What happens when the aggressive growth strategy is not sustainable?

Let us a look at the following 10X high performance organizations(highlighted in bold)vs their competitors who were outclassed in the long run

1. Stryker vs USSC
2. Southwest Airlines vs PSA
3. Progressive Insurance vs Safeco
4. Intel vs AMD
5. Amgen vs Genetech

Be it AMD , USSC or the other players one common link which made all these companies go out of market was their lack of discipline when it came to framing their growth strategies.When the ride was smooth they aimed for non sustainable levels of growth which eventually led to their downfall when the environment started getting unfavorable for e.g. recession , slowdown etc.

The disciplined “20 Mile March” approach during thick and thin not only enabled the 10X companies survive but be profitable as well during the hard times.For e.g. immediately after 9/11 in 2001 all airline companies reported huge losses barring SWA which reported profits in 2002 as well.

Truly “Fanatic Discipline” when ingrained in the mannerism of an organization and the “20 Mile March” approach works consistently year on year nothing can stop the company from leaving behind a legacy.

Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”.