Leadership? Brilliance? Here are a few ideas

Once again, there were no trade magazine editors on Fortune’s list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders.



Disappointing, but not surprising.



Here’s the surprising stat: Fortune’s list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders included more basketball players — Yao Ming and Lebron James — than home improvement and building supply retailers.



In fact, the closest thing to home improvement on the list was Jeff Bezos, who came in 27th on the list, 21 places behind Taylor Swift.



Following this distasteful discovery, I picked up a recent copy of Entrepreneur magazine’s “100 Brilliant Companies” issue. An objective reader would think at least 20 of the Entrepreneur companies would be connected in some way to home improvement.



An objective reader would be wrong.



Of the magazine’s list — described as “Extraordinary people, extraordinary ideas” — only two hit home: Houzz, the online marketplace and design-idea incubator; and SmartGrill by Lynx, makers of a smartphone-controlled and voice-activated grill. Congratulations to them.



But in terms of home relevance, the next closest company is the maker of Walleries, a soon-to-be-released app designed to help the homeowner plan where to hang their pictures on the wall. In other words, a solution in search of a problem.



Both lists (counting Bezos, and not counting Walleries) limited home improvement representation to exactly 2%, a figure I propose is far, far too low, given the importance of housing and the DIY industry’s creativity.



The tip of that creativity’s iceberg can be found at HBSDealer’s New Products area. Just look at the recent posts: a DEET-free bug spray; an upside-down, easy-to-install toilet bolt; a custom-fabricated rake board; a Star Trek-like color-matching system sold on a subscription basis; and a retail lawn-and-garden irrigation system that’s going to save millions of gallons of water at Walmart alone.



Here are products that solve real problems.



And for leadership and entrepreneurial talent, consider our Hardware All Stars. These are entrepreneurs who are not only going head to head against the most powerful national chains; they’re increasingly going head to head with Amazon. And through sheer brilliance, they’re thriving. More leadership is on full display in our People of the Year issue in our online archive. These people continue to push the industry forward. Our next list will appear in December.



If you know an All Star, or believe in the brilliance of a product, or respect an industry leader, send us your input.



And thanks for reading.