A company either disrupts or is disrupted. Large, slow-moving organizations are no longer the dominant force in business. Instead, new companies are achieving growth rates never before thought possible.

What makes these companies, all of which have very different business models, stand out from the competition?

Exponential Organizations (ExOs) are growing at an above-average rate – up to ten times faster than comparable companies in the industry – but can cope with far fewer resources thanks to new forms of organization and the use of new, especially digital , technologies.

Salim Ismail, who first coined the term ExOs, has identified 11 characteristics that characterize the exemplary ExO: Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP), five intrinsic qualities, and five extrinsic qualities.