Need Help with the ‘Job at the Top?’

Posted 12/10/2012

By Dick Cross

This year’s ASRW keynote speaker excited about opportunity to launch new AutoInc. column based on his best-selling book, “Just Run It.”

I’m Dick. The guy who was humbled to deliver the keynote speech at Automotive Service and Repair Week 2012 in New Orleans in October. And who loved it!

Why? Well, because of who was there.

And because when I ran CARSTAR I fell in love with our franchisees … the most admirable of models of free enterprise, capitalism and the American Dream I’d ever seen. As I grew to know more about the industry, my consciousness rose even higher about what you do … from fixing vehicles, which I did to help pay my own way through college, to helping people deal with challenges in their lives. And at this moment in our economy, that’s a real important responsibility.

So what I’m going to be writing about monthly through 2013 is how you fill that responsibility. And how you fill it well. Because it’s important. And because if you do, everything else you hope for from your business will follow.

The overarching belief behind my writing will be this: The single greatest determinant of business success is the “Job at the Top” … and nothing else even comes close.

What that means is in order for your business to play the magnificent role you hope for in your own life, and in the lives of your family, your employees, your customers, your suppliers and your community ... your Job at the Top needs to be done well. Very well.

But there’s a problem. It’s that most of us do a lousy job in that role. Not because we don’t care, or aren’t capable. It’s simply because so few people talk about what it means to do a magnificent job at the top of a company.

Sure we give lip service to some of the attributes of that job, which now’s gotten tiresome … like leadership and management. And we study to death the details of everything that goes on below it. But no one talks explicitly about the whole of that job. What ought to be going on there. And not. And how to do it well. Very well.

That’s what my next 12 months of articles are going to be about. Specific advice you can start using moments after you read it – to make you better as the determining factor in your business. Because you have to be.

Looking back at our experiences in New Orleans, there just couldn’t be a better time for us to be talking about this.

• The last three years have been the worst in memory for many shops. The good side? We’re now open to moving away from old ways and setting new underpinnings for the future.
• We’ve pretty much gotten over blaming other people for our circumstances. And are ready to look at ourselves for the solutions.
• New models for competition are arising. With others yet to be discovered.

As a result, this year in New Orleans felt different to me from my ASRW conventions of the recent past. It wasn’t angry, despondent or confused. It was serious and determined. Not covering up in the corner, but moving to the center of the ring to carry the fight.

So to me, 2013 looks like a watershed year for automotive service business owners. A year in which shops will get back on the balls of their feet and begin the transition into a new kind of industry. With a wealth of new opportunities for those who are thoughtful and courageous about capitalizing on them.

And that’s what I’ll be writing to help you do. To be a magnificent CEO. To transform your business into something that, perhaps, lies even beyond anything you’ve imagined before. From your position in the Job at the Top. And doing it well. Very well.

Dick Cross is a business adviser and the best-selling author of “Just Run It.”