’s needs.

When asked about how Ariel manages to keep his team motivated and focused on the goals, he said, “The key to a successful project is communication. Great solutions are found when people are open to exchanging ideas and talking about them. The work system we use at our company is flexible, and we try to build on skills that are already embedded in the team.”

Golden Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

Ariel shares that every entrepreneur must carry a never-say-die attitude on their shoulders even while going through a challenge as he believes challenges are a crucial part of success. He also advises to keep learning from mistakes, and always has field specialists on board that will help you understand options for tackling different aspects of the business.