Why Grow?
Examine your philosophy. And soul.
It seems to be a given these days that “we should grow our business/organization.” But why?
I’ll suggest some good reasons, then some bad, and would love to hear your thoughts.
Good Reasons:
To have enough scale so you and your people can specialize. So you don’t have to do everything. Smart.
So you can do more good through your organization. Really good.
So you can be less alone in your work. Beautiful.
So you can (potentially) generate more profit. Good, if your motive isn’t one of those below. Profit allows more opportunity for you and others. Also good.
To employ more people in meaningful work. Wonderful.
Bad Reasons:
Hubris. Correlated with dissatisfaction with the good things you already have/the good person you already are. Be careful.
“Because to not grow means we are dying.” Not necessarily true: you can always grow qualitatively if you choose not to grow quantitatively. Serve better lattes. Fix cars faster.
Greed. To quote The Notorious B.I.G., “Mo money mo problems.” If you don’t know already, the world and its marketers are lying to you on this one. (I say that as one keenly aware of the challenges of making things work economically in a (housing) market like Vancouver.)
Because the cool kids are doing it. When was that ever a fruitful exercise?
What are your thoughts?