Our Services
Each of our projects is different, but they have one thing in common: A need for decisive, informed, and often urgent action in the face of disruptive threats or 10x opportunity.
Awake Workshop
Most of our engagements start with this. A shock & awe workshop balanced with agitation and provocation designed to inspire action and raise leaders out of the trenches. We explore patterns of disruption; why most organisations miss it; the deceptive curve of disappointment.
We also spend a chunk of time exploring how to respond to the ever increasing pace of change, and importantly, what not to do.
We tailor the key messages for boards, executives or wider leadership groups.
ExO Transformation Sprint
70% of transformation efforts fail each year - this is nearly $1Tn wasted every year!
Our approach to transformation was developed by OpenExO to address this failure rate. It deals with the corporate immune system, has an explicit growth ambition, and expects the rate of change in the environment to be dynamic.
Most importantly this is an internally driven process powered by small autonomous cross functional teams of people from right through the organisation. We act as coaches and guides, not consultants.
Growth Strategy
We’ve blended more traditional approaches to strategy from the big consulting firms with ExO approaches into a unique paper-light and momentum-heavy playbook.
Almost entirely workshop based, we start with purpose as the north star to explore ‘where to play’ using market attractiveness and competitive advantage to prioritise markets. Next in ‘how to play’ we hypothesise about what it will take to win in the future and therefore the capabilities to be built now. Finally we define ‘what to do’ in a simple portfolio of initiatives/OKRs with single point of accountability and clear metrics.
New Venture Development
Between us we have attempted more than 10 new businesses under corporate ownership, each with multi-million dollar investment budgets. We have created and deployed corporate venture capital funds and brokered countless other partnerships with early stage companies.
We deeply understand how to navigate the inherent tensions between new ventures and corporates. Our approach was developed to specifically enable startup agility and space for learning/failure while also creating discipline, transparency and structure required by corporate parents.
Transformation as a service
Sometimes you have someone already accountable for transformation but need to amplify their efforts with on-demand executive level expertise. That is what this service is for.
It can be a lifesaver to have an un-biased person that has been down these tricky paths to rely on. We offer our insight, frameworks and approaches. When you need it we will also get our hands dirty; our only agenda is your success.
DIY - 12 Steps to create an ExO
We believe anyone with the right mindset can create an ExO (Exponential Organisation). While we may not be able to work with everyone we want every to have access to these tools and approaches.
It doesn’t matter if you have an idea or not, have a team or not, have funding or not, have experience or not. Here you can access the 12 steps to create an ExO with downloadable worksheets, templates and frameworks.
“Any company designed for success in the 20th century is doomed for failure in the 21st”
— David S. Rose, Founder or Investor in over 100 startups