Book Review: Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail
https://exponentialorgs.com/
Its been a while since I have come across a business management book that is refreshing and thought provoking in its ideas and content. Salim Ismail and his team delve into the various disruptive technologies threatening numerous industries which have or which will in turn create havoc to many a companies and individuals. They provide some solid examples of how in various industries as diverse as Drones, Biotech, Solar, 3D printing and Industrial robots costs have plummeted dramatically in a matter of a few years. While there is the description of the customary example of Apple vs Nokia like in many business management literature, Salim Ismail provides numerous other case studies including the lesser known battle of the GPS space between Waze (eventually acquired by Google) and Navteq (eventually acquired by Nokia). Salim goes in great detail on how many big companies do the cardinal mistake of thinking linearly (yeah, 3 to 5 year strategies are frowned upon by the author) while newer entrants think and act exponentially. He provides numerous examples including Airbnb, Github, Tesla, Ted, X prize foundation among others. Salim dissects the characteristics of an exponential organization (ExO) wonderfully starting by describing their Massive Transformative purpose (MTP). Many of these ExO's have one ore more of the following including staff on demand, leveraging community and the crowd, dependence on algorithms, leveraging assets and high levels of user engagement. Salim outlines a very detailed playbook for starting an ExO organization as well as retrofitting an ExO organization. He provides great examples of some big companies who have been able to achieve ExO transformation including Bridgewater Associates, Haier, Xiaomi, Guardian newspaper among others. Finally he describes the characteristics of an exponential executive without which it would be impossible to achieve ExO mindset and growth. I would strongly recommend this book as part of you reading list for the year.
Its been a while since I have come across a business management book that is refreshing and thought provoking in its ideas and content. Salim Ismail and his team delve into the various disruptive technologies threatening numerous industries which have or which will in turn create havoc to many a companies and individuals. They provide some solid examples of how in various industries as diverse as Drones, Biotech, Solar, 3D printing and Industrial robots costs have plummeted dramatically in a matter of a few years. While there is the description of the customary example of Apple vs Nokia like in many business management literature, Salim Ismail provides numerous other case studies including the lesser known battle of the GPS space between Waze (eventually acquired by Google) and Navteq (eventually acquired by Nokia). Salim goes in great detail on how many big companies do the cardinal mistake of thinking linearly (yeah, 3 to 5 year strategies are frowned upon by the author) while newer entrants think and act exponentially. He provides numerous examples including Airbnb, Github, Tesla, Ted, X prize foundation among others. Salim dissects the characteristics of an exponential organization (ExO) wonderfully starting by describing their Massive Transformative purpose (MTP). Many of these ExO's have one ore more of the following including staff on demand, leveraging community and the crowd, dependence on algorithms, leveraging assets and high levels of user engagement. Salim outlines a very detailed playbook for starting an ExO organization as well as retrofitting an ExO organization. He provides great examples of some big companies who have been able to achieve ExO transformation including Bridgewater Associates, Haier, Xiaomi, Guardian newspaper among others. Finally he describes the characteristics of an exponential executive without which it would be impossible to achieve ExO mindset and growth. I would strongly recommend this book as part of you reading list for the year.
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