Just Run It!: Running an Exceptional Business is Easier Than You Think

by Dick Cross

Overview

The growth engine of the global economy is no longer through mega-production and huge conglomerates, but rather through the proliferation of smaller enterprises. In America alone, tens of thousands of businesses crop up each year. Unfortunately, few will succeed, though not due to a lack of ingenuity, initiative, or even capital. Why, then? Because, according to Dick Cross, author of Just Run It!, most business owners lack not just the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts of operating a business effectively day to day, but the bigger picture of how to achieve business success. After taking dozens of companies from underperforming to high performancing, Cross observed a pattern, out of which he devised a formula for success. Using his Just Run It! formula—which includes the Vision-Strategy-Execution analysis—he is now teaching business owners how to understand their business on "the back of an envelope" and make it exceptional.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937134006
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/30/2012
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dick Cross has worked with underperforming companies for over twenty-five years, helping mainstream businesses achieve their next level of success. Dick has been the Chairman, CEO, or President at eight of those companies, and has mentored more than 100 CEOs at others. Much of his career has been spent in private equity circles, including Fenway Partners, and he currently serves on the board of numerous corporate, philanthropic, and civic organizations.

On the lecture circuit, Dick is an enthusiastic, colorful, and engaging speaker, who greatly enjoys conveying the story behind every business. He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Science in Business from Columbia University. He and his wife split the year between Concord, Massachusetts, and Gloucester Point, Virginia. Dick is also the author of 60 Minute CEO: Mastering Leadership an Hour at a Time (Bibliomotion 2012).

Table of Contents

Introduction Your Timing Is Great xi

Chapter 1 The Challenge to Mainstream Businesses 1

Chapter 2 Your Business on the Back of an Envelope 7

Chapter 3 The Vision-Strategy-Execution Framework and How It Operates 17

Chapter 4 The Magic of Vision 25

Chapter 5 Converting Vision into Reality: Strategy and Execution 43

Chapter 6 The Theory of Renewal 67

Chapter 7 Building a Culture of Learning from One Another 75

Chapter 8 Demystifying Leadership and Management 87

Chapter 9 Inspired Operations 101

Chapter 10 Dollars and Cents 127

Chapter 11 Love and Business, and Other Important Things 145

Chapter 12 Being Listened to and Understood 167

Chapter 13 Special Considerations for New Appointees 177

Editorial Reviews

Business adviser Cross is a steadfast believer in the power of the American small business. Though half a million new businesses are founded each year, most fail because the founders lack the overarching knowledge of how to run a business. In response, Cross has developed a framework to structure the reader’s thinking about how to tackle this challenge. He takes readers through the four dimensions that describe all businesses (needs, positioning, customers, and competencies), his process of Vision-Strategy-Execution, a business’s natural life cycle, managing funds, and demystifying leadership and management, as well as offering scripts for discussions and negotiations, and tips for instituting values. The result is a dense but remarkably readable game plan for business success. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Cross shares lessons learned from his 25-plus years' experience transforming underperforming companies into industry powerhouses. Today's business environment has shifted from the post-World War II era focus on economies of scale in production and ready access to semiskilled labor, raw materials, and capital to new technologies and lower labor costs. Cross presents solid ideas on how to run smaller enterprises better suited to a 21st-century economy. (Roughly half a million new businesses start each year in the United States, and most wither and die outright because of a lack of knowledge of how to run a business, not owing to a dearth of dreams, ideas, or initiative.) His practical advice covers how to use simple analytical tools and business metrics to understand the business, how to align all the company's efforts through his "Vision-Strategy-Execution" structure, and how to review operations continually to take advantage of opportunities and changes in the environment. VERDICT Cross's relatively short guide focuses on pragmatic, realistic suggestions any entrepreneur or CEO can easily adapt to his or her own environment. Recommended for readers interested in starting or running a small business.—Dale Farris, Groves, TX

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