Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)

by Salim Ismail

If you remember our list of linear attributes of traditional organizations from way back in Chapter Two, we can now juxtapose linear versus exponential characteristics: Linear Organization Characteristics ExO Characteristics Top-down and hierarchical in its organization Autonomy, Social Technologies Driven by financial outcomes MTP, Dashboards Linear, sequential thinking Experimentation, Autonomy Innovation primarily from within Community & Crowd, Staff on Demand, Leveraged Assets, Interfaces (innovation at the edges) Strategic planning largely an extrapolation from the past MTP, Experimentation Risk intolerance Experimentation Process inflexibility Autonomy, Experimentation Large number of FTEs Algorithms, Community & Crowd, Staff on Demand Controls/owns its own assets Leveraged Assets Strongly invested in status quo MTP, Dashboards, Experimentation