It’s a basic goal of most companies: to grow revenue each year. But as globalization recedes, populations in many nations grow older (and buy less), and sustainability concerns lead more people to scrutinize the necessity of every purchase, companies are facing headwinds to growth. And while growth can be a particularly powerful differentiator in such a challenging context, it is also particularly risky. Pushing for growth at all costs can end up destroying value rather than creating it, through wasteful investments and diverting resources from the core strengths of the firm.

The question thus arises: How can companies build lasting value without growth?

Stability Has Its Perks

To find answers, we studied more than 10,000 companies from North America, Europe, and Japan over the past 20 years. From that cohort, we identified 172 stable firms, defined by steady, near-zero revenue growth throughout the period.

These stable companies delivered shareholder returns similar to market averages, but at 12% lower volatility. This low volatility also correlates with both greater resilience and longevity: Stable firms were half as likely as the average firm to suffer severe value collapse by losing 90% or more of their market capitalization over the 20-year period we assessed. They are also nearly twice as old as the typical S&P 500 company, averaging almost 100 years of age. Finally, of these stable firms, 57 of them—one in three—managed to outperform the market in terms of total shareholder return (TSR).

If we take a closer look at those 57 companies that outperformed, our analysis reveals that these successful, stable companies do not conform to a single profile: They sell to both consumers and businesses, offer products as well as services, and appear across a wide range of industries (though less frequently in fast-growing sectors, where they can find themselves left behind by competitors).