The president of Crawford & Associates and representatives from Amoco spoke to future leaders of the world Saturday afternoon in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Sally Crawford, Illinois’ Women Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. Magazine went from a one woman operation to a fifty employees corporation in a computer software training and consulting firm.

“The ability to take a stand and do what’s right, even if it isn’t popular, or convenient, or even tax deductible,” is Crawford’s definition of integrity, she said.

She said she believes great leaders can be developed, they don’t come from the mother’s womb.

Crawford emphasized three employees who had proved themselves as leaders. She said Seth Immell, Peggy Underdown and Shelley Volkert had willingness to do the job at entry level and made the most of an opportunity.

She said they no longer reach for an opportunity, they now create it.

Crawford said leadership comes from building teams, motivating others to work hard, never giving up, evaluating, learning, improving and coming up with solutions not problems.

She said a leader is someone who can run into a brick wall head first, fall, get up, brush themselves off and blame themselves for the mistake.

Bob Nelson and Jackie Ribich, representatives from Amoco talked about future leadership in the world.

Ribich, manager of computer technical evaluations, said humans tend to build architectural monuments of what is important in their lives.

Years ago the most important building in town was the church, now it is the Sears Tower, the place of business, she said.

Ribich said the business world needs a whole new breed of business leaders and must undergo “incredible unrelenting” change.

Ribich said the old way of conducting business is by box management which consists of analyzing, planning, tasks, output and control.

The new way of conducting business is by bulb management which consists of innovation, creativity and ideas, she said.

“This has everything to do with leadership,” Ribich said. She said the only place to find ideas and improve the corporation is in humans.

“The people who work for me are all leaders,” said Ribich. “They all have their own sphere of influence.”

If a person has personal influence he can find rewards regardless of his rank in society, she said.

“We help you in the web, part of the network,” Ribich said. The company is dependant on the workers and they help people become part of the network, she said.

“Start with leaders at the top and let them recognize things must change,” Nelson said, manager of planning and technology of information services.

People must “create and innovate to make visions come true,” Nelson said. “Teamwork is an important thing,” he said.