Salim Ismail opens Exponential Organizations by identifying a new organizational model — which he terms "exponential organizations" or ExOs — capable of achieving disproportionately large impact and growth using dramatically fewer owned resources than traditional organizations, by leveraging external assets, community, and information technology in ways traditional linear organizational models don't fully exploit.

Ismail's foundational argument:

• He argues that traditional organizational models, built around owning and directly controlling necessary resources and capabilities, are poorly suited to fully exploit the exponential technological change and information-based leverage increasingly available in the contemporary business environment
• Ismail examines companies achieving remarkably rapid growth and scale by instead leveraging external community, information technology, and other externally-sourced assets rather than building and owning all necessary capability internally, arguing this represents a genuinely distinct organizational model rather than merely an incremental variation on traditional organizational design
• This foundational premise sets up the book's overall project: identifying the specific organizational attributes and practices characterizing these exponential organizations, and providing guidance for how traditional organizations might adopt elements of this model

This foundational framing establishes Ismail's overall approach: examining a genuinely distinct organizational model he argues represents a significant departure from traditional organizational design, rather than merely incremental organizational improvement within an unchanged traditional model.