Industry Magazine Grand General Agency Fall 2016 | Page 18

to the individuals who are watching them . They also use that data to determine what to put on their service . In the words of Jenny McCabe , their Director of Global Media Relations , they “ look for those titles that deliver the biggest viewership relative to the licensing cost .” Why Traditional Companies Have Trouble Adapting
Large companies have to , by their very nature , have systems in place to resist change . After all , they became successful because of the things that they have already accomplished . Thus , when changes or disruptions are made in these companies , the changes are resisted . When something or someone begins to disrupt the way that an organization functions , the “ immune system ” of that organization will come in and try to stop those changes from taking place . What Makes an Exponential Organization ?
ExO ’ s spring out of the new wave of entrepreneurs which are attacking existing industries with relative impunity . They aren ’ t trying to figure out why things are the way that they are . They are trying to figure out why things aren ’ t better . This leads from a situation of scarcity to a situation of abundance . Once something becomes information based , the cost goes down and the prevalent mindset becomes one of abundance . The mindset of these individuals is that nothing is impossible . When speaking with Elon Musk about issues with high-speed hyperloop bullet train , Salim found that Elon replied that ( to paraphrase ), “ that ’ s an issue we have to overcome ”. In other words , Elon did not consider the problem he was facing to be impossible ; he simply considered it something that needed to be worked out .
The Internet allows us to drop the cost of demand exponentially . The issue now is finding a way to drop the cost of supply exponentially . That solution is what existing ExO ’ s like Uber , AirBnB , Zappos , and many others have found . That is why they are having the success that they are having . Decentralization and low overhead is the key to success in the game of exponential growth .
So what is it that makes an EXO ? Three things : Massive Transformative
Purpose , S . C . A . L . E . and I . D . E . A . S .
The Massive Transformative Purpose is something that is uniquely theirs . It is highly aspirational and is not narrow or specific to a given technology . This is aimed at the heart and the mind and is declared with both sincerity and confidence . In other words , it is the driving passion behind the company . Again , it ’ s not narrow and it ’ s not specific . It is more like the ethical and philosophical framework in which the company operates .
S . C . A . L . E . stands for staff on demand , community & crowd , algorithms , leveraging assets , and engagement . Constantly adding information and having the people on hand to leverage that information is an extremely important aspect of ExOs .
I . D . E . A . S . stand for interface processes , dashboards , experimentation , autonomy , and social technologies . This is where these companies begin to really stand out . They are constantly tweaking their systems and optimizing all aspects of what they are doing .
If a company is able to implement 4 out of the 10 topics in S . C . A . L . E . and I . D . E . A . S . then they will see their 10x improvement and will cross into exponential growth territory . An example of this would be the way Valve , a popular software company , operates . They have a very small footprint and tap into abundance through the use of technology . There is no middle management , no dedicated teams . People work on what they wish to work on and , should a problem arise , anyone who wishes to can fix it . This has resulted in a massive profit for the company over the last decade . Per worker , they have one of the highest profit margins in the world . How Organizations Can Become Exponential
The fundamental change in an ExO model is the democratization of the business process . So how can a large existing company take advantage of this and begin to change ? A few things will lead down the path to the right direction . One is to update the leadership . It is
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