?? The Creativ Brief: Business Scale vs. Growth

Growth and scale are not the same. Yet, these terms are thrown about LinkedIn and business boardrooms more often than an MBAer telling you he went to Harvard.

Business scaling refers to the practice of increasing revenue faster than costs.?

Business growth refers to increasing the absolute revenues irrespective of cost.?

Let’s use an example. A firm makes $100 dollars in revenue, with their human, material, and operational costs to produce a product at $50, the firm makes a profit of $50 at a 50% profit margin.?

The growth scenario: The firm doubles (2x) revenues, with $200 dollars in gross revenue, with the cost of goods sold at $100, resulting in a profit of $100 at a 50% profit margin.?

In the above example, the business’s absolute value of their profits increased but the firm did not achieve any efficiencies. For every dollar of growth, the firm still outplays $.50 in costs. As a firm grows, their profit margin remains fixed, even though their absolute value of their revenues and profits increase.?

The scale scenario: The firm doubles (2x) revenue, with $200 dollars in gross revenue, but the cost of goods sold remains at $50, resulting in a profit of $150 at a 75% profit margin.?

In the second scenario, for every dollar the firm makes, it realizes $.33 in costs. With scale, as a firm grows, their profit margin improves, making the firm 25% more efficient at generating profits, from a 50% profit margin to a 75% profit margin.?

Therefore, one can think about business scale in terms of operational efficiency while growth constitutes the absolute revenue size. The goal is ultimately both, increasing revenues while realizing operational efficiencies by implementing scalable cost saving measures.?

That is what entrepreneurs set out to achieve - create a scalable business that becomes more efficient as it grows.?

3 Stories Dominating Media and Tech Headlines

Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery have canceled plans to launch their sports streaming service, Venu, citing an evolving marketplace and a strategic shift toward existing products and distribution channels.

The decision follows legal challenges from Fubo, which alleged anticompetitive practices, and broader concerns about the legal and economic viability of cable bundling, prompting Disney to merge its Hulu+ Live TV with Fubo and reassess its strategy.

Why it matters: Media companies are adapting to changing consumer behaviors, legal scrutiny, and the growing demand for more flexible, cost-effective content offerings.

CEOs are getting a long leash on speech. While CEO’s of old would use their voices and authority with restraint, a recent trend of Fortune 500 CEOs shows little of it. Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan, Elon Musk on Twitter, and other big company CEO’s ‘feel liberated’ to voice their unvarnished takes with little blowback.?

Why it matters: This could signal a shift in how executive communications are done to raise awareness and appeal to audiences that prefer authentic albeit extreme takes. In the past CEO rhetoric has been muted and scripted. New formats like podcasts offer a different approach for those leaders looking to grab headlines.?

The largest stock media companies, Getty and Shutterstock, have announced a planned merger with the combined companies valued at $3.7 billion dollars. The combined company will be known at Getty and continue to be led with Getty CEO, Craig Peters. The company claims between $150 to $200 million in cost efficiencies.?

Why it matters:? Stock imagery, the business where third party publisher and cites license images for use, has been in structural decline since Google images had made imagery widely available on the internet. The rise of AI generated imagery further exacerbates the trend. This is a defensive merger to give image licensing companies market power to use their library for training data and other market moves.?

Creativ Spotlight - SpecialGuestX Bedtime AI Storymaker at UX Design Awards

Besttime AI Storymaker is a uniquely designed wooden toy that combines the powers of ChatGPT and ElevenLabs, offering families a way to create personalized bedtime stories. Equipped with NFC sensors and AI-driven storytelling capabilities, this toy lets users collaborate live, changing characters, settings, and storylines on the spot to produce endless narrative possibilities.?

The experimental product, produced by Tech lab SpecialGuestX, is among 5 finalists for the UX Design awards in their category. Vote for the project here!

Stat of the Week - Where Brands Should Show Up?

U.S. consumers aged 18-55 prefer brands to engage with internet memes and social media trends (41%) or partner with celebrities and influencers (37%), showing a clear preference for digital and cultural relevance.

Other popular approaches include sponsorships at festivals (31%), sporting events (26%), and incorporating popular phrases or slang in content (25%), all of which reflect varied but meaningful ways to connect with audiences.

One Fun Thing - Rednote Welcomes TikTok Refugees

With the TikTok ban threatening millions of users with a shutdown this Sunday, American consumers have ironically been flocking to an actual CCP owned app Little Red Book, also known as RedNote.?

Existing Chinese users have wryly referred to themselves as their new Chinese spies. So far users have reported trouble reading Mandarin.