Growth is critical to any business because without it costs overrun the bottom line, the key is to make sure it is either strategic and contributes to the overall bottom line. The world is scattered with carcasses of failed companies who just got out of their depth trying to feed individual egos, satisfying analyst expectations or just trying to play a game for which they did not know the rules (eg Asia and China). Inevitably Board failures were critical to this happening but their motivations (positional power and belonging to the club) were different to the Execs (short term $$$ and ego).
How often has it been shown that offshore expansion failed because too high a price was paid, justified on the basis of unrealistic revenue/profit projections or because they were just plain dumb. Critically however the moves bought more time for Execs to try and pull an houdini act and line up their next gig whilst the cards imploded.
There is nothing new about Qantas. It is textbook failure stuff that was completely unnecessary, but at the end of the day books will be written about the reasons, everyone will gasp in horror, a few low level staff will be blamed and then history will repeat itself while they all forget the lessons of history as analysts and investment bankers look for their next bucket of cash.
It is not too late but the decision makers have no interest in changing what is happening and that includes Govt who have really set the tone in Australia recently and sent a message to every business leader.