Risk & Business Magazine McFarlan Rowlands Spring 2016 | Page 18

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
worse, 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:
1.

MASSIVE TRANSFORMATIVE PURPOSE

2. S.C.A.L.E.
3. 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 wodrs, 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.

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SPRING 2016