Escaping the Growth Curse

Introduction

Escaping the Growth Curse

Over the past four decades, the growth curse has become a pervasive problem for the companies ensnared by it, the people whose lives are made miserable by it, and the societies that ultimately suffer as a result of it. So, what is the curse at the heart of this book?

In short, as companies mature, their underlying growth naturally slows. Yet investors have come to expect continual strong growth. To meet these demands, chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior executives buckle under pressure and focus on delivering short-term financial results—or the “illusion of growth.” But this type of growth comes at a devastating cost. It’s a distraction from developing genuine value-creating strategies. It weakens ...