< Previousculture, and ultimately acts as their North Star. Visions and vision statements are normally the aggregated result of a company’s ambition and purpose, their discovery and due diligence process, their internal and external deliberations, their framing and the time frame they’re working within, and their view of the intersecting trends that they believe will help them achieve their goals. Generally speaking many of the enterprises that have the greatest impact on the world today and the ones with the greatest disruptive potential are the ones that have bold and ambitious visions with grand aims that, in the words of Elon Musk, get people excited about waking up every morning and feeling inspired by the work they do. Secondly, and by far the most important of all the five foundations is Culture, which is, among other things, the aggregated result of structural and behavioural company alignment, authentic, inspirational leadership, honest communication, and, again, the company’s vision. We are continuously reminded about the power of culture and it’s power to help companies overcome all manner of obstacles. But while creating a winning culture can take years to build and is arguably one of the hardest things for any leadership team to accomplish if you aren’t vigilant it can be torn apart in just months. Furthermore, from a disruptors perspective at least, I like many people have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard stories about how a company’s corporate immune system was responsible for killing the latest innovative concepts - either because they were disruptive to the company’s core business, which is obviously laughable under the circumstances, or because of some other political motivation. Thirdly comes one of the most exciting foundations, in my opinion at least, Discovery, which is the aggregated result of internal and external conversations, collaborations, and partnerships, exploration, envisioning, and observation, and much more. This foundation is also often the natural home of the majority of a company’s entrepreneurs, rebels, and visionaries - the teams of individuals who all too often want to rip up the rule books, go above and beyond, and disrupt the status quo. And as the rate of disruption accelerates, and as more enterprises feel the effects Notes: 80311institute.comof disruption on their balance sheets it’s no surprise that over the past number of years many of the teams in this space have been the beneficiaries of significant uplifts in funding and new programs as the companies work hard to improve their competitiveness, and defend and extend their consumer bases. All that said, however, it obviously goes without saying that new funding and programs by themselves can’t be counted on as magic bullets that guarantee success. Again, it’s not one thing, it’s many things working in harmony, which, neatly brings me back to the importance of having the right culture and environment. Fourthly we have the Prototyping foundation, where companies begin to build products that address the problems and opportunities uncovered during the Discovery foundation. This foundation is the aggregated result of conversations, collaboration, and partnerships, experiential and design thinking, ideation and problem solving, to name but a few. One of the most understated areas of this foundation though is the use of beta consumers and, where appropriate, the importance of the investors black books - both of which help companies secure early testers and consumers that eventually hopefully convert into paying consumers and references, with the added benefit that, with the right management these activities and consumers will help generate hype around the products that then, in some cases, propel them into the hands of millions of consumers. Fifthly, and by no means least is the Execution foundation that, when done right, which is obviously harder said than done, ensures your amazing new product doesn’t get left on the metaphorical shop shelf to die. The aggregated result of everything from ensuring the right balance of consumer value and the right business model and go to market strategy this is where many companies ambitions to disrupt markets fail. As they say - everyone has a plan until they’re punched in the face, or in company speak everyone has a plan until it meets reality. However, for the lucky companies that do make it past this last hurdle to disrupt a market - whether they’re lucky by design or by fluke - this is the stage where all their hard work, everything I’ve discussed, albeit lightly so far, pays off. This is also the point at which the incumbents in a market realise that a disruptor has just parked their UFO Notes: 81311institute.comon the company’s front yard, before laughing at it, shrugging it off, and getting eaten by the aliens hoards inside... Noone ever claimed disruption was easy but throughout my travels and conversations with executives from all manner of industries all around the world it’s clear that almost everyone underestimates the complexity and size of the challenge. However, while disrupting any market is difficult it’s also clear that the size of the prize, which is often the opportunity to lead and own a market, is worth the effort. EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES Once a company has started its journey to become an Exponential Enterprise and found interesting and valuable problems worth solving next they turn to technology, explicitly combinations of technologies, to develop their products and help get them into the hands of consumers. And, as you can see from the Griffin Exponential Starburst in the earlier chapters and by reading the other codices in my Codex of the Future Series, there are hundreds of exponential technologies that enterprises can choose from to help them change the economics of their industries, and develop new disruptive products. And more are appearing all the time. One of the phrases you’ll hear me refer to many times throughout this codex is the word exponential, a term that I’m sure you’ve heard a million times that’s often used to refer to technologies that emerge, develop, and mature very quickly, and often at a rate that very few people anticipate or predict. The term is also a hangover from Moore’s Law where Gordon Moore, Intel’s co-founder, in 1965 predicted that the number of transistors on a computer chip would double every 18 months, leading to an exponential increase in computing Price-Performance, and today we’re seeing the same pattern emerge in many other technologies - from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing, to 3D Printing and Gene Editing, and many others. Although, when it comes to digital technologies, such as AI and Creative Machines, for example, their rates of development even make Moore’s Law look positively lethargic, and this is yet another trend that’s accelerating disruption. Notes: 82311institute.comAs the rate of technological development accelerates though there is also another trend you should familiarise yourselves with called “Jumping the S-Curve,” and it’s important because, in short, it refers to the way that different technologies supersede one another. Furthermore, as the number of exponential technologies that are emerging continues to accelerate and increase this is yet another accelerating trend that you have to take into account when deciding which technologies to use to build your new products and go to market strategies. The phrase S-Curve refers to the rate of development of a particular technology - like a squashed S first the rate of development starts slow, then it accelerates dramatically, and then it flattens off as researchers struggle to eke out further gains. Furthermore, today, and more so in the future, as the period of time it takes to reach higher levels of Price-Performance accelerates you’ll no doubt find that trying to keep pace with all these developments gets even harder. Jumping the S-Curve then refers to a company’s ability to move from one older technology to a newer one, for example, moving from the logic based x86 computers that we use today to tomorrow’s ultra-powerful Quantum Computers. Unlike the past though where there were only a few S-Curves to jump now there are potentially hundreds - all of which can be combined in new and interesting ways to further fuel the rate of disruption. EXPONENTIAL ADOPTION Of course though, while having an enterprise with the right culture that’s capable of identifying valuable problems and opportunities, and which is highly adept at leveraging talent and technology to build great products is a great start the fact remains that you have to get those products into consumers hands. So, as part of your Execution strategy, it should come as no surprise that there are plenty of areas left that, on the one hand could stop you dead in the water, or, on the other boost you into the hall of fame. And these areas are so important that I decided to give them their own axis. While I’ve already discussed how disruption is a process and not a single event this is the stage where, if you want to disrupt a market, you have to gain as much traction as possible in as short a time frame as possible in order to stymie your competitions ability to counteract you with their own messaging and Notes: 83311institute.comvariants. Getting your product into the hands, hearts, and minds of consumers though at enough scale to disrupt a market and permanently change the status quo though is obviously difficult. But that said while, yes, you still have to overcome many hurdles, and successfully pull all the right levers you should be able to take comfort from the fact that today, as I’ve highlighted in previous chapters, it’s easier to disrupt the status quo than it ever has been before. Navigating this part of the labyrinth though is complicated which is why the majority of enterprises struggle to realise their lofty ambitions, and sometimes all it takes is for one key piece to be out of alignment and everything falls down like a deck of cards. For example, build a great product that the regulators block and you’re going nowhere, or build a great product that the regulators approve that is unethical, and yep, again you’re going nowhere. And so it goes on - you get the picture. So, as you can see again gaining mass adoption of your product isn’t down to getting one thing right it’s down to getting many things right. These include, but are not limited to, your products accessibility, adoptability, and affordability, as well as other factors including cultural alignment and bias, ethics, the geo-political situation, the impact of insurance and liability, network effects, and, of course, standards and the regulatory environment. Get one of these wrong or get side slammed by one of them, as well as fail to adequately address or solve your company’s culture and resolve the vagaries of your company’s corporate immune system or shareholders, and it could be game over for you and your new products. SUMMARY Today we live in a world full of opportunity where the rate of change is accelerating every day, and where exponential technologies are force multipliers for multi-national companies, and levellers for startups - the result of which means that whereas yesterday you had tens of competitors in your rear-view mirror today you have hundreds - or more. It’s fun to be you. However, as amazing as all this is it will all soon be eclipsed by an even bigger, and even more disruptive revolution, because a new breed of entrepreneur, Notes: 84311institute.comone that can out think and out perform humans a million fold to one, and build fully autonomous multi-billion dollar empires within days and months is already emerging. I am, of course, talking about the rise of Creative Machines, synthetic entrepreneurs if you will, and for those of you who think that such talk of machines that can design and innovate products, and operate and scale companies is far fetched the first fully autonomous enterprises have already been built and they’re already operating on two continents. Today is the slowest rate we will ever move again, but you’ve seen nothing yet. So pause, take a deep breath, and prepare yourself for what’s coming. 85311institute.com FREE DOWNLOAD HOW TO BUILD EXPONENTIAL ENTERPRISES CREATE . BUILD . LAUNCH . REPEAT CODEXEXPONENTIAL TECH COMBINATIONSH UMANITY’S STORY is one that is inextricably intertwined with technology, in all its forms, from, for example, the early railways that connected our early cities to the telegraph lines that connected our early communities. But, as generations came and went the memory of the power and impact of these early exponential technologies faded, and now they’re consigned to the history books and museums as relics of the past. However, while our memories of those early technologies might have faded their legacies live on, and today the transformative power of the descendants of these and other exponential technologies have become even more impactful, and they’re transforming our world in new previously unimaginable ways at a faster than ever rate that is itself accelerating. The telegraph, for example, was replaced by faster more convenient fixed line telephone systems, which in time were themselves usurped by faster, superior mobile communications technologies. First came 1G, then 2G, 3G, 4G, and now 5G, with 6G on the horizon. And just eight generations on from the original telegraph system that connected FORGET ABOUT EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES ... 87311institute.compeople using mechanical clicks and whirs our world lives online, and people have embraced a new type of clicks, finger, keyboard, and mouse clicks, and communicate and experience life in bits and bytes in a world where science fiction is increasingly difficult to differentiate from science fact. However, the transformations we’ve witnessed over the centuries aren’t thanks to the development of any single technology, they’re the result of many technologies all working in combination with one another, and this is why individuals, as well as organisations, must move away from today’s rather siloed thinking where we tend to talk and think about the impact and opportunities of individual technologies, and instead think about the impact and opportunities of “Exponential Combinations.” After all, even today’s most powerful exponential technologies are simply blank slates that themselves rely on the development of a host of other exponential technologies, as well as an army of human and increasingly machine based entrepreneurs, that develop, shape, and combine them to create new amazing concepts. It’s these combinations, of not tens, but hundreds of exponential technologies, like the ones displayed on my Griffin Emerging Technology Starbursts, that enable us to transform every corner of global society, from the way we live our lives and how long we live, to where and how we work, and beyond. Furthermore, thanks to the wireless communications technologies such as those I mentioned earlier, communities and individuals that were once limited by connectivity and distance now all have increasingly easy and low cost access to a single “Global brain” and global resources that can help even the most modest among us change and transform the world in new and exciting ways. And, as these technologies become increasingly decentralised, digitised and democratised, the speed and impact of that change will only accelerate from here. ... THINK INSTEAD EXPONENTIAL COMBINATIONS! 88311institute.comAND... EVERY TECHNOLOGY HAS TWO SIDES. TECHNOLOGY IS JUST A BLANK SLATE... 89311institute.comNext >