What are the 4 periods of growth?

In organizational life cycles, four broad periods of growth are often described as birth, growth, maturity, and renewal/decline. These periods describe not just size, but the evolving challenges and priorities leaders face as the business changes.

• The 4 periods:

• Birth: Launching, finding product–market fit, and achieving initial viability. 

• Growth: Rapid scaling of customers, revenue, and operations. 

• Maturity: Stabilization, optimization, and defending market position. 

• Renewal/decline: Either reinventing the business or slowly losing relevance and share. 

• For leadership teams, recognizing these periods:

• Helps align expectations about chaos vs. structure, experimentation vs. standardization.

• Guides when to invest in new capabilities, structures, or even business models.

Kindred Consulting Group uses these periods as a backdrop:

• The Kindred Clarity Framework reveals which period your organization is actually in, and whether your systems, roles, and strategies match that reality. 

• This prevents "maturity playbooks" from being forced onto a business that is still in birth or early growth.

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