The rise of the exponential era

The exponential series

In conversations today around ‘futuristic’ concepts like technology, digital, platform organisations and growth, the term exponential is used everywhere.

‘Exponential’ as a description used to exist only in the lexicon of mathematicians and biologists, where it described the speed of the spread of types of bacteria. As an adjective, exponential is defined as ‘rising or expanding at a steady and unusually rapid rate’.

In this paper, we look at the origins of the use of the term, what it is we’re trying to describe when we use it, and the impact that our shift into the exponential era is having on organisations and the business and social landscape.


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