The Anatomy of Growth

Growth is every leader’s obsession—but not every company cracks the code.

At the most fundamental level, any company’s ultimate job is serving the end customer — the clearest and most reliable path to driving business growth. Yet our survey of 500+ revenue-driving executives (CMOs, CROs, CGOs, and more) reveals a stark divide: While 72% of organizations grew last year, only 29% achieved rapid growth (exceeding a 10% growth rate). Small firms are pulling ahead, with 32% surging past the 10% growth mark compared to just 20% of larger players. 

What separates the winners from the stalled? It’s not luck—it’s leadership. In this report, we uncover the bold moves, structural shifts, and strategic partnerships that fuel breakout performance.

Leaders powering the strongest growth say that a combination of building and enhancing leadership capabilities and skills is crucial to their effectiveness. Leaders highlighted resilience (40%) and adaptability (36%), followed by courage (29%), curiosity and openness (23%), and active listening (22%) as their most needed qualities to thrive in the function. 

Despite the hype and pressure surrounding AI, leaders aren’t abandoning the fundamentals, but AI has emerged as one of the biggest development priorities. When asked which skills will matter most in their roles, leaders prioritize building high-performing teams (48%), Advanced data and analytics and AI literacy (44%), and cross-functional collaboration (33%) as their top choices.

If growth is your agenda, this is your jumping off point. Get the full report to see how today’s most effective growth leaders are reshaping the future and read practical recommendations to move from stalled or incremental growth to sustained momentum.