What are the 4 stages of business growth?

A widely used four-stage growth model includes startup, growth, maturity, and renewal/decline. Each stage changes what "good leadership" and "good structure" look like.

• The 4 stages:

• Startup: Experimenting, pivoting, and validating the core business model. 

• Growth: Scaling sales, delivery, and teams while avoiding chaos. 

• Maturity: Optimizing processes, defending share, and improving profitability. 

• Renewal/decline: Reinventing through innovation—or gradually shrinking. 

• Leaders should:

• Regularly assess which stage they are truly in, not just which stage they wish they were in. 

• Align structure, hiring, and investment to that stage's realities.

We at Kindred Consulting Group:

• Use stage-aware diagnostics to avoid over-engineering early-stage organizations or under-structuring maturing ones. 

• This ensures the organization's "operating system" evolves along with its growth stage. 

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