Edward Hess talks to Business Insider about Smart Growth
In an interview with Business Insider (see below), Edward Hess, author of Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing Risks, challenges Wall Street’s accepted wisdom about growth.
Hess argues that growth is not always good; bigger is not always better; companies don’t need to grow to survive; and that there is more to a successful business than good quarterly earnings. The emphasis on growth has led companies to led to short-term strategies that are not always in a company’s long-term interests, such as deferring investments to make quarterly goals.
Hess also cited the example of Toyota as a case in which the emphasis on growth ended up hurting the company, by shifting its focus from being the best to the biggest, they created risk they could not manage.
Here’s the video of his interview:
