Organizational Ambidexterity: IBM and Emerging Business Opportunities

Organizational Ambidexterity: IBM and Emerging Business Opportunities
( http://cmr.berkeley.edu/articles/2009_51_4_5525_accenture_award.pdf )

Charles A. O’Reilly III
J. Bruce Harreld
Michael L. Tushman

California Management Review Vl.51. No.5, Summer 2009

The paper quotes the work of Stubbart and Knight on life of Companies.

In a comprehensive study of the more than six million U.S. firms, Stubbart and Knight note that only a tiny fraction of firms live to age 40, probably less than 0.1%. Then it brings out the two points of view organizational ecology whose position is that environment changes drastically at certain points of time and only organizations which are in alignment with the new environment survive and others will vanish. The organizational adaptation theory claims that environment gives sufficient opportunity to firms to adapt. Firms that adapt survive and firms which do not make attempts to adapt or fail to make appropriate and sufficient changes fail and disappear.

In this paper, the authors describe how IBM adapted successfully to live beyond 100 years. They stated that both the theories can be supported.