The new academic year is here. Lecture halls fill. Slides return. We talk about growth again, at least at the business school. Sustainable growth. Responsible growth. The kind that fits into tidy models and glossy slides.
This summer I got schooled. Nine weeks in Southeast Asia with my family. One full month in Vietnam. There, growth is not theory. Vietnam’s economy roared ahead with 7.5 percent GDP growth in the first half of 2025, the fastest in 15 years. In the same period the Netherlands managed about one percent.
Cranes crowd the skyline. Hotels rise from rice fields. Islands expand. Motorbikes swarm under new highways. Tourist numbers jumped more than 30 percent compared to last summer.
The economy breathes. Full throttle. No brakes. No rearview mirror.
That “no mirror” is more than a metaphor. In Vietnam, when leaving for something new, you do not look back. At New Year people leave a house without turning their head. To look back is to invite bad luck or hesitation. The past is respected through ancestors, but progress means forward only.
The contrasts are sharp. Resorts beside tin shacks. Garbage on beaches. Plastic in rivers. From a Western eye it looks broken. Yet talk to people: they smile, haggle you into surrender, point proudly at half-built towers, and show photos of children even more proud.
And above it all the red flag waves. Hammer and sickle as the symbol of a communist state. Yet, capitalism ruling in the streets. Equally absurd and unstoppable.
Back in Maastricht growth is a polite anecdote. Our boom years are bedtime stories told by older colleagues. We discuss progress as if it were a careful puzzle.
But if you come from nothing, growth is not a puzzle. Growth is survival. Growth is hope. And maybe that is what we in business schools should remember. Sustainable growth makes sense when you already have plenty.
And maybe also this: looking forward applies to us too. Yet every September I see professors dusting off ten-year-old syllabi, running the same assignments, defending outdated methods with “AI isn’t smart enough.” In research, we still hand out pen-and-paper surveys while ignoring technologies like eye tracking or biometrics. Growth means adapting teaching and research, even when noisy, even when it costs effort. Our students, and our science, deserve a university that practices what it preaches: forward-looking, growth-oriented, and unafraid to leave the rearview mirror behind.
Jonas Heller, assistant professor Marketing & director SBE DEXLab