Company Life Cycle
The company life cycle consists of the stages of a company’s development, from its founding to maturity and possible transformation or closure. It differs from the life cycle of a company’s product: a product leaves the market and is replaced by a new one, while an organization can go through several generations of products.
- Search for a product and first customers; management relies on the founder.
- Growth: sales scale up, the team expands, and processes become formalized.
- Maturity: the company generates stable profits but risks stagnation.
- Decline or transformation leads to a relaunch, sale of the business, or closure.