Melissa is an exceptional partner in regional economic development. Her ability to coordinate seamlessly with Alliant Energy ensures that Winnebago and Worth counties are always positioned for growth. She is proactive, deeply knowledgeable, and highly collaborative- bringing her into a project early is a guarantee that things will move forward efficiently and successfully.
— Chad Hansen , Alliant Energy
The ‘growth trap’ is why midsize companies fail to scale
11 Sep 2025
News
The fastest way to destroy value in a high-potential company isn’t a bad market, it’s scaling a business that isn’t ready to grow. And this article highlights one of the few ways you can identify and take action before you find out the hard way.
Mid-market companies ($20M–$200M in revenue) often attract private equity attention for their expansion potential. Yet many hit a ceiling post-close, not because of market miscalculations, but because internal maturity—across leadership, systems, and culture—lags behind external ambitions. Scaling when this is present magnifies disorder, not value. This is what we call the “growth trap”: a condition where external growth initiatives overwhelm internal capacity, suppressing returns and elongating the value creation timeline, ultimately delaying or decreasing returns.
Click here to read the full original article from Fast Company.
More Topics
The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) announced $35.9 million in workforce housing tax credits to support development in 36 counties across the state.The awards will fund 63 projects expected to create nearly 2,000 new residential units — 1,217 in large communities and 752 in smaller towns.“When families can find quality,...
A parent-friendly workplace checklist
Sep 11 2025Forget the ping-pong tables and kombucha on tap. The real workplace perks, if you are a working parent, aren’t glitzy. They are functional. And, in an era of record burnout and extreme scarcity of childcare, knowing how to identify a genuinely parent-friendly workplace could make or break your career—and your...
Wall Street pointed toward a third consecutive day of records before the opening bell Thursday ahead of new U.S. data releases on the labor market and inflation.Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.3% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq each ticked 0.2% higher.Market movement will hinge...