Growth vs scaling: What's the difference and why does it matter?

Patrick Whatman

This article looks at the difference between growth and scaling and offers advice for companies looking to accelerate their growth.

Scale-up brands

This article is part of a series of articles from the WARC Guide to scale-up brands. Read more

In the modern business world, few ideas are more important than growth. Even long-time stock market fixtures like McDonald's and General Motors are judged by their quarterly growth rates. And a failure to grow can be catastrophic.

But for younger companies – and particularly startups – there's an equally strong fixation on scale. How can a business not just grow, but grow exponentially?

In many cases, this is putting the cart before the horse. Young startups need to build...

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