In an ExO world, purpose trumps strategy and execution overrides planning. - Salim Ismail

So, of the three major risk areas, execution risk remains the only real issue in building a company. How will the enterprise organize itself to maximize performance from its founders and management team? How will it leverage technology and information to create a unique and sustainable advantage and business model? Answering these questions correctly is the key to building a successful Exponential Organization. For this reason, we need to look more closely at each of the steps in building a powerful and effective team.

In fact, the best definition we've found for a startup comes from Ries: "A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty."

Large numbers of bottom-up ideas, properly filtered, always trump top-down thinking, no matter the industry or organization.