>There are several counterexamples to this idea, [...] where no competitors show up to eat their lunch. Yes, I understand that and already provided several cou

>There are several counterexamples to this idea, [...] where no competitors show up to eat their lunch. Yes, I understand that and already provided several counterexamples. (Local restaurants and legacy railroads.) >The poster child for this model, I think, is Zildjian: the biggest global maker of cymbals. They have been doing it for hundreds of years, never expanded outside of cymbals, I actually own a bunch of Zildjian cymbals and saw several documentaries about the brothers' split into Zildjian and Sabian. In any case, Zildjian did expand into other products outside of cymbals. From wikipedia: - In 2010, Zildjian acquired the Vic Firth Company and in 2018 acquired the Mike Balter Mallet company expanding the company's product offerings to include a full range of drumsticks and percussion mallets. Zildjian also sells electronics like earphones[1]. The daughters that inherited Zildjian wants the company to grow. The growth has not been as fast as a tech startup but they do want it to grow. But even without expanding product categories, the company can also expand markets to sell to. That was one of the motivations of Zildjian expanding their manufacturing into Canada as that export location allowed them to sell cheaper cymbals to Europe. >This "grow or die" mentality is entirely a cultural phenomenon of modern western companies, and they can absolutely opt out of it. Not just Western companies. Also East Asia companies in Japan like Canon, Sony, Toyota wanted growth. Korea companies like Samsung and LG. And Africa companies in Ethiopia and Nigeria want to grow too. But I do agree with the point you were trying to make: if you happen to pick a business domain that doesn't have cutthroat competition, there's less pressure to grow to avoid dying. RIM Blackberry didn't get into the drums cymbals business (slower moving competition of hammering round sheets of metal) but the phones business (fast iteration competition of electronics). They grew until the 2007 Apple iPhone made their keyboard phones and 2-way pagers mostly obsolete. If you're an entrepreneur who believes the "growth treadmill" is insane and stupid, you need to pick the type of business that aligns with that philosophy! [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=zildjian+in+ear+monitors https://www.google.com/search?q=zildjian+in+ear+monitors