When Scott Weber, senior consultant and managing director with Spader Business Management, is contacted by a struggling dealership he focuses on properly diagnosing the situation before prescribing a solution. “It’s called our 3-D process and the first step is discovery.”

“In 2001, we purchased 6 locations from 4 owner groups in Utah and Idaho over the course of 4 months (Mistake #1). To manage the new stores we hired people from outside the company (Mistake #2). Viewing travel as an expense, we limited the travel between the old stores and the new stores (Mistake #3).

“When asked to share a mistake I’ve made with other dealers, I was challenged to find a lesson learned that was instructive.

Great leaders build teams that turn threats into opportunities. Staying in the eye of the storm is not done alone, it is a team phenomenon.

I’m a life-long Red Sox fan who can’t manage to hate a great Yankee, Derek Jeter. My admiration was sealed during one play in the 2001 playoffs against the moneyball Oakland A’s. With the game tied, a runner on second and the series on the line, the A’s slashed a base hit to right field. As the runner rounded third, the Yankee right fielder scooped the ball and made a weak, off-line throw to the plate. Seemingly out of nowhere, Jeter appeared on the first base line, intercepted the dying throw and, as if snap-turning a double play, shovel-flipped it to the Yankee catcher just in time to tag the runner out. I’d never seen a shortstop do that before or since. It has become his signature play known as “The Iconic Flip.”

Jenner Ag has always practiced open book management — sharing the company financials with the management team. But in 2011, Steve Jones, president of the Case IH dealership, decided to take it one step further and started playing the Great Game of Business after meeting Jack Stack, founder of the game and founder, president and CEO of SRC Holdings Corp., at a business leaders’ meeting in town.