"The Ambidextrous Organization"
Harvard Business Review
April 2004, pp. 74-81
The issue examined in this article is that "Most successful enterprises are adept at refining their current offering, but they falter when it comes to pioneering radically new products and services." In conjunction with several other researchers, the authors "looked for companies that attempted to simultaneously pursue modest, incremental innovations…and more dramatic, breakthrough innovations." They studied 35 attempts to launch breakthrough innovations, in 15 different business units from nine different industries.
Breakthrough projects were found to be structured in four alternative ways:
- Teams that were completely integrated into the functional structure of the organization
- Cross-functional teams that operated within the organization but outside the existing management structure
- Independent units set up outside both the management hierarchy and the existing organizational structure
- "Ambidextrous organizations" where the breakthrough efforts were organized as structurally independent units, each having its own processes, structures, and cultures but integrated into the existing senior management hierarchy
The "ambidextrous organizations" were found to be significantly more successful in launching breakthrough products or services, when compared to the other three structures. It was also found that "ambidextrous organizations" were also more successful in terms of the performance of existing product.
The authors identify three key factors in becoming ambidextrous:
- "Ambidextrous organizations need ambidextrous senior teams and managers-executives who have the ability to understand and be sensitive to the needs of very different kinds of businesses"
- Resistance at the top levels of the organization cannot be tolerated
- A clear and compelling vision must be relentlessly communicated by the company's senior team
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