Exponential Business Model Revealed

“There are decades where nothing happens; there are weeks when decades happen.” 

For the entire last century and even early years of this century, businesses that grew linearly were considered successful. So what changed in the last decade and a half? Nothing shows this change better than the Mobile Phone industry. In 2007, it stood at 122 Million Units and in 7 years it was 1244 Million units. Basically, a 10X growth in 7 years. It had all so-called experts licking their wounds for long. Is it just this? No. This was just the start, a look at the time taken by some major industries/services to reach 50 million users is very telling.

In the 1900s:

·   Airlines took 68 years

·   Telephone, 50 years

In 2000:

·   Facebook took 3 years

·   WeChat 1 year, and hold your breath 

·   Pokemon Go: 19 days 

Compare 19 days to 68 years. 

Do you still think linear growth is better?

We have seen in the previous article what happened to Nokia, they died in an Industry that was doubling itself every 2-3 years. Exponential growth is par for the course in the present times. As per YCharts, Zoom ( we hadn’t even heard of them 18 months ago) is valued at over USD 48.78 Billion, which is higher than the combined valuation of Top 7 Airlines in the world. That is why we started with the lines at the top which interestingly were said by Vladimir Lenin.

All of us, no matter at what stage of careers, have to pause and check, “are we in an Exponential Industry? Are we creating Exponential Businesses?” If the answer is No to either, then one has to reset and restart. These are not the times of change management, these are times of being a change agent both for the industry and business

So how can we reimagine growth? The fundamentals of Exponential Growth require:

Being able to solve a problem for the community or link communities 

Democratization of products, services, or industries. Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia and it’s free, remember Britannica used to be so expensive that owning it was a status symbol. Wikipedia democratized information.

Becoming an intermediary platform to help sellers and customers meet. 

Having a purpose that is beyond business and has an emotional connection with the customer. 

Do you still support linear growth or joined the exponential bandwagon?