Expansion Limits

[Pavel Svinchnik]

My wife and I were discussing the impulse of businesses to constantly expand customer base, sales, profits, etc. It seems that there is a limit to growth, although maybe not with constant technological advancements. Does anyone know of any books speculating on the limits of economic growth?

 

[Cellblock2429]

My wife and I were discussing the impulse of businesses to constantly expand customer base, sales, profits, etc. It seems that there is a limit to growth, although maybe not with constant technological advancements. Does anyone know of any books speculating on the limits of economic growth?

/----/ There is no one size fits all answer to your question. Some companies saturate their market and stop growing and Amazon started in the guy's garage and grew to a multi-billion dollar company. With the internet, my little publishing company sells books worldwide and a brick and mortar store in my neighborhood sells locally to walk in trade. Don't care what some wank speculates on, just keep expanding and see where it takes you.

 

[Picaro]

Disposable income is a biggy , depending on what you sell; importing lots of low wage illegals pretty much dump that in the toilet for most small businesses, which is why there are all those empty spaces for rent in strip malls and big malls as well here in the middle of some alleged 'Big Giant Boom' here in Texas. Do a demographic study of your local area and see if it's worth the effort. Demand is always endless, ability to pay isn't. Pay is high in Manhattan and San Francisco, but so is the cost of living, so while the area my look 'rich' relative to national averages that doesn't mean there is a lot of loose money out there to tap.

 

[Pavel Svinchnik]

Thanks for the replies but what I was looking for is a more theoretical, academic examination of the limits of growth. Has anyone ever examined the impact of growth on an organization? Maybe some sort of Laffer curve on growth versus profitability.

 

[HenryBHough]

Uncontrolled growth is called "Cancer".

Government controlled growth is called "Cancer On Steroids"

End result is the same; second choice is faster though more painful.

 

[BULLDOG]

Thanks for the replies but what I was looking for is a more theoretical, academic examination of the limits of growth. Has anyone ever examined the impact of growth on an organization? Maybe some sort of Laffer curve on growth versus profitability.

I've seen lots of examples of thriving businesses getting too big and failing. Great little hamburger stand out on the highway was making a fortune. Stand in line at the window to give your order, and wait in the car till the lady pointed at you to pick it up. The parking lot was always full after church on Sunday, before Friday night football, and mostly full the rest of the time. They enlarged to a sit down restaurant with no to go orders and went out of business in a few months.
A friend had a small construction company. 4 or 5 employees and a few pieces of equipment. He was always busy and had a waiting list. Somebody convinced him to buy more equipment, and hire a bunch of new workers. so he could go for the bigger jobs. Same thing happened. He went broke in a few months, and lost everything he had built. Some businesses are just better off to stay where they know it works.

 

[Picaro]

Thanks for the replies but what I was looking for is a more theoretical, academic examination of the limits of growth. Has anyone ever examined the impact of growth on an organization? Maybe some sort of Laffer curve on growth versus profitability.

They're called 'recessions', and 'Depressions'. There have been many of them to study. Basically, bubbles suck money out of the real economy, and evaporate it into nothing by inflating prices and therefore 'equities'. 'Market efficiency' is all that money chasing after the 'highest returns', which of course eventually cuts its own legs out from under itself, and then the govt. comes along and bails out the rich, the criminals, and itself, then tells the peasants they have 'to suck it up and tighten their belts'.

 

[Dekster]

Limits to individual or collective growth does not limit the price of stocks in the future due to the continued decline in the purchasing power and abundance of currency

 

[william the wie]

Look up "increasing returns and path dependency in the economy"