Secret to Growth

Someone asked me this question today: What's the secret to driving growth? My answer was: 'realizing that there is only growth ... or death.' 

If you do not grow (sooner or later profitably), you will die. Fast or slow, you will die. I believe this is true for companies and also for individuals. When you stop growing, you eventually are passed and lost. You will move from relevant to irrelevant. And then you're gone one day.

It's true for careers, too. If you stop growing your abilities, your knowledge, your breadth of knowledge, you begin to live in yesterday's world. You will be irrelevant one day soon. And one day no one needs you. In a way you die, too, before you go for real.

How do you keep a relentless and sustained drive for growth? That's the key question ... for companies and each one of us. In some companies, a leader does it through fear. That can work but it's highly leader dependent.  And it can be painful to be part of. Some do it through ever-increasing goals linked to compensation. That can be effective but that system alone gets gamed or runs its course when things get tough (and sooner or later, they always do).  The best would be to create a culture that thrives on hunger. Promote and hire leaders who have hunger for growth and love it in others. Create a culture that takes risks and lives well with failure. I hope we can pull this off at Logitech.

As individuals, we should relentlessly seek new personal growth. Put ourselves in situations that value it. Work at places that want you to grow, maybe because they, too, are trying to change to grow.

Young and old, new to your job or a seasoned veteran, never stop trying to grow ...