Why some companies grow quickly while others stagnate
Growth is the goal of every company — but not everyone can achieve or sustain this growth. To understand what separates high-growth companies from those that stagnate, we conducted a global survey of more than 500 senior leaders responsible for driving revenue, including chief marketing, commercial, revenue and growth directors at publicly traded companies, privately held companies and family businesses across the consumer, industrial, technology, financial services, healthcare and professional services sectors.
Seventy-two percent of the leaders we interviewed said their organizations grew last year, but only 29% managed to surpass the threshold for accelerated growth, defined as an increase of more than 10% in revenue. We also found that smaller companies are outperforming larger ones by a wide margin (32% reported accelerated growth, compared to just 20% in medium and large organizations).
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Our research suggests the difference has less to do with market conditions or budget and more to do with how leadership teams operate.
Across different sectors, regions and ownership structures, we see that growth accelerates when leaders are aligned, have autonomy and have the means to collaborate across areas. Growth stagnates, sometimes drastically, when organizational silos emerge.
Alignment between leaders doubles the probability of accelerated growth
If there is a pattern that separates fast-growing companies from the rest, it is that their leaders responsible for generating revenue move forward in perfect sync.
Our research found that when marketing, sales, product, and commercial leaders are aligned around common priorities, organizations are more than twice as likely to achieve accelerated growth (39% vs. 18%).
Research leaders attribute three main mechanisms to alignment:
— Leadership meetings between different areas (88%)
— Shared KPIs or OKRs (87%)
— Informal collaboration and communication (72%)
In contrast, leaders in more compartmentalized organizations report conflicting priorities, duplicated work, and slower, less secure decision-making processes.
Proximity to the CEO matters, but only when accompanied by collaboration
Many senior leaders responsible for revenue report to the CEO, but our research suggests that a formal relationship in the org chart alone does not guarantee company growth.
What really matters is how these leaders work with the CEO. Forty-three percent of top leaders responsible for driving revenue describe themselves as true partners with the CEO, helping to set the direction of the company. These organizations are more likely to achieve accelerated growth.
In contrast, 42% of revenue leaders who have little or no interaction with the CEO report stagnant or declining growth.
A strong partnership between CEO and executives is a crucial factor in the rapid growth of Brinker International, owner of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s restaurant chains.
Under the leadership of CEO Kevin Hochman, the company has recorded consistently high growth, with Chili’s posting industry-leading same-store sales increases and 19 consecutive quarters of expansion.
Hochman’s leadership reflects several common characteristics in fast-growing organizations: he publicly credits his teams for their performance, reinforcing a culture of alignment between areas.
He also oversaw strategic changes — such as streamlining operations, menu innovation and revamping marketing — that reflect how high-growth companies eliminate silos and give leaders leverage across the C-suite.
Brinker’s results, driven by a strong partnership between CEO and executives and synchronized execution between marketing, operations and product, exemplify how strong alignment and a unified growth engine can propel a company to peak performance.
Empowered leaders drive faster growth
Influence and autonomy often go hand in hand, and both correlate strongly with growth. More than half of leaders responsible for driving revenue (52%) say their influence with senior leadership and the board has increased in the last year.
That number rises to 59% among leaders who oversee all growth-related functions. Sixty-five percent of leaders at fast-growing companies also report a greater sense of autonomy. Only 24% of those in stagnant or declining organizations say the same.
Leadership structures are moving towards greater centralization
While responsibility for revenue is often divided among senior leadership positions—often including chief marketing officers, chief sales officers, and chief revenue officers—a shift is underway: 31% of all organizations surveyed have increased the centralization of their revenue-generating functions over the past year, while only 19% have decentralized them further.
The benefits of centralization are clear. Companies with a single “growth person” across the organization—whether the chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, chief growth officer, or another unified role—report greater clarity, stronger cross-functional execution, and less fragmentation. These structures reduce duplication, strengthen accountability and accelerate decisions.
But a single structure fits all organizations. Decentralization remains valuable in markets that require more localized support and greater flexibility. Still, the data suggests that without clear mechanisms for connecting areas, decentralization often increases silos: 56% of organizations that have become more decentralized also report becoming more compartmentalized.
The rise of centers of excellence
As growth becomes more complex, companies are creating centers of excellence (CoEs). The most common are:
— Marketing and go-to-market operations (54%)
— Brand strategy (53%)
— AI, digital and analytics (42%)
— Product development and innovation (40%)
High-growth companies do not create centers of excellence to increase bureaucracy; they build them to strengthen the capabilities that matter most. Our research suggests that integrated CoEs elevate quality, speed, and consistency — and ensure teams act based on a shared understanding of data, customer insights, and brand direction.
The capabilities that define the next generation of growth leaders
When asked which capabilities will be most important in driving future growth, revenue leaders pointed out:
— Building high-performance teams (48%)
— Data literacy and artificial intelligence (44%)
— Collaboration between areas (33%)
— Deep knowledge of customers and markets (32%)
Behind these skills are deeper leadership qualities, including resilience (40%), adaptability (36%), and courage (29%). Together, these traits create a leadership archetype that combines people-centric capabilities with technology-driven decisions, offering essential tools to unlock above-average growth.
How to best position your company for growth
Based on the data and insights from leaders in our research, we offer several recommendations:
— Appoint a single person responsible for growth. An alternative is to create a growth council chaired by the CEO that consolidates decision-making rights and aligns priorities between areas.
— Institutionalize alignment mechanisms. Shared OKRs, unified dashboards, and weekly revenue meetings help prevent drift.
— Protect strategic time. Survey leaders say they want 20% to 30% more time for long-term growth planning.
— Build a lean and well-governed portfolio of centers of excellence. The goal should be to have fewer but better integrated CoEs, with clear decision-making and governance rights.
— Measure collaboration with the same rigor applied to revenue. Leaders may feel empowered—but many also report feeling increasingly isolated in silos. This tension needs to be monitored and addressed.
At the heart of these actions is a simple truth: companies grow when they prioritize serving the end customer, which is the most reliable path to sustainable business expansion. Maintaining this clear direction is what distinguishes those at the top.
