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As companies mature, their growth tends to slow. Research has shown that stagnation is a normal part of the corporate life cycle—but it is not destiny. Some firms defy the trend, achieving and sustaining what we call breakout growth: they increase their sales at least twice as fast as their peers for five years, and then sustain above-industry growth for five subsequent years. In a global study of 848 companies that experienced stagnation—defined as five years of below-industry revenue growth—we identified 99 companies that beat the odds over the subsequent 10 years.
