Managing growth is a critical — but tricky — issue for any business. Several recent studies show that only one in ten companies succeeds at sustaining growth for 10 years or more. The Innovator's Solution, a new book by a Harvard professor and a Deloitte consultant, attempts to explain why the failure rate is so high — and what executives can do about it. In this article, we review some of their insights and draw some implications for information professionals.

New insights on an old problem
The concept of a corporate growth cycle (i.e. birth, expansion, maturity, renewal) is not new. In 1993 we reviewed a book by James Moore (see "The ecology of competition"), who showed that each stage has its own competitive and cooperative challenges, similar to those in a biological ecosystem.

The Innovator's Solution takes the analysis further by drawing a distinction between sustaining and disruptive innovations and analyzing the factors that cause them to succeed or fail. The book ranks 329 on Amazon.com and was selected as one of the top business books of 2003 by Strategy + Business magazine.

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