Exponential Organization (ExO) Consulting Practice

ExO 10 week Sprint methodology, stages, deliverables

https://www.exo.works/exo-sprint

Salim Ismail (the author) is a Canadian serial entrepreneur, angel investor and Founding
Executive Director of Singularity University.

Thought you'd enjoy Salim's keynote on the condensed concepts.

other great keynotes w/ Salim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-O6xj-pb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc4YNA8unf0

https://medium.com/@salimismail/overcome-internal-resistance-to-exponential-growth-
30167ea12426

6 Ways To Bypass The Immune System & Adopt Disruptive Innovation

From my own experience, I know it can be hard to fight your organization’s current immune system when
trying to implement disruptive innovations. After all, the immune system rose up to protect the
organization in the first place! Here are six different ways you can help your organization to adopt
disruptive innovations and drive exponential growth, without triggering the immune system to resist
the change:

1. Only go after new markets (to avoid the immune system response). If you want to
transform an existing cash cow or leapfrog a current business unit, you need a stand-
alone unit with a small team that is isolated and fully autonomous.
2. Establish direct support from — and a direct formal link to — the CEO. Whatever you
do, do not settle for any other reporting line below the CEO.
3. Spin out versus spin in. If you are successful, spin everything out and create a new
company; don’t try to wedge the emerging business back into the mothership. A new
enterprise won’t fit in neatly anywhere and internal politics will ensue, especially if you
are cannibalizing an existing revenue stream.
4. The only exception we’ve found is when individual Enterprise Exponential Organizations
(EExOs) are part of a larger platform play like Apple’s products, which start out at the
edge and are brought into the center.
5. Invite the most disruptive change-makers from within your existing organization to
work on your ExO. Management expert Gary Hamel has said that young people,
dissidents, and those working on the geographic and mental peripheries of your
organization are the most interesting, free and open thinkers. Look for rebels. The good
news is that they won’t be difficult to find.
6. Build your Exponential Organization (ExO) completely independent of existing systems
and policies. That includes actual physical separation. Try hard not to use existing
premises or infrastructure unless they deliver a huge strategic advantage. As with any

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 new startup, it’s critical for a new ExO to operate as a greenfield operation, relying on
stealth and confidentiality.

As Steve Jobs said, “We run Apple like a startup. We always let ideas win arguments, not hierarchies.
Otherwise, your best employees won’t stay. Collaboration, discipline and trust are critical.”

ExO tools and processes

https://medium.com/openexo/forget-startups-exos-exponential-organizations-are-the-new-way-to-
innovate-32305d628928

The community of exponential leaders is co-creating and sharing tools and processes to help others to
build their own ExOs. Some of these are:

 The ExO Canvas, a crowdsourced initiative where more than 100 entrepreneurs and innovators
around the world worked together in order to define a simple tool, similar to the Business Model
Canvas, to describe Exponential Organizations and its usage of the ExO Attributes.
 The ExO Sprint, a 10-week process that any established business can follow in order to become an
Exponential Organization. We have found that the program catapults leadership, culture and
management thinking three years ahead in just 10 weeks. Also, the ExO Sprint process allows
established organizations to collaborate with entrepreneurs and to build new ExOs together
speaking the same language and avoiding the immune system problem that happens when existing
startups and established organizations work together (or even worse, when you try to integrate
them!).
 Exponential Transformation book, focused on how to apply the ExO Model by combining both the
ExO Canvas and the ExO Sprint described above. The book brought together over 200 entrepreneurs
and innovators globally who contributed to its development.
 The ExO Toolkit, a set of open source tools created by the community to assist entrepreneurs and
innovators to build ExOs. This project was supported by the Gazelles Growth Institute, which has
education programs on ExO in different languages.
Other initiatives are emerging, often either open or crowdsourced that work with ExO models and tools,
such as:
 ExO Leader, a program focused on helping a new type of leader to use special skill sets and mindsets
to lead Exponential Organizations.
 ExO Launchpad, a process to help entrepreneurs transform their idea or current startup into an
Exponential Organization.
 Fastrack Institute, a non-profit helping public entities to apply the ExO model and to leverage
Exponential Organizations to benefit their environment.
We are amazed at the excitement and huge numbers of entrepreneurs and executives who are jumping
into the ExO approach. This ExO Movement is bringing people from all around the world who want to
make a positive impact by applying new technologies combined with organizational approaches. We
believe this movement will transform the world for a better future and you can be a part of it.

You will find all the current and past releases

here: https://github.com/exofoundation/ExO-Tool-Kit/releases

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Please visit any of the organizations in the ExO Ecosystem to learn more about their
offerings:

ExO Foundation - Migrate Society to Abundance - http://www.exofoundation.com ExO

Works - Global Transformation of Business - https://www.exo.works/ Growth Institute -
Education - http://www.growthinstitute.com ExO Lever - A Global Transformation
Ecosystem - http://www.exolever.com FluidChains - Blockchain Accelerator
- http://www.fluidchains.com Fastrack Institute - Acclerate Technology Into Society
- https://www.fastrackinstitue.org

Salim Ismail’s keynotes & Interviews:

January 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2lLI7Ag8AQ&t=28s

2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-O6xj-pb0

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