Answered Essay: Discussion Board Assignment: Question 3 of 4: Issue 3: Is Growth Always an Inherent Corporate Value? (page 119) Discussion Question: Provide arguments as noted in your textbook material and any material you may have research (NO)

Growth cannot be the inherent corporate value for any entity. One needs to observe at which cost the growth is pursued. It is simply not possible for any corporation to grow at an ever increasing pace and offer a return to the shareholders which is more than that offered by the competitors. As companies increase in size, it becomes difficult to grow at a faster rate and even the growth rate becomes sluggish. For example, to sustain the current 17% growth rate, Merck & Co. Inc., one the most prominent Fortune 50 company, needs to make its revenue double in the next five years. Still, if an organization pursue to grow at a faster rate, the cost it pays in terms of decile in profitability or major restructuring (for an inorganic growth). Therefore, growth is not the actual value for which the companies exist. It only creates a perception to the shareholders that if the company is growing, it must also be doing well.

Instead of growth, the companies should thus focus on the value aspect of the shareholders’ fund by focusing on the growth of P/E ratio. This can happen in many ways such as by spinning off and creating a new corporate entity which derives additional values for shareholders or by creating a new corporate form. These aspects must be analyzed by the firms at the beginning of their growth stall period as did by Apple Inc. by outsourcing all its manufacturing functions to developing countries so that the company can create a new corporate form that only focuses on innovation (in product and in marketing).