Annual Growth Readiness Research 2026
Qualitative research with founders, CEOs, senior leaders and HR practitioners across 2026, exploring whether organisations can grow without compromising the people, culture, leadership and systems that make them successful.
By The Maverick Group Research
Executive summary
Growth is often measured through revenue, headcount, customers or market share. Our 2026 research suggests a different question matters more: can your organisation grow without compromising the people, culture, leadership and systems that make it successful? Growth readiness is not simply about having enough people. It is about being able to adapt, perform and sustain culture as complexity increases.
About the research
The Maverick Group held validation conversations with founders, CEOs, senior leaders, HR professionals and organisational development practitioners during 2026, across private business, healthcare, sport and community, public sector and executive leadership groups. The work is exploratory and qualitative, so the findings read as directional insights rather than statistical estimates.
The big shift: from retention to readiness
Retention asks whether people are staying. Readiness asks whether the organisation can continue to perform when everything around those people changes. An organisation can retain its people and still not be ready for growth.
Inside the full report
The full report sets out the five major findings, the six sources of growth friction leaders described, what leaders say they need, the Growth Readiness Gap™, the six dimensions of a growth-ready organisation, the 2026 Growth Readiness Model and the cost of being growth unready.
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