Rethinking growth
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“Growth does not equal prosperity.” —Chris Martenson (https://www.amazon.ca/Crash-Course-Unsustainable-Economy-Environment/dp/047092764X)
It’s time we reconsider our assumptions about business growth in today’s marketplace. Yes, large-sized enterprises still depend heavily on it for a bunch of reasons that I’m not going to bore you with.
But what about small- and medium-sized operations? Many of our assumptions about growth there are indistinguishable from those applied to much larger firms even though they have little else in common with them.
Traditionally we think of growth as both a matter of necessity and opportunity. In other words: Grow or die. Grow or you won’t be a fully realized company. Grow or else you will have to start making difficult choices in your firm.
Notice how this frames the issue as all-or-nothing?
A lot of that thinking is based on an outdated view of business. The barrier to entry for small-sized companies—once prohibitively high—has been flattened thanks to technology. Same goes for the rules that govern how you market yourself. As my friend (and client) Colleen Francis reminds: in today’s marketplace, you don’t find your customer, your customer finds you.
I’m not saying growth doesn’t matter at all. You still need to build your business to reach and exceed a minimum number of viable customers. What I am saying is that steady growth achieved at all costs is an illusion and unsustainable.
Even among the larger firms, very few (https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/why-its-still-a-world-of-grow-or-go) successfully maintain strong growth over time.
And what about those difficult choices? A good chunk of the ethically compromising (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election) decisions we are seeing these days in the marketplace come from that growth at all costs mindset.
Making difficult choices is an unavoidable reality in business. That’s why you need to have a healthy grasp on where growth fits in your organization.
Otherwise you lose the most important leverage you have: the ability to say no. You can opt-out of taking on clients whose values aren’t aligned with your own. You can say no to practices that otherwise could compromise your brand or your trust with customers.
We live in a marketplace now where you—as a small operation—can do very well for yourself by finding your minimally viable (https://seths.blog/2017/07/in-search-of-the-minimum-viable-audience/) audience and serving them well. Do that and you’ll build an operation that’s solid and resilient.
Very best, Patrick
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