Have you ever observed the energy that leaders of publicly traded companies exert to announce and then deliver promised quarterly financial results?  Surely, like me, you’ve wondered how multi-billion dollar companies composed of multiple divisions, and even more business units, achieve their financial forecasts – exactly. My concern is not just about the non-value added time leaders spend pulling orders forward into the quarter and costs back into the next quarter so that reported results match predictions, lest stock prices plunge.  I am far more concerned about the value-destruction set in motion by yet another prevalent dysfunctional behavior – promising unrealistic growth, which appears to also happen a lot. A recent analysis of earnings trends by strategy firm McKinsey & Company shows that earnings growth is much lower than many companies’ publicly announced growth targets. From 1997-2007 (go-go years in the economy), large…