Tag Archives | Structural Ambidexterity

SCALING UP in Corporate Settings: First Achievements and Outlook

By on January 31, 2017

First of all, Frank Mattes and I would like to wish you all the best for 2017 – we hope you’ve been starting successfully and innovatively into this new year. Last September, Frank and I launched a new initiative „SCALING UP: From Corporate Startup to Innovation Impact“. We have been overwhelmed by the huge resonance […]

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The Firm of the Future Will Manage Two Types of Businesses

By on January 20, 2017

Bain and Company has just published a worthwile article, debating on the question: What will the firm of the future look like? Among several characteristics, the authors also particularly anticipate future-proof companies to be required to manage two types of businesses by deploying distinct “engines”: Companies have always pursued innovation in their core business. Clayton Christensen has called […]

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SCALING UP: From Corporate Startup to Innovation Impact

By on September 21, 2016

More than three years ago, we noticed a pain point in corporate innovation: How should companies balance the different requirements in searching for tomorrow’s business and in running today’s business? We wrote a well-received article series urging the need for organizational ambidexterity, i.e. implementing dual corporate innovation structures.   First important steps have been taken Our […]

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Corporate Innovation Ventures: Separation vs. Integration

By on June 8, 2016

Probably the most critical structural ingredient for innovation capability is how new ventures – internal as well as external ones – are to be implemented in the organization in order to get validated and scaled. Should a new venture be entirely separated from the core business as stand-alone venture? Should it be integrated into an existing business unit? Or is it […]

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The Case for Dual Innovation

By on April 7, 2016

The first time I was advocating the idea of a dual innovation approach, here also referred to as organizational ambidexterity, is now more than 5 years ago. At this time it became pretty obvious to me that this concept – academically worn-out but deficiently or not at all put into practice in most organizations – would be of increasing importance […]

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Innovation and Organizational Culture

By on February 14, 2015

Recently, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has published key findings of their latest “Most Innovative Companies 2014” survey. Beside the annual ranking, headed by the top three companies Apple, Google and Samsung, some insightful outcomes with regard to organizational and cultural requirements have striked my eye. According to BCG’s research, successfully innovating companies approach innovation as a system. The system is rooted in experimentation, […]

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Distinct Approaches to Business Model Innovation

By on October 23, 2014

(amended, 2015-05-03) Business model innovation (BMI) is becoming ever more important as it turns out increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate based on products and services alone. New business models are difficult for competitors to copy, not only because it takes considerable time and effort to build a new business model and simultaneously change several elements of an existing one, respectively. Moreover, a […]

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Balancing Innovation via Organizational Ambidexterity – Part 3

By on August 1, 2014

This is part three of a three-parts article co-written with innovation-3‘s Frank Mattes.   The first part highlighted that radical and incremental innovation build on two different innovation set-ups (exploration and exploitation, respect. The second part showed in a sample of seven leading firms that ambidexterity is used in two main types – contextual and structural ambidexterity. […]

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Innovation and Growth

By on September 12, 2013

PwC has released the 2013 issue of their Global Innovation Survey, titled ‘Breakthrough Innovation and Growth‘. One of the main outcomes is that there is a clear correlation between innovation and growth. 93% of the executives surveyed indicate that organic growth through Innovation will drive the greater proportion of their revenue growth. Only 2% of companies expect […]

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Balancing Innovation via Organizational Ambidexterity – Part 2

By on August 12, 2013

This is part two of a three-parts article co-written with innovation-3‘s Frank Mattes.   In the first part we worked out why successful firms need to balance radical and incremental innovation. We introduced the concept of organizational ambidexterity as an appropriate way for simultaneously conducting exploration and exploitation, the two paradigms behind radical and incremental innovation. This second […]

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