Personally, I think this is more an indicator that, whatever you do, growth sucks. Semco is most likely still doing well because they have an enormous amount of small subsidiaries.

Something similar happened to Toyota - once the poster child of lean companies, then they wanted to become the largest car producer in the world, the rest is history.

I wonder - maybe it is time to pick up these clues and start being satisfied with working at companies that are fun and stable and stay small?