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The Ambidextrous Organization

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Ambidextrous Organizations tend to be more successful than others today. To explain this, we compare companies in the field of innovation strategy with various forms of orchestras from music. There are two basic corporate structures: that of the orchestra and that of a jazz combo.

The orchestra plays according to the instructions of a conductor. He sets the beat and the musicians follow it. He decides who plays which instrument and who plays the solos. Roles and tasks are clearly distributed and must “sit”.

The longer rehearsed in this formalized setup, the more perfect and efficient the result. The conductor has every single musician in his sights (side note: he does, however, have his back to the audience).

The jazz combo is fundamentally different from the orchestra. The musicians have all the freedom and can “let off steam” creatively. Each member of the group has a fixed role; however, how and at what point he uses his role is up to him – it resembles a creative-chaotic process. New ideas and innovations are expected as a result of the interaction.

Both forms captivate exclusively in their own expertise: the orchestra masters the complicated interplay to perfection, the jazz combo can easily improvise and produce creative music.
Transferred to a company, this means that “jazz combo organizations” find it easy to find new ideas, business areas and markets, while “orchestra organizations” have learned to survive in existing markets.

Today, a company must mix both organizational forms in order to be successful in the long term. Those who manage to run their company efficiently AND breathe creative-chaotic wind into it are equipped for the future.

According to orchestra strategy, the established business units should be managed; the competitive advantage is achieved through many years of experience as well as internalized, professional processes. Dynamic, smaller units are simultaneously engaged in new areas of business. If these are discovered and established at some point, the orchestra principle takes effect here again.

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