Lead and Disrupt

identified by senior executives as a critical element in organizational success. But what is it and how can leaders change it? This chapter shows how culture can operate as a social control system in organizations that can be a critical element in helping or hindering strategy execution. We show how the cultures needed for exploitation are different in important ways from those needed for exploration-and how leaders can align their cultures to fit the needed strategy. Using firms such as Microsoft and General Motors as examples, we show how leaders can change their organization's culture and how ambidexterity requires leaders to manage multiple cultures within the same firm.5Seven Innovation Stories chapter abstract

Using the frameworks developed in the first three chapters, here we provide a set of detailed examples for how ambidexterity can operate. We describe how the leaders of seven different organizations (e.g., a newspaper, a manufacturing company, a high-tech firm, etc.) were able to meet the challenge of disruptive change. On the basis of these insights we identify three essential elements necessary for leaders to design ambidextrous organizations.6Getting It Right Versus Almost Right chapter abstract

Here we expand on the insights from Chapter 5 and describe in detail a process that IBM uses to generate organic growth-the Emerging Business Opportunity (EBO) process-which enabled them to increase revenues by more than $15 billion during the period of 2000-2006. We also show how Cisco attempted and failed at a similar effort.7The Three Disciplines of Organizational Ambidexterity: Ideation, Incubation, and Scaling chapter abstract

Facing the threat of disruption, many large, established firms have embraced innovation as a way to develop new growth businesses. Approaches such as open innovation, design thinking, corporate venture capital, the lean start-up methodology, and the business model canvas have been enthusiastically embraced-with mixed success. This chapter shows that while each approach has its merits, successful innovation requires large firms to be ambidextrous-to compete in mature and new markets simultaneously. Ambidexterity can best be understood as consisting of three distinct disciplines: (1)ideationto generate potential new business ideas, (2)incubationto validate these ideas in the market, and (3)scalingto reallocate the assets and capabilities needed to grow the new business. We show how many popular innovation approaches solve for only one or two of these three disciplines, which can lead to failure to innovate. To be successful at developing new-growth businesses requires all three.8What It Takes to Become Ambidextrous chapter abstract

In this chapter we identify four major elements associated with more versus less successful efforts at ambidexterity. These are practical guidelines that can be used to help managers think about how to apply these lessons in their own contexts. We focus here on the question of what needs to be done to design an ambidextrous organization. What are the elements that leaders need to consider when implementing ambidexterity? What are the cardinal sins to be avoided?9Leaders (and Their Teams) as Linchpins chapter abstract

Whereas the previous chapter focused on what needs to be done to implement an ambidextrous design, this chapter focuses on how leaders can do this. We provide examples of two leadership failures and three successes and, drawing on previous examples, conclude by suggesting five leadership principles that undergird the successful implementation of ambidexterity.10Leading Change and Strategic Renewal chapter abstract

In this chapter we first provide some guidelines for managers to consider in determining whether ambidexterity is needed for organizational renewal. We then describe how the leaders of two organizations (IBM and Haier) successfully led organizational change and renewal that transformed their companies. Based on these, we conclude with six suggestions for leaders to consider when leading organizational renewal.