The growth engine of the global economy is no longer through mega-production and huge conglomerates, but rather through the proliferation of smaller enterprises. These smaller businesses often struggle. 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 so few of the would-be drivers of the new economy know how to convert their dreams, their ideas, their courage, and their initiatives into successful enterprises. According to Dick Cross, author of Just Run It!: Running an Exceptional Business Is Easier Than You Think , most business owners lack not just the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts of operating a business effectively day in and day out, but the bigger picture of how to achieve business success. This shortcoming is pervasive: it handicaps most new businesses from the start and it prevents the lion's share of existing ones from ever becoming significant. After taking dozens of mainstream companies from underperforming to high performance, Cross observed a pattern, out of which he devised a formula for success. Using his Just Run It! framework, he is now teaching small and medium-sized enterprises how to understand their mainstream businesses on "the back of an envelope" and to achieve the next level of success. The book showcases a Vision-Strategy-Execution exercise to help business owners crystallize their primary business advantage and then focus efforts to maximize performance around it. Financial reporting, management and leadership, teamwork, communicationsall skills needed to run a "one business" business are covered in detail. In closing, Cross makes the case that for "those who can't adjust their thinking to new realities, the decline in America's global standing as an industrial power is a death knell. For those who can, it's the reveille of opportunity." "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 a remarkably readable game plan for business success." (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. 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." (Library Journal) "Take a very bright architect who is trained to know how things 'fit.' Put him in positions of leadership where he invests the front half of his career as a consultant to CEO's and the back half actually being the CEO and what do you get? One incredibly believable person. Read Just Run It! because it will benefit every company leader and provide personal gifts for a lifetime. " (John C. Adams, Retired Chairman and CEO, AutoZone Inc.) "Save your time and money on consultants. Everything that Dick Cross shares with us comes from one of those rare generous birds who has taken the theoretical and applied it to real time practice of running a company. Just Run It! is a must-read for anyone in management who is searching for strategic enlightenment." (Mike Toth, Founder and Chief Creative Director, Toth & Co) "Dick Cross's capacity to distill outwardly complicated concepts into comprehensible, value creating action steps is rare. Read the book—you'll learn something and be entertained." (Peter Lamm, Fenway Partners) "Having owned, operated, and invested in many businesses over the years I can say that Just Run It! goes right to the core of running successful companies—outlining and explaining core platforms succinctly and with emphasis o