Nokia, Blackberry, TWA, Kodak, Olivetti, Enron, Blockbuster, Delta Airlines, Swiss Air, Arthur Andersen, General Motors, Chrysler, Lehman Brothers, Worldcom…and many other world-known companies went busted …one of the main reasons their failure is because they failed to become ambidextrous Research shows that ambidexterity is critical for successful strategy execution and that leads to higher performance but at the same time, it emphasizes that the tension between two distinct capabilities is a key strategic challenge.

1. Seta A. Wicaksana
Founder and CEO www.humanikaconsulting.com

2. Seta A. Wicaksana
0811 19 53 43
wicaksana@humanikaconsulting.com
• Business Psychologist
• Pendiri dan Direktur Humanika Consulting dan hipotest.com
• Anggota Komite Nominasi dan Remunerasi Dewan Komisaris PT Askrindo
• Sekretaris Prodi MM Program Pasca Sarjana Universitas Pancasila
• Dosen Tetap dan Peneliti di Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Pancasila
• Pembina Yayasan Humanika Edukasi Indonesia
• Wakil Ketua Asosiasi Psikologi Forensik Indonesia wilayah DKI
• Penulis Buku: Sobat Way (2016), Industri dan Organisasi: Pendekatan Integratif dalam
menghadapi Perubahan (2020), Human Faktor Engineering: Integratif Desain Manusia
dan Lingkungan Kerja (2021), Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi (2021), Psikologi Umum
(2021), Manajemen Pengembangan Talenta (2021), PIODiagnostik: Pengukuran Psikologi
di Lingkungan Kerja (2021), Transformasi Digital: Perspektif Organisasi, Talenta dan
Budaya Organisasi (2021), Psikologi Pelayanan (2021) dan Psikologi Konsumen (2021).
• Dosen Tidak Tetap di: Program Pasca Sarjana Ekonomi di Univ. Pancasila, STP TRISAKTI,
Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Mercu Buana, STIKOM IMA
• Certified of Assessor Talent Management
• Certified of Human Resources as a Business Partner
• Certified of Risk Professional
• Certified of HR Audit
• Ilmu Ekonomi dan Manajemen (MSDM) S3 Universitas Pancasila
• Fakultas Psikologi S1 dan S2 Universitas Indonesia
• Sekolah ikatan dinas Akademi Sandi Negara

3. “Leadership is more about providing and
communicating a compelling vision, inspiring
and motivating people, and, when necessary,
helping the organization change by reallocating
resources and changing the systems and
structures. Management is ensuring that the
trains run on time; leadership is about ensuring
that they are headed to the right destination.
Management is about execution; leadership is
about strategy and change.”
― Charles A. O'Reilly, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the
Innovator's Dilemma
3

4. Background

5. Definition of Ambidexterity
• Ambidexterity is the ability to apply multiple approaches to strategy either
concurrently or successively since many firms operate in more than one
strategic environment at once.
• The most accepted definition of organizational ambidexterity is a balance
between exploration and exploitation; organizations capable of exploiting
their existing competencies while simultaneously exploring new
opportunities.
• James March refers to this as the exploration of new possibilities and the
exploitation of old certainties. Exploitation includes such things as
refinement, choice, production, efficiency, selection, implementation, and
execution. While exploration encompasses knowledge creation and
analysis of emerging and future opportunities.
• The most accepted definition of ambidexterity is a balance between
exploration and exploitation; organizations capable of exploiting their
existing competencies while simultaneously exploring new opportunities.
James March refers to this as the exploration of new possibilities and the
exploitation of old certainties. Exploitation includes such things as
refinement, choice, production, efficiency, selection, implementation, and
execution. While exploration encompasses knowledge creation and
analysis of emerging and future opportunities.
• Organizational ambidexterity as the capacity to simultaneously achieve
alignment (exploitation – excellence in daily operations) and adaptability
(exploration – referring to the organization’s ability to innovate and change
in response to changing demands in the environment).

6. Exploration and Exploitation
• Exploitation and exploration are two continuums at different ends, so
practicing both is something that is not easy. If the company too much
emphasis on exploitation, then the company will lose a competitive
advantage because the product becomes obsolete, and the process is
less effective and efficient than competitors.
• But it’s often easier to emphasize exploitation because most
organizations have a structure and culture that emphasizes stability
and control. Vice versa, too much emphasis on exploration will result
in lots of listing potential ideas for new products and processes to
new clients and customers in a new market, but few are resolved.
• When we emphasize that exploration representing a radical
innovation is often the adoption of a new product or process radical
which is built based on existing competencies, means that knowledge
in a company that is already familiar. When we want to implement
innovation radically, we must also emphasize improving existing
competence and knowledge.
• This suggests that the emphasis on exploration must also pay
attention to the emphasis on exploitation. Therefore, it is important
to also emphasize exploitation to capture the economic value derived
from exploration. Instead, emphasis on exploitation emphasizes
evolutionary control and development.

7. Two Forms Of Organizational
Ambidexterity
• Structural ambidexterity is about creating separate
organizations or structures for different types of activities,
organizations that are either solely aligned or solely
adaptive, where employees have clear mandates and are
rewarded accordingly.
• Contextual ambidexterity is when individuals in an
organization have to make choices between exploitation-
oriented and exploration-oriented activities in their daily
work. To allow this, the organization context has to be more
flexible, allowing employees to use their own judgment as
to how they divide their time between adaptation-oriented
and alignment-oriented activities.

8. When
• Most large businesses operate in multiple
environments that change quickly over time—
spanning many increasingly diverse
geographies and product categories—and that
are supported by a wide range of enabling
functions.
• This diversity requires firms to be
ambidextrous, because no single approach to
strategy is applicable to a large firm in its
entirety and over time.

9. How a Developing
Ambidexterity in Organization
• The right approach to ambidexterity depends on how many
different environments the firm faces (diversity) and how
often those environments change (dynamism).
• A separation approach means that different approaches to
strategy are managed top-down and are run independently
from one another in different divisions or geographies.
Firms applying a switching approach manage a common
pool of resources that switch among the five approaches to
strategy. Self-organization means that each unit chooses
the best approach to strategy. In an ecosystem approach,
firms source different approaches to strategy externally
through players that specialize in the needed approach.

10. Executing Ambidexterity
concepts
• Running the business is the alma mater of the organization. It includes the
core processes, such as operations, sales, customer services, finance, and IT.
Most of the revenues generated by any firm will come from running
business activities. Running the business keeps the company alive, if you
stop running it, the company will quickly die. The focus of running the
business is short-term; objectives are mainly commercial, financial, and
performance-driven; it is about efficiency, productivity, and speed; in
academic terms, it is about exploitation. It is akin to writing with the right
hand.
• Changing the business is the future of the organization. It includes all the
initiatives, projects, and programs, strategic and tactical. Organizations have
often hundreds and thousands of initiatives running in parallel. Changing
the business creates future value for the organization; the objectives are
often more strategic and closer to the vision, but the benefits are only
achieved in the medium and long term, and, as such, are less tangible and
quantifiable than operational objectives. These targets aim at transforming
the business to significantly increase growth and profitability. In addition, it
is highly risky and there is no certainty that benefits will be achieved at all.
In academic terms this is exploration. It is akin to paint left-handed.

11. Leading the Ambidextrous
Organization
• A compelling strategic intent that intellectually justifies the
importance of both exploration and exploitation.
• An articulation of a common vision and values that provide for a
common identity across the exploitative and exploratory units.
• A senior team that explicitly owns the unit’s strategy of exploration
and exploitation; there is a common-fate reward system; and the
strategy is communicated relentlessly.
• Separate but aligned organizational architectures (business models,
structure, incentives, metrics, and cultures) for the exploratory and
exploitative units and targeted integration at both senior and tactical
levels to properly leverage organizational assets.
• The ability of the senior leadership to tolerate and resolve the
tensions arising from separate alignments.

12. The Model of
Structural
Ambidexterity

13. Developing
Organizational
Ambidexterity
Framework
(Wicaksana, 2023)
Leadership
and culture
Strategy,
Structure
and
governance
People and
skills
Processes
and
methods
Organizational
Perspective
People
Perspective
exploration
exploitation
Collaboration
Systems
and
tools/Tech.
Enterprise
Performance
Learning Agility

14. “ambidexterity is to become an
organizational capability, it needs
to be repeatable and not a one-off
event. What is potentially
worrisome about several of our
examples is that they reflect the
efforts of a single individual
rather than a process.”
― Charles A. O'Reilly, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve
the Innovator's Dilemma

15. How To Build Organizational Ambidexterity
Preparation
1. Strategy, Structure, and Governance
2. Processes and methods
3. People and skills
4. Leadership and culture
Equip with
5. Systems and tools
6. Learning Agility
7. Collaboration
8. Enterprise performance management

16. 1. Strategy, Structure, and
Governance
• Having the right strategy, the organizational and governing structure is probably the
biggest challenge of becoming ambidextrous. Making changes within an organization
is extremely complicated for two fundamental reasons: those that pertain to history
and those relating to human behavior. First, organizations are built over many years;
and over time, they become rusty, expensive to run, and out of touch with reality.
Second, the hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals that make up an
organization have their old habits, which they are often reluctant to change. Some of
these individuals are also influenced by decision-making power, which is often
reflected by who has the largest department, the highest budget, and the biggest
salary.
• This pillar is one of the most difficult business elements for which to find the right
balance because both the organization and the external environment constantly
change. Implementing the right connections between the change-the-business and
the run-the-business activities is fundamental for the execution of the strategy. If this
optimal balance is achieved, the organization will become extremely responsive to
the changing environment and able to quickly react to the competition. Eventually,
the organization can become a trendsetter in its industry.

17. 2. Processes and methods
• Processes, methods, and standards are necessary to ensure that work is
performed consistently throughout the organization. Each process has a
specific objective, which requires the performance of certain activities to
produce the desired output. Not only do processes help to gauge
performance and increase efficiency, but they also facilitate continuous
improvements and give management better control over the company.
Nevertheless, most organizations have mature run-the-business processes.
This is not the case for the change-the-business dimension, whose
processes are not fully developed and are less embedded in the
organization, or for the link between the two dimensions.
• To become an ambidextrous organization, the run-the-business and the
change-the-business processes and methods must interconnect at certain
critical points. If these connection points are missing, the company will
remain very strongly unbalanced in the direction of its run-the-business
side, as this is generally its dominant dimension.

18. 3. People and skills
• The biggest challenge to the People and Skills pillar of an
ambidextrous organization is to seamlessly align two different sets of
HR models.
• The organization must first define the change-the-business aspect and
then integrate it fully with the run-the-business model.
• Highly motivated employees will gain experience in both dimensions
alternately, for example, spending two years in a marketing position
and then moving on to manage a CRM implementation project.
• Employees cannot become managers if they have not previously
managed a large project.
• It is important that HR management is aware of these different
models and takes them into account when defining the organization’s
HR policies.

19. 4. Leadership and culture
• Leadership is where everything starts and ends in a
company.
• Although the company’s culture and values are
defined over time and can remain unchanged for
decades, the CEO and top management can alter
these elements at any point with their messages and
actions.
• In an ambidextrous organization, the CEO is the main
driver of change; thus, he or she needs to be the first
one to adopt the culture and values and to gain top
management’s support in transmitting these
principles to the rest of the organization.
• Top management needs to be aware of how run-the-
business and change-the-business activities operate
independently and how they interact.

20. 5. Systems and tools
• None of the above improvements can be achieved without a set of critical systems
and tools that support the execution and the management of both the run-the-
business and the change-the-business components. Organizations today are
composed of an amalgam of applications. Each dimension has specific applications
that are needed to efficiently perform its role in the business. If we consider that
strategy execution is the combination and integration of the run and the change,
then we can conclude that companies today don’t have any software to plan and
execute their strategies.
• This is one of the reasons why strategy execution is so difficult; and although many IT
vendors claim to have produced a strategy execution tool, this is not the case. In fact,
there is no single tool that can cover both sides of the business and consolidate the
information to allow management to follow up on the execution of their strategies.
The all-embracing strategy execution tool has not yet been invented. On the other
hand, being regularly confronted with the lack of such a tool has led me to find a
temporary solution that I believe should form the basis for its future development.

21. 6. Learning Agility
• The article “Sequences of learning types for organizational ambidexterity” by
Seidle (2019) addresses this topic nicely by examining how organizations employ
different forms of learning in the innovation process, using data from a
longitudinal study on structural ambidexterity. The findings suggest that while
both experiential learning and vicarious learning are important for
ambidexterity, the sequencing of learning time and the similarity of experience
differ markedly between exploration and exploitation.
• March (1991) defines dualistic learning as exploitative learning and explorative
learning. Exploitative learning is characterized by "refining, screening,
production, efficiency, selection, implementation and execution", while
explorative learning is characterized by "searching, variation, adventure,
experiment, attempt, adaptation, discovery and innovation. Former emphasizes
the use and deep development of the existing knowledge, while the latter
focuses on the pursuit of new knowledge (Lin, Iii, Lin, & Lin, 2013).

22. 7. Collaboration
• While many organization aims at achieving multiple,
sometimes contrasting, goals (such as combining
innovation with efficiency) not that much is known
about what managers can do to create organizational
ambidexterity. Theory suggests that organizational
ambidexterity requires collaboration with organizations
and that, in turn, managers can facilitate collaborative
relations.
• Managing collaboration and ambidexterity are
processes; organizations switch between innovation and
exploitation instead of being ambidextrous all the time,
managers have an active role in guiding this process by
creating collaboration through 4 distinct mechanisms
(discipline, stretch, trust and support) and ambidexterity,
in turn, strengthens collaboration through increased
interdependency

23. 8. Enterprise performance
management
• Enterprise performance management refers to a framework (e.g., processes,
tools, key performance indicators) that manages performance and measures it
against the company’s predefined operational, commercial, and strategic goals.
• Some well-known performance management methodologies include total
quality management (TQM), Economic Value Added (EVA), Six Sigma (6Σ), and
Activity Based Costing (ABC); but the one that is most widely used is the
Balanced Scorecard, developed in 1992 by Robert Kaplan and David Norton.
• The main drawback of the Balanced Scorecard, and the other enterprise
performance management methodologies, is that they address only the run-
the-business dimension, thus failing to account for a large and key element of
strategy execution.
• Enterprise performance management should be a top-down framework that
focuses on managing the execution of the firm’s strategic goals. It should cover
both run-the-business and change-the-business dimensions and monitors the
execution of the commercial and operational goals together with the company’s
strategic roadmap.

24. Conclusion
• There is now convincing evidence suggesting that for organizations to
survive in the face of change, they need to be able to successfully
exploit their existing businesses and to explore into new spaces by
reconfiguring existing resources and developing new capabilities.
• While the evidence for the benefits of ambidexterity is accumulating,
there exists a gap in understanding how ambidexterity is actually
managed within organizations.
• This article has explored how leaders within organizations actually
implement ambidexterity.
• The actions, behaviors, and design choices made by the senior leader
comprise the dynamic capabilities that enable firms to simultaneously
explore and exploit and emphasize the key role of strategic leadership
in adapting, integrating, and reconfiguring organizational skills and
resources to match changing environments.

25. “The added value of
ambidexterity is that it allows
valuable resources of the
mature business to be applied
to new ones.”
― Charles A. O'Reilly, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve
the Innovator's Dilemma

26. References
• https://www.bcg.com/publications/collections/your-strategy-needs-
strategy/ambidexterity
• https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Shared%20Documents/conferences/2015-
strategy-research/Organizational%20Ambidexterity%20in%20Action.pdf
• O’Reilly, C. A., & Tushman, M. L. (2011). Organizational ambidexterity in
action: How managers explore and exploit. California Management Review,
53(4), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2011.53.4.5
• Ferry Koster, et al. (2017). How managers evoke ambidexterity and
collaboration, All content following this page was uploaded by Ferry Koster
on 10 October 2017.
• Wang, Dongling, et al (2019). Relationship between Ambidexterity Learning
and Innovation Performance: The Moderating Effect of Redundant
Resources. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business Volume 6
Issue 1 / Pages.205-215. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2019.vol6.no1.205

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