Marketing 0

The Sustainable Growth Imperative
Businesses have discovered in recent years that new pockets of
growth were harder to find. Unserved markets with buying power
have become rare. Even the best-run companies have struggled to
create and sustain organic growth through both market expansion
and new product introduction. And it will remain a formidable
challenge. Economists have predicted that global economic growth
will continue to slow down in the next decade.
Common hurdles such as market saturation, the proliferation of new
entrants, weakened buying power, and overly complicated
operations might have contributed to the near-stagnancy.
Nevertheless, it was perhaps a reminder that corporations would
soon reach the limits of growth, not only from an ecological but also

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a societal point of view. The environment has a limited carrying
capacity, and so does the market.
Businesses used to think that if they reinvested some of their profits
for the development of society, they did it at the expense of faster
growth. Companies must realize that the opposite is true. In doing
business, negative externalities must be taken into account. Decades
of aggressive growth strategies have left the environment degraded

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and society unequal. Companies cannot thrive in a failing and
declining society.
If the emphasis is solely on growth—not development—businesses
will quickly hit the limit. With prosperity polarization looming large,
the market—especially the bottom half—will be bound to fail in
absorbing more ambitious growth initiatives. Successful companies
are the ones with large enough power to undo the damage. Hence for
businesses to be sustainable, growth plans must include a key
element of societal development.
From the future growth point of view, the social activism that
companies conduct will prove a good investment. When billions of
underserved people are out of poverty, become more educated, and
earn a better income, the markets around the world substantially
grow. The previously untapped segments become new sources of
growth. Moreover, in a more stable society and a sustainable
environment, the costs and risks of doing business are much lower.