Why Everything You Think You Know About Business Growth Is Wrong
STANFORD, Calif. — Bigger is better. All businesses must either “grow or die.” If you’re a small business owner, you might have been nodding along as you read those business maxims, agreeing wholeheartedly. After all, it’s what you’ve always heard. And in fact, these popular business axioms are routinely lauded on Wall Street, at business schools, and by some of the most well-respected business consultants of the day. Few question their validity. But according to Ed Hess, professor of business administration and Batten Executive-in-Residence at the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia., these “truths” are anything but.
“At best those beliefs are half-truths and at worst they’re pure fiction,” said Hess, author of the new book Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses published by Stanford University Press. “Growth can be good and growth can be bad. Bigger can be good and bigger can be bad.