An instrumental leader with a vigorous personality, Ron Cruse, the Founder, and CEO of Logenix International. He is a front-runner with impeccable foresight for every major world crisis over the past thirty years. In his long-standing career, he has founded companies and spearheaded leading roles with passion, purpose, and persistence. His journey is challenging yet exceptional in many ways.
Early Days
Ron attended Villanova University graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Then, he went to New York City where his career began with an international freight company. He was soon promoted and transferred to Los Angles to run the companies two largest client projects in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
This is when his real business education began, which had him travel almost three million miles to over 85 countries around the world while founding two separate one hundred-million-dollar companies. The first, Matrix International, he sold in the late 1990s, and the other, Logenix International, he still runs today.
Additionally, his journey and business adventures led him to author a book, Lies, Bribes & Peril, which details his global adventures and the simple yet profound cultural lessons he has learned that have been essential for his success.
An Overview of Matrix
Matrix became a leader in logistics across the developing world and then rocketed to success from Ron’s entry into the republics that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union. From the new company operations that emerged, among the very first Russian American Joint Ventures, he became immersed in every major program in that part of the world—the largest humanitarian operation since WWII which included operating the largest unscheduled airline in the region, delivery of weapons dismantlement equipment according to the START II treaty, modernization of the Chernobyl type reactors, and the rapidly burgeoning oil, gas, and mining businesses.
Within six years his company grew from $25 million in sales to almost $100 million, attaining the INC 500 in 1991. In late 1996, Matrix and the six offices Ron had built across the Commonwealth of Independent States were sold for over $40 million in cash and consideration. Then, in 1998, he retired from the company.
Ron’s Brainchild- Logenix
Moving ahead, in 2001, after the 9-11 attacks, sensing the world had changed immeasurably with new, fresh opportunities on the horizon, Ron hired back the best and brightest from his first company and founded Logenix.
Again starting from scratch, he immediately became immersed in operating logistics to and throughout Afghanistan and Iraq. Logenix was a critical cog in delivering medical clinics, medicines to hospitals, and building-sized components for water and power plants across both countries.
Without question, it was the most dangerous work his companies have ever undertaken. Concurrently, Logenix continued its pioneering work across the developing world and became heavily involved in the management and delivery of life-saving medical supplies. Today, Logenix has grown to operate 19 offices across 10 countries and transports more public health medicines and medical equipment across the developing world than any other company in its industry. In 2022, the combined Logenix companies achieved revenues of $120 million. Logenix has attained the INC 5000 three times and Ron believes it will again grab a title in the following category in 2023.
About Logenix International
Founded in 2001, Logenix is a specialist in operating complex supply chains for the most challenging countries and regions of the world. It provides specialized transportation services to and throughout over 140 developing countries from over 35 origins on five continents. It has assisted to bring medicines, electricity, clean water, and agricultural products to hundreds of millions across the developing world—including the most strife-ridden countries like South Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
A Moment of Realization became the Reason for Foundation
The ‘a-ha’ moment was profiled in Forbes Magazine in October of 2012. Immediately after the attacks of 9-11 in 2001, Ron realized that the specific skills and experience he had gained around the world would be in high demand in the new global market order that would arise in the aftermath of the attacks. Hence, he established his brainchild-Logenix and laid its robust foundation.
The Art of Keeping Going and Growing
As a business leader, Ron has been pursuing his passions for thirty-five years and hence he feels that he has not worked a day in his life. He loves and embraces the process of watching the business world evolve, and then adapting his company to continue to be an important industry leader and provider.
Upskilling and Thriving in the Times of Pandemic
Ron states, “The primary skill, focus really, to lead an organization today I believe revolves around health prioritization for all employees. Tremendous changes were required to adapt and succeed during the pandemic and those adaptations continue today.”
As Logenix manages broad supply chains of life-saving medicines across the globe, it is a first responder. It quickly found out that it was unable to maintain the excellence required by working remotely. Because it operates such broad, up-to-the-minute intelligence gathering regarding well over one hundred countries, and all the transport means to and throughout those countries, it found it could not keep its operations staff properly informed.
Country by country, with the US being first, it brought its staff back into the offices. Putting the health of all staff as the primary and overriding concern, it budgeted tens of thousands of dollars for testing. It partitioned the offices and strictly followed suggested health recommendations for gathering. To keep all staff ‘circle of contact’ as contained as possible, it brought lunch in daily at company expense. Those staff that did contract Covid, were supported with whatever length of time necessary to gain full health.
Once vaccinations were available, all staff were encouraged to vaccinate and time off was afforded to each staff member to schedule and even to recover from any effects of the vaccine. As the world has now completely reopened, Logenix continues to practice the skills and health guidelines that it so critically implemented at the outset of the pandemic.
Ron believes prioritizing the health of its staff and the new skills required to do so, were directly responsible for the success it achieved during the pandemic—doubling its size from early 2020 through 2022. It will continue to prioritize the health and safety of its staff in the coming years and make whatever adaptions are necessary to do so.
Holistic Offerings for a Productive Work Culture
Logenix’s staff are given great levels of responsibility that match their training and experience. The employees are expected to be top-notch problem solvers, encouraged to be collaborative, and to seek input as regards the key decisions they make daily.
The age-old axiom, ‘two heads are better than one’, is an important part of the culture. In addition to the responsibility bestowed upon its staff, they are also given the authority to implement those decisions. As the company deals with countries all over the world, and there is no substitution for seeing and experiencing, it spends hundreds of thousands on global travel for staff annually. Lastly, it provides its staff with state-of-the-art technology resources to help them execute their taskings. All of these aspects combine to help its employees to be the most productive in their industry.
All About Ron’s Book
In 2008, Ron first published, Lies, Bribes, and Peril and in 2021 the book was updated and expanded with further exploits and insights regarding the simple cultural lessons he has learned and implemented in his career. The book relates how he learned and came to implement these lessons, so essential to his success, in the often bizarre, often funny and often dangerous situations he encountered. He believes these lessons can help anyone achieve international success, no matter their endeavour. The book has been used by over a dozen universities, both in undergraduate and graduate programs, and has received excellent reviews.
Tackle Challenges by Staying abreast of all Advancements
Ron shares how he copes with difficult times and rises above all odds.
“I’ve found I have to be constantly evolving with the marketplace and making sure the company evolves ahead of the market. This requires thought leadership which entails keeping in touch with our client base, with the extensive and changing global logistics infrastructure, and how to best implement that infrastructure for our clients. Simultaneous to these efforts, I have to stay in touch with our staff, and their needs and ensure the company continues to
offer satisfying and rewarding careers to both current staff and our ever-expanding workforce.”
A Promising Future
Ron’s philosophy for the past forty years has been to be watchful for opportunities to grow and expand. He has found opportunities can come unexpectedly, like with both the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9-11 attacks. Being always prepared to adapt and embrace the opportunities that arise has worked tremendously well for him and his companies. His expectations are there will be new opportunities to embrace and they will result in revenue growth of at least fifty percent over the next five years.
A Quote, A Learning, and A Success Mantra
Ron talks about his favorite quote that he integrates into his life and has been a major contributor to his professional and personal success.
“There is a quote attributed to Aristotle that I believe is profound. I believe the quote is critical to the culture of my company and is equally important to individual success. That quote is, “We are what we continually do, therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit”. This quote is posted throughout Logenix offices.”
