“I’m always looking for profitable growth on a sustained basis. That’s I think the hardest challenge in business–to not do it just once, but year after year.”

–Bruce Carbonari, CEO, Fortune Brands

That’s the lead quote in When Growth Stalls, and it’s fitting that it comes from the CEO of a company that’s currently stalled. Fortune Magazine’s annual Fortune 500 issue just hit newsstands, and Fortune Brands (#351 on the list and no relation to the magazine) suffered a revenue decline of more that 14 percent in 2008.

There are a number of other notable names on the stalled growth list. The top ten companies whose growth stalled in 2008 include:

#6 GM

#7 Ford

#11 Bank of America

#12 Citigroup

#13 Berkshire Hathaway

#16 JP Morgan Chase & Co.

#25 Home Depot

#30 Morgan Stanley

#33 Dell

#34 Boeing

Each of these companies’ problems have been well chronicled of late. While some are facing existential threats, others are fundamentally sound but struggling to cope with the global economic crisis.

What’s truly remarkable about this year’s report is that more than 30 percent of all Fortune 500 corporations are currently stalled. That’s double the 15 percent of companies that struggle in a typical year, according to my research. Of course, this is anything but a typical year. Revenues for the Fortune 500 as a whole were up a measly 0.8 percent, while profits were down nearly 85 percent.

There’s talk that perhaps the worst is behind us and if so, next year’s report should reveal better news. That said, in many of these companies the destructive internal dynamics that rear their ugly heads when growth stalls will wreak their havoc long after the broader recovery begins. Let’s hope their leaders know how to deal with them.