Sadly, this is Wes’ last post; his heavy schedule and several new projects preclude him from continuing to write for Leadership Turn. Wes sends this message,  “Thank you all for visiting and reading my posts each Tuesday for the past several months.  I hope that you were challenged to think differently about leadership and business management.  My best wishes go to Miki and the entire B5 team.” I want to thank Wes for his insights on creating a leader-of-the-pack company; if they’ve proved useful to you please take a moment and say so. Finally, you can find more of Wes’ …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership Turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.
The government is changing its mind faster than a three year old.
No wonder the stock market is scared silly.
Let’s get this straight.
In an attempt to help more people gain “the American dream” of owning a home, the U.S.  It even went so far as to set up organizations to help resell …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.
They’re everywhere!  They’re everywhere!
The best opportunity in decades to create growth is being squandered.
Yep, it’s happened… just as it does every time there’s a fearsome economic downturn.  The cost-side micro-managers are back in force.
Forget about creating demand, because everyone knows that as soon as money gets tight people stop spending money.  Forget …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.
Are leaders and managers getting dumber or is it just who is assessing them?
Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership blog led me to a very interesting post by Ken Nowack concerning the discrepancies between self-perception of performance and external assessment for corporate executives. The point of the article was that, as managers move up …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.
Is there really a lending problem?  I know several people who doubt it.
One is a local car dealer.  He was almost dazed as he related a story to me about selling a used car to a woman who had a bankruptcy five years ago.  He sold her a nice car for $27,000.  …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. Wes can be reached at The Ball Group. See all his posts here.
How can we create successful leaders when we lie about what creates success?
A few days ago Miki, for whom I guest post here, sent me an email letting me know that Nina Simosko, Global Chief Operating Officer for the worldwide SAP Education organization, had referred to one of my Leadership …read more

It is the rare leader who leads beyond what is expected of him.Those who do are often labeled as unfit to lead and dismissed.
There are not that many examples of such rare leaders.  General MacArthur was certainly one.  He stood up to President Truman, who was quite happy to play at war in Korea without winning it, which cost many thousands of lives for no real gain.  Gen. MacArthur’s dismissal by the President was a terrible blow to his honorable record of service throughout World War II, an embarrassment to the Army he commanded, and the beginning of an approach …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership Turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.Diana Ross’s old hit song saying that the world just needs “love” may not be the answer, but there is indeed a universal need out there that would help us overcome our current economic dilemma.  What the world really needs now is a little honest leadership.  And I mean that literally.
The “con …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.Building future leaders takes creative nurturing, because leaders are both born AND made.  It’s up to us to do the “making” part.
There is a lot of failure on the track to leadership competence.  It’s doubtful any of the leaders I know could have gotten there, if they had not been nurtured through …read more

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.theballgroup.com.Why can’t every innovation be “disruptive?”  Why can’t more companies come up with disruptive innovations?  And why is it that many innovations that are disruptive only lay the groundwork for another  competitor to take control and become the leading innovator?
I believe the answer is in the focus we place upon innovation.
All useful …read more