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

by Dick Cross

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 performing, Cross observed a pattern, out of which he devised a formula for success. Using his Just Run It! formula he is now teaching business owners how to understand their business on “the back of an envelope” and make it exceptional.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 3, 2012

About the author

Dick Cross has worked with underperforming companies for more than 25 years, helping mainstream businesses get “unstuck” to 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.

Early in his career, Dick worked with the management consulting firm The Cambridge Research Institute (CRI), and later joined the Berwick Group, a start-up, Boston-based general management consulting firm focusing on strategic planning. The focus of his work there was diagnosing and addressing companies’ shortfalls in strategic and financial business performance. The beginnings of his Just Run It! framework began to take shape.

At Fenway Partners, Dick continued to perfect his craft. The prospectus for Fenway was to acquire and fix under-performing businesses. Since that time, Dick has gone on to run eight companies and to help dozens more turn around. Most recently, as Chairman and CEO of CARSTAR, a business that he steered from insolvency to a hugely successful recapitalization valued at ten times earning, Dick once again proved the success of his Just Run It! approach. During that time he also served as a Chairman or Director of a number of other business and philanthropic organizations.

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.

Though this book and his Just Run It! Summits, Dick’s goal is to spread the word that running your business is easier than you think.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This serial turnaround ceo presents his hard won business insights and comprehensive framework for running a small business.

I got a lot out of it once I slowed down and read it like a textbook. Lessons on developing a shared strategic vision for your business to how to conduct yourself as a servant-leader.

[Mark McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too deep in the weeds for me.

[Tim Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on running a business