Why Are We Overly Focused on Growth?
I’d like to have an honest conversation about why growth is the “uber factor” that enterprises have become so fixated upon. Yes, there’s profit. Yes, there’s cash. But the razzle dazzle metric boils down to the “G word.” Why?
California is doing lots of handwringing right now about slower growth, “pondering” it like it’s something to navel gaze about. Meanwhile, census data seems to point to winners and losers. I could wax on about that map and what it means — a picture’s worth a thousand words — but the article points to who’s winning and losing politically based yet again on growth.
I don’t think the natural order of things is continuous growth. Look at any garden — when left unmaintained and allowed to grow unbridled, it’ll look like a mess in no time. What would happen if people never stopped growing? A terrible thought, right? And if our heartbeat went up and up and up without a natural ebb and flow, it too would be out of whack.
Why must our businesses be put through this constant tension? Why is bigger better when it comes to an enterprise? I don’t get it.
The other day I read a line that really struck a chord with me. How can it be a good thing to be overly fixated on growth on a planet with limited resources? That’s especially important given that equal access to good water is a pipedream in many parts of the world. Drought is creating problems right now with access to quality food. We can’t sustain growth for the sake of growth, and to do so feels unnatural to me.
When I read that line about a planet with fixed resources butting up against a business model focused on growth, it hit home. For years, I’ve wondered why a company can’t choose to be $5 million or $25 million or $100 million or even the size of Amazon or Apple and decide to stay that way. Fixed resources, fixed investment, job rotations so that employees can grow and learn, but we don’t have to always grow, grow, grow. New campuses, more desks, more space, more, more, more. It doesn’t work. It can’t work because constant growth isn’t the natural order of things in Mother Nature’s way.
I know it’s about the money men and women and Wall Street. Maybe it’s built on something else. IDK. What I do know is that growth for the sake of growth doesn’t feel right to me, and I think if we chase it, we’ll create what we fear and shrink instead.
What if we just decided to keep things kind of as they are but refreshed and evolved and worked in a healthier way? Would the private equity guys put up with us? They say you either have to have growth or great cash and profits — be a money machine. I guess I can accept that, but what I see in a world where double-digit growth is the aspiration is a planet that is running out of steam and can’t take it anymore. We can’t keep shipping more and more, boxing up more and more, polluting more and more, all under the auspices of growth.
Let’s set a new goal for the size of our businesses and then love that goal to death and manage to it. It’s an interesting challenge. I, for one, am going to give it serious thought. Why is more always more? Must it be? Can we pick another model? Let’s give it a try.