How We Measure Growth

May 5, 2025

Good morning!

May Day!  The Feast of Mothers!  Spitunias on the Patio!  Apple blossoms!  Star Wars!  Fishing!  Pollen!  Rhubarb!  The Met Gala!  Take your pick.

Or, how about the Fifth of May and a burrito or two?!

Is there a time of year when there is more choices?  Wow!

And down the stretch they came!

The total purse was $5 million… Does this seem relatively small given other events of this magnitude?

According to the new Starbucks boss, you can now get your coffee two minutes faster than a few weeks ago — thanks to technology — and the new boss, of course.

• How many human-made satellites orbit the earth?
  • If you were to have asked me, I’m not sure what I would have guessed, but it would have been nowhere near the 7,000+ functioning up there.
  • Almost all of them have been launched and deployed in the last five years; Amazon is among the big players.
  • Who would’ve thunk?!  From a bookseller!
• If you wanted to study the slow but sure steady statistical slide of something, look no further than the Minnesota Twins professional baseball team.
  • If this were a business (wait…), and you were the owner of it, you might be starting to get concerned.
  • From an average April daily attendance of ~38,000 fifteen years ago, the fans-in-the-stands have steadily declined to ~17,000 this April (April comparisons only).
  • Do the math; is this sustainable?  Do you care?  (MLB Baseball Reference, 2025)
• The average age at which mothers are giving birth in the United States has increased by two years over the last 20 years — from about 27.5 years of age to about 29.5.
  • Overall it’s an additional two years older here in Minnesota.  (Source CDC)
  • Note:  This is not a reference to the oldest or youngest child or number of children, just the age of the Mom at which all births occur on average.
• As you might have observed over the years, the tag line for my business is:  Bigger, Better, Stronger, Healthier, Happier.
  • It’s an attempt at summarizing both our brand and our deliverables — and more importantly, the results you desire.
  • But, as the author suggests, does everything always have to get bigger?
  • Conventional wisdom has said yes, but maybe not?
  • Read and reflect further:
    • “Questioning the idea that businesses must continually grow can expose new paths to resilience and sustainability.”  (Hoffman, 2025)
    • “… perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor environmentally sustainable…”.  (Stanford Business Books)
    • The rub is that business education is predicated on a belief that the economy can and must continue to grow —
    • a belief that manifests in corporate strategy as an imperative that companies, too, must continually grow or risk becoming irrelevant.
    • “We are addicted to the myth of perpetual economic growth… and it is killing us…”  (Farrell, WSJ)
• Different Kinds of Growth
  • Slow growth:  is the optimal response to massive economic success — and the result of personal choices of individual consumers. (Vollrath, Univ Chicago)
    • The reallocation of economic activity away from goods and into services comes down to our success… we are so productive at making goods, this has freed-up our money to spend on services.
    • Ring a bell, anyone?
  • Green growth and decoupling
    • Growing the economy while decoupling its impact on the environment… We innovate products that are less resource-intensive and coupled with behaviour change.
    • Use less energy and generate less waste…
    • … we can enjoy a different form of growth and prosperity while reducing carbon emissions and our consumption of natural resources.
    • This will result in efficient, livable cities; low-carbon, smart and resilient infrastructure, and the restoration of degraded lands and at-risk forests.
    • We can have growth that is strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive.  (Stiglitz)
  • Post-growth
    • Green growth is misguided, unrealistic, and not sustainable…
    • A significant increase in energy demand will make decarbonizing the economy impossible.
    • They argue (post-growth advocates) there should be absolute decoupling, wherein the environmental damage decreases regardless of economic growth…
    • …and many post-growth advocates resist the idea of gambling on dramatic technological change to drive absolute decoupling because so many…
    • technological advancements in the past have resulted in profoundly negative, unintended consequences.
    • i.e., endless growth is not possible on a planet with finite resources.
    • … societies can attain a truer prosperity that consists in our ability to participate in the life of society, in our sense of shared meaning and purpose, and in our capacity to dream.  (Jackson)
  • De-growth
    • “The faster we produce and consume goods, the more we damage the environment…
    • … there is no way to both have your cake and eat it, too…
    • … if humanity is not to destroy the planet’s life support systems, the global economy should slow down.”
    • The goal is to make the economy work for people, not people working for the economy.  (Chomsky, Etc., et al.)
  • Summary
    • How we measure growth in both our businesses and in our economy is directly related to the strategy we pursue and the success we will achieve.
    • In today’s market, we default to one type of growth:  More.
    • But, without questioning the growth imperative we will pursue goals that may not be in our long-term interests.
    • With an understanding of both a more nuanced conception of growth and the costs of unrestrained growth, we can begin to fashion a strategy that serves
    • our stakeholders and our purpose without mortgaging the future.  (Hoffman, U of Michigan)
• Every $1 invested in expanding mental health interventions could generate an economic return of ~$5 in global GDP growth.  (Herbig, Etc., et al., McKinsey)
  • Despite contributing to a substantial 290 million disability-adjusted life years of the global disease burden,
  • mental health conditions only receive two percent of domestic government healthcare funding globally,
  • resulting in an annual funding gap of up to ~$350 billion.  (Ibid.)
  • Over half of… the burden of mental health conditions is attributed to individuals aged younger than forty.  (Ibid.)