We are living in an amazing time in human history, with the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing, solar power, etc. and all of them are doubling its capabilities every year. The combination of all these exponential technologies is what’s being called the 4th Industrial Revolution and, not only businesses and industries need to evolve, but also innovation consultants need to update themselves to be part of the new exponential age in order to help their clients to survive and to take advantage of the great opportunities ahead.

In this new age dominated by exponential technologies, which are generating an abundance of information, resources and even an abundance of energy; there is a new type of business called the Exponential Organization (ExO) that is changing the rules of every industry.

Salim Ismail explained very well this new phenomenon and also listed and described the 11 ExO Attributes that are commonly used by these new types of organizations in his bestseller called Exponential Organizations. Actually, the book also generated a global movement of people who started to use and extend the ExO Model to launch new organizations and help traditional businesses to evolve in order to navigate industry disruption and take advantage of it.

In the book, Salim also published an assessment tool called the Exponential Quotient (ExQ) that allows organizations to know how exponential they are and whether they are flexible enough to navigate industry disruption.

In fact, a couple of years after Salim released his bestseller, the ExO Community co-created a new tool called the ExO Canvas, which allows us to design a new Exponential Organization in just a few minutes.

In addition to the above, Salim and I started to work on a new process called the ExO Sprint which is focused on helping any traditional business to turn into an Exponential Organization by moving the leadership mindset and culture of the organization 2 years ahead in just 10 weeks.

After running the ExO Sprint process with many organizations all around the world and getting impressive results constantly, we decided to open source the process by publishing a book called Exponential Transformation that was written by Salim, Michelle Lapierre and myself, and more than 200 collaborators around the world who provided input to this new resource.

However, transforming organizations is not about technology, not even about tools and methodologies; the key element is the people. So we created OpenExO as a platform for the ExO Community where anyone can access the open-source tools and resources (ExQ, ExO Canvas, ExO Sprint, etc.). OpenExO also has a marketplace where members of the ExO Community can both post and receive opportunities for ExO-related services coming from real clients.

Also, OpenExO offers official ExO Certifications, which have been created for innovation professionals who want to help their clients to go to the next level and also for traditional organizations that may want to better understand how to apply the ExO Model to their businesses and eventually have internal staff who can do it.

A traditional organization that wants to navigate industry disruption has two options: On the one hand, traditional organizations may want to keep their current business model and just make incremental improvements to become more flexible to the external industry disruption. On the other hand, many traditional organizations are trying to evolve their business model to connect with the abundance and eventually grow exponentially. Actually, in most cases, evolving the existing business model is the only option to survive.

The ExO Consultant Certification is focused on applying the ExO Model to existing organizations without evolving the business model. The program is a 4-week process where the participant has the opportunity to apply the ExO Model to an existing organization that he or she picks, so it’s a great opportunity to run a first consulting engagement for a real client and get feedback and support from the OpenExO official ExO Trainers. So not only innovation consultants are interested in this program, but final clients who want to learn how to apply the EXO Model to their own businesses. There are three main types of services that people with this certification can offer to clients:

• ExO Assessment: Help existing businesses to understand how scalable they are and how adaptable their organization is for the external industry disruption. In order to do this, official ExO Consultants have access to the ExQ Panel, which will allow them to perform advanced analysis for one organization or for a group of organizations.
• ExO Design: Help existing organizations to think what ExO Attributes they should implement in order to become more scalable and adaptable. To do so, certified ExO Consultants will use the ExO Canvas as the main tool.
• ExO Implementation: Help existing organizations to actually implement the ExO Attributes in order to adapt their current business to the industry disruption. To do this, certified ExO Consultants will be able to access the OpenExO Marketplace where they will find experts for all ExO Attributes and for any exponential technology.

The ExO Sprint Coach Certification (it is mandatory to have completed the ExO Consultant Certification previously). It’s focused on helping organizations to implement the ExO Sprint in order to evolve their business model. The program is a 6-week process where participants have the opportunity not only to learn but also to go through an ExO Sprint simulation to get the knowledge and experience needed to participate in one of the upcoming ExO Sprint! There are two main services that people with this certification can offer to clients:

• ExO Workshop: Inspire and teach organizations about the ExO Model using a learningby doing approach where the attendees work in a real organization as a use case and evolve the organization ideating and implementing different ExO-based initiatives, just in just a few hours. In order to do this, certified ExO Consultant will have access to many resources and content to prepare the workshop.
• ExO Sprint: Evolve an organization by moving its leadership mindset and culture two years in just ten weeks. The ExO Sprint is the jewel of the crown when it comes to transforming a traditional organization into a new Exponential Organization. Certified ExO Sprint Coaches will be able to sell, manage and run ExO Sprints to their own clients and also to bring other ExO Sprint Coaches from the ExO Community into their projects to be able to run bigger and more projects by themselves. In order to do this, certified ExO Sprint Coaches will have access to a special software tool to manage and run ExO Sprints.

Whether you are an innovation professional or an existing organization, the ExO Certifications are valuable for you. In fact, if you are an existing organization you can either have part of your staff get certified in order to get new ideas and implement the ExO processes into your business. Also, if you decide to get someone to help with the ExO Model, just remember you should always check that the person you hire to work on it is a certified ExO practitioner by OpenExO.

Becoming a certified ExO practitioner will help both your business and/or your client's business to evolve to the new age of exponentials and take advantage of it. However, the best value out of being a certified ExO practitioner is not to gain professional relevance, but overall to have the opportunity to work on meaningful projects that will eventually transform the world for a better future.

If you want to learn more about the ExO Certifications, here you can find more information:

• ExO Consultant Certification
• ExO Sprint Coach Certification