Open Access

Eduardo José Alemán Sevilla

• After years of companies' orientation towards profitability maximization mainly driven by cost reduction plans, growth has become an important goal of CEO's, but the task of combining growth andAfter years of companies' orientation towards profitability maximization mainly driven by cost reduction plans, growth has become an important goal of CEO's, but the task of combining growth and profitability in not simple and therefore just a few had successfully balanced to achieve growth and improve profit margins at the same time, in other words to achieve profitable growth. The select companies that outperformed their peers constitute the Growth Champions.The in-depth analysis of the Growth Champions of the Chemicals, Automotive, Financial Services, Mobile and Fixed Telephony Industries that operate in Europe has showed that there are more similarities than differences in their chosen paths to achieve profitable growth.The majority of the Growth Champions were engaged in achieving (profitable) growth, mainly driven by the activation of different levers at the same time, executing a sequence of investment and divestment activities, believing that the main route to profitable growth can be achieved with internal and external growth and diversification of their portfolios.Similar to the Kaizen approach, the Growth Champions went through continuous business transformations, by which flexible organizations with decentralized units are needed to cope with adaptation, in other words, the companies with better business adaptability are the ones that could achieve sustainable profitable growth.…