The combined effect of new exponential technologies is changing the world faster than before. Peter Diamandis’s 6Ds (Digitization, Deception, Disruption, Demonetization, Dematerialization, and Democratization) provide the best ideas on the “how” this is happening.
There is a clear need for transformation and re-inventing our organizations. As coined by David Rose “Any company designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure on the 21st”
Mid-market companies’ leaders should constantly ask two questions that can help them win in today’s competitive and disruptive world: 1) How do I always create new customer value? Also, 2) How do I always optimize and speed up the processes of my organization?
However, that’s not enough to keep up with today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution. The ExO attributes from Exponential Organizations by @SalimIsmail, are essential to connect not only Corporates and Unicorns but also mid-market companies to the abundance of opportunities in the new digital world and to help these organizations to manage that abundance.
The Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) is the base of any Exponential Organization, and it serves as a guiding principle when critical decisions need to be made.
From our experience working with founders, CEOs and leadership teams in the mid-market segment, the MTP helps to identify priorities. Depending on the industry, geography and those priorities, the ExO attributes to implement varies for each organization, we have found the following as core attributes for several mid-market companies:
– Developing a Community that interacts with the core team of the organization via social media and mobile apps to for example get product feedback and find contractors and experts.
– Engagement to connect customers and their ecosystem to create network effects and feedback loops with extraordinary reach and a positive impact on the business and the participants.
– Real-time Dashboards to track and monitor data from critical processes, teams OKRs (Objective and Key Results) as well as from for example of a proprietary mobile app.
– Establish a culture of Experimentation, growth hacking and constant iteration through their teams. A culture where people is willing to fail, and pivot as needed with constant product iteration and LEAN approach.
Our involvement within the ExO ecosystem has shown that transforming an existing mid-market company into an Exponential Organization is doable but requires three things:
1. A company culture that can quickly adapt to rapid and often radical change.
2. A visionary leader who has the full support of the board and senior management.
3. A group of ambitious and motivated people ready to transform and scale the organization.
We have seen lots of companies passively being disrupted; people don’t see this coming. At Escalate Group, we embed ExO principles into pre-existing mid-market organizations—to help them to explode their performance.