Mayor Ballard speaks on creating partnerships abroad
By Daniel Dick
Staff Writer
The University of Indianapolis hosted Mayor Greg Ballard on Oct. 23 in the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall as part of the “Live Indiana” guest lecture series. The speech was presented by the Center for Business Partnerships and the Student Business Leadership Academy.
The mayor spoke briefly about the lessons he learned on leadership during his 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. His experiences as the North American operational manager for Bayer in Indianapolis were also mentioned as factors in his style of leadership.
“I’ve been leading people since 1979,” Ballard said. “There are certain things I learned on the way that I call realities of leadership. Things I learned in peace time, I learned in war, I learned in business.”
The mayor detailed three of the rules from his book, “The Ballard Rules: Small Unit Leadership,” in which he states, “It’s up to the leader to make a good team.”
Ballard stressed the need for Indianapolis to grow into a global community. He hopes to triple the number of sister cities Indianapolis has by the time he leaves office.
“We are doing this with an economic strategy, to create partnerships with our industry clusters in hopes of increasing the economic and cultural exchanges,” he said.
The mayor went on to say that future visits to Mexico, Brazil, India, Poland, Vietnam, England, Japan and China are all in development.
Ballard also wishes to see a dramatic increase in the ethnic communities of Indianapolis, referencing the first Chinese festival and next year’s first African festival.
“If we don’t increase our international presence, if we are not known in China, in India, in Japan and all over Europe for more then just the Indianapolis 500, then I don’t think this city can be competitive in the future, Ballard said.”
