{"id":31938,"date":"2023-05-17T18:51:37","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T16:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cabreramc.com\/do-you-have-ambidextrous-organizations-in-your-company\/"},"modified":"2024-06-28T12:58:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T10:58:46","slug":"do-you-have-ambidextrous-organizations-in-your-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cabreramc.com\/en\/do-you-have-ambidextrous-organizations-in-your-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you have ambidextrous organizations in your company?"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”padding-2-percent” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”left-right” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]\n \n
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The ambidextrous person uses the left and right hand with equal skill. In the world of management, the ambidextrous professional is the one who has the ability to exploit current capabilities while continuing to explore new opportunities for future development<\/span><\/p> \n<\/blockquote> \n

One of the biggest challenges that organizations face in the face of uncertainty is how to simultaneously exploit the current business and explore new opportunities. Exploration usually generates radical (or discontinuous) innovation; Exploitation tends to produce more incremental innovation. Focusing too much on excellence in day-to-day operations can cause an organization to lose long-term vision and risk its future viability, while emphasizing exploration over organizational alignment can lead us to build tomorrow’s business at the cost of today’s. Hence, the need for a new organizational design that makes both exploitation and exploration possible is becoming more evident every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ambidextrous Organizations: Exploitation and Exploration<\/b><\/h3>\n

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In <\/span>Ambidextrous Organizations<\/b>, exploitation and exploration often coexist. To understand this, let’s explain what we mean by these two terms.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is generally accepted that exploitation and exploration are two fundamentally different types of activities between which companies divide their attention and resources.<\/p>\n

Exploitation-oriented activities are generally related to the operation of the core business through the execution and continuous improvement of current business processes or technological capabilities. It includes core processes, such as operations, sales, customer services, and finance and the continuous innovation of products, services, or processes, and the development of existing sales and operations channels.<\/span><\/p>\n

The objectives of the operation are mainly commercial, financial and performance; It’s about efficiency, productivity, and results. Most of the income generated by a company comes from the execution of operating activities, it is what keeps it alive. In ambidextrous terms, exploitation is similar to right-handed writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Exploration-oriented activities are related to the development of future businesses by seeking new and often disruptive business models or new technological capabilities. It includes the development of new business models, new approaches to customers, radical innovations, and transformation projects that require new skills and the development of new digital competencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Exploration objectives are often more strategic and closer to vision, but the benefits are only achieved in the medium to long term and, as such, are less tangible and quantifiable than operational objectives. These goals aim to transform the business to significantly increase its growth and profitability. In addition, it is a high-risk activity and there is no certainty that the expected benefits will be achieved. In ambidextrous terms, it’s similar to writing with your left hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ambidextrous Organizations<\/b><\/h3>\n

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<\/span>Ambidextrous organizations<\/b>, in terms of management, are those that have the ability to effectively balance the exploitation of the current business and the exploration of new fields of action. In other words, they have the <\/span>Dual skill<\/b>: the ability <\/span>to exploit your business of the present<\/b> while <\/span>also exploring new businesses<\/b> constantly. This dual capacity in complex, uncertain and rapidly changing times becomes vital. So it is not surprising that operational duality has received so much attention in the management literature, since the publication in Harvard Business Review, of research carried out by Michael L. Tushman, which highlights, with empirical data, that operational duality leads to greater organizational performance, but at the same time emphasizes that the tension between two distinct capabilities such as exploitation and exploration make it very difficult to the simultaneity of both in organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Different Approaches of Dual Organizations<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Although there is consensus on the need to simultaneously exploit and explore to ensure the long-term viability of the organization, there is still no unanimity on the best way to achieve this, and complementary proposals have emerged to make an organization ambidextrous.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>traditional view of the ambidextrous organization<\/b> revolves around the <\/span>initial approach of O’Reilly and Tushman<\/b> (HBR April 2004), which proposes a <\/span>structural separation<\/b> of different types of activities into <\/span>different business units<\/b>. How <\/span>alternative<\/b>, the notion of <\/span>contextual ambidexterity<\/b>, represents a complementary process introduced by Gibson and Birkinshaw (MIT Sloan June 2004), based on the creation of a specific organizational context and more flexible structures, which make it possible for employees to decide how they divide their time between exploitation-oriented and exploration-oriented activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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