Business
Gordon Gekko famously said in the movie “Wall Street” that “greed is good.” While it’s probably politically incorrect - and definitely not woke! - to say that today, a version of that mantra still exists in a somewhat more sanitized form. Companies these days - especially tech startups - preach that “growth is good”, and that scaling quickly is the only metric that matters. Silicon Valley CEOs trumpet market share and revenue growth over profitability, as if to paraphrase that trope about sharks: if companies are not growing, they’re dying. But is that actually true? And is true for all companies? On today’s episode of “Boiling the Ocean”, we examine this view and stress-test it from a number of angles. We cover everything from the trendy concept of Blitzscaling to the increasing weaponization of cheap capital as well as the concept of a “right-sized” company or organization. Our conclusion? Well, you have to tune in to find out - but let’s just say that we have our usual contrarian take on such topics, and as always we try to give you a few ideas on how to apply this notion to your company or career.