O'Reilly Charles A, Tushman Michael L
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, California, USA.
Harv Bus Rev. 2004 Apr;82(4):74-81, 140.
Corporate executives must constantly look backward, attending to the products and processes of the past, while also gazing forward, preparing for the innovations that will define the future. This mental balancing act is one of the toughest of all managerial challenges--it requires executives to explore new opportunities even as they work diligently to exploit existing capabilities--and it's no surprise that few companies do it well. But as every businessperson knows, there are companies that do. What's their secret? These organizations separate their new, exploratory units from their traditional, exploitative ones, allowing them to have different processes, structures, and cultures; at the same time, they maintain tight links across units at the senior executive level. Such "ambidextrous organizations," as the authors call them, allow executives to pioneer radical or disruptive innovations while also pursuing incremental gains. Of utmost importance to the ambidextrous organization are ambidextrous managers--executives who have the ability to understand and be sensitive to the needs of very different kinds of businesses. They possess the attributes of rigorous cost cutters and free-thinking entrepreneurs while also maintaining the objectivity required to make difficult trade-offs. Almost every company needs to renew itself through the creation of breakthrough products and processes, but it shouldn't do so at the expense of its traditional business. Building an ambidextrous organization is by no means easy, but the structure itself, combining organizational separation with senior team integration, is not difficult to understand. Given the executive will to make it happen, any company can become ambidextrous.
企业高管必须不断回顾过去，关注过去的产品和流程，同时也要展望未来，为定义未来的创新做好准备。这种思维上的平衡行为是所有管理挑战中最艰巨的任务之一——它要求高管们在努力利用现有能力的同时探索新机会——而且很少有公司能做好也就不足为奇了。但正如每个商人所知，确实有公司能做到。它们的秘诀是什么？这些组织将新的探索性部门与传统的开发性部门分开，使它们拥有不同的流程、结构和文化；与此同时，它们在高级管理层保持各部门之间的紧密联系。作者称这种组织为“双元组织”，它使高管们能够开拓激进或颠覆性的创新，同时也追求渐进式的收益。对于双元组织来说，最重要的是双元管理者——即那些能够理解并敏锐感知截然不同的各类业务需求的高管。他们兼具严格的成本削减者和自由思考的企业家的特质，同时还能保持做出艰难权衡所需的客观性。几乎每家公司都需要通过创造突破性的产品和流程来实现自我更新，但不应以牺牲其传统业务为代价。构建双元组织绝非易事，但其结构本身，即将组织分离与高级团队整合相结合，并不难理解。只要高管们有决心实现这一目标，任何公司都可以成为双元组织。
