This article was first published in Harvard Business Review and is available via subscription.
Growth tends to slow as companies mature. But some organizations have defied the trend, achieving breakout growth—increasing sales at least twice as fast as peers for five years—and then sustaining above-industry growth for five more years. How did they accomplish this feat?
The analysis of BCG’s Ulrich Pidun, Valentín Szekasy, and Adam Job shows that these companies typically used four strategies: scaling up to expand market share, shifting their business mix toward fast-growing pockets, changing how they sell to customers, and creating new offerings. The authors examine when each approach worked, highlight how a crisis often spurs action, and recommend steps for getting started—because while igniting growth is hard, it’s not impossible.