Introduction: The paradox of growth --
The founder's mentality : the key to achieving sustainable growth --
The three predictable crises of growth : how great companies lose their way --
Combating overload : how the founder's mentality overcomes the chaos of high growth --
Reversing stall-out : how to rediscover what made you great when growth slows --
Stopping free fall : using the founder's mentality to save a business in rapid decline --
Action plan for leaders : infusing the founder's mentality at all levels of your organization.

Three Principles for Managing--and Avoiding--the Problems of Growth. Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen, authors of the bestselling "Profit from the Core," researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not external--increasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What's more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow further--and can actively lead to decline. The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a "founder's mentality"--behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founder--to restore speed, focus, and connection to customers: An insurgent's clear mission and purpose; An unambiguous owner mindset; A relentless obsession with the front line. Based on the authors' decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries, "The Founder's Mentality" demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kinds--not just start-ups--and their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leader--not only a founder--can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.