What about the "hockey-stick" exponential growth that's needed for compounding to work? Companies pretend that it's true for them, but actually are at the merc

What about the "hockey-stick" exponential growth that's needed for compounding to work? Companies pretend that it's true for them, but actually are at the mercy of business cycles. Governments have linear growth at best. Property has had exponential growth because of increasing population, but that's plateauing. Can social connectedness be exponential, for the benefit of society? Not just more people, but people who are more connected to each other? How can that growth be incentivised? (I'm thinking out loud)