“Grow too slow and you're done. Grow too fast and you're done too. Finding the sweetspot between the two is what builds truly great businesses over time.​”

Growth is one of those business buzzwords that gets used so often it starts to lose its meaning. We break it down by talking about real vs nominal growth, relative vs absolute growth, and growth in terms of revenues, profits and other measures. Sustaining growth over time requires a lot of structure and discipline. It’s about understanding why you’re growing, how fast you could and should grow, and who you need on your team to make it happen.

In Module 4 of the Pareto MBA, we take a close look at how companies actually grow — and how to avoid the common traps. We cover, among other things:

• Why growth makes sense only when your unit economics do

• The three engines of growth: sticky, viral, and paid — and when to focus on each

• Mental models like flywheels, S-curves, and explore vs exploit to think about timing and scale

• Practical financial tools: operating leverage, working capital, Rule of 72

• How to think clearly about growth financing (internal, debt financing, or equity)


But growing a company is also about people. So we spend just as much time on hiring and cover topics such as:

• What great recruiters do

• The STAR model and how to hire for actual outcomes, not hypotheticals

• How to design roles that grow with the person

• Why internal mobility often beats external recruitment


Summing up, module 4 gives you a number of practical tools and frameworks that you can use in your day-to-day business. For example, you might want to:

• Shift your team toward flywheel thinking — not one-off campaigns

• Refactor your growth ideas using the ICE model (Impact × Confidence / Effort)

• Run a hiring audit: Are your best people growing? Are your job specs real? Is your process leaking great candidates?

• Identify whether you’re in sticky, viral, or paid mode — and focus accordingly