A friend said this to me a while ago and I thought that it’s such a great piece of wisdom that it’s worth sharing and unpacking:
If your business isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.
Upon hearing this, my first thought was the third option: the business can be neither growing nor shrinking, but stationary; but of course that’s where the wisdom in this simple sentence is. If your business is stagnant with no growth, you’re basically waiting for someone to disrupt the industry and take your market share.
The take-home comment on this is to think about how you can grow your business so it’s more resilient. Investigate horizontal and vertical growth to reduce the risk of relying on your core business and increase the agility of your business so you can respond to new threats. It also highlights the need to continue to invest in R&D to grow your market share and keep on top of the game.