From my experience there seems to be a disproportionate focus on business growth.

This can be growth in the number of staff, number of customers, subscribers, international expansion, etc.

Growth quickly becomes the key measure of success overshadowing all else and it not only becomes the “end” but also the “means to the end”.

Often leaders who fixate on growth will drive towards this goal hard, stretching resources and systems to breaking point and sometimes beyond.

My contention is the focus for the business should be on business improvement not business growth.

Improvement becomes the “means” towards growth as the “end”.

Improve your business strategy and models, your staff, yourself, your customer service, your products and services, your marketing and sales enablement, your systems, your overall business quality etc, and if you do it right growth will come.

In this way when growth does come you now have a business that can continue to scale up while still delivering a guaranteed level of quality and service instead of a large business that is delivering chaos and uncertainty to its own staff and its customers.

Cover photo by Helloquence on Unsplash.