What’s an ExO?

Here’s how we defined an ExO back in 2014:

An Exponential Organization (ExO) is one whose impact (or output) is disproportionally large—at least 10x larger—compared to its peers because of the use of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies.

We have updated this definition for two reasons. First, what happens if multiple companies all operate as ExOs? How do you distinguish 10x (10x of what?)? Second, we discovered that the fundamental economic driver of an ExO is that it finds ways of radically dropping the marginal cost of supply (e.g., Waze or Airbnb).

So, in 2023, here’s our new definition of an ExO:

An ExO is a purpose-driven, agile, and scalable organization that uses accelerating technologies to digitize, dematerialize, democratize, and demonetize its products and services, resulting in a 10x performance increase over its non-ExO peers.