As recently as 2018, few respectable people would have considered embarking on a career as a henchman.
“One always thought of a henchman as someone engaged in wrongdoing,” says Lauran Swandell, CEO of Shotburn Financial in Bismarck, SD. “Someone who reported to a questionable higher-up, carried a gun, maybe occasionally used it.
Things have changed, she says, and today Shotburn employs 17 henchpersons – including four women – who she believes have contributed significantly to the company’s bottom line: Profits have grown by an average of 11.6 percent the past three years
“A henchperson will report to an executive and help ensure things the executive wants to happen happen,” she says, citing this example: The assistant comptroller – who has three henchpersons on his staff – was meeting resistance from the accounts payable division on revising their practicality procedures.
“Just one visit from just one henchperson,” she says, “and the very next day the policies were revised.”
“Since I was 14 I dreamed about becoming a logistics specialist,” says Deanna Walford, who joined Shotburn as a henchperson in 2024 after trying to land a logistics position for two years. “Now I have the best of all worlds. A little logistics, a little operations, a little finance, a little other stuff”
“The henchman of yesterday is really not that different that the henchperson of today,” says Swandell. “It’s always been about persuasion.”
