Years ago, I worked for a software company. I joined their documentation team right out of college. The company made accounting software for small to mid-sized governments.
Leadership at the company considered 20 percent revenue growth normal, expected and attainable for any technology company.(Heck, that may still hold true; I haven’t worked at a tech company since.) That lofty goal drove us, even in years we fell short. Still, I remember thinking at the time that the only way to maintain that level of growth came through mergers and acquisitions. A handful of companies hit that level. Others got bought to fuel someone else’s growth. Sure enough, another company acquired the software company I worked for not long after I left.