Those who built the great companies in our research distinguished between share value and share price, between shareholders and shareflippers, and recognized that their responsibility lay in building shareholder value, not in maximizing shareflipper price.

The greatest leaders do seek growth — growth in performance, growth in distinctive impact, growth in creativity, growth in people — but they do not succumb to growth that undermines long-term value. And they certainly do not confuse growth with excellence.

Big does not equal great, and great does not equal big.

– Jim Collins, How the Mighty Fall

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