Ambidexterity is the ability to look after today and innovate for tomorrow. It is the holy grail of organization. The main recommendation is structural separation at the operating level and managerial integration at the next level up.
A recent discussion with a manager from Colfax made me wonder whether the solution might be process separation rather than structural separation.
Colfax has a dual budgeting process. There is a budget for the base activities and ‘policy deployment’ for projects that will make a significant change to the status quo. Policy deployment consists of 5 to 10 projects each of which will make a step change in some dimension of sales or costs. Each project is headed by a member of the executive team, so some may have more than one project. Each project is separately funded. Progress is reviewed monthly. The reviews happen the day after the budget reviews. Normally the same people are present, but the focus is on progress, speed, value for money and stretch rather than operating performance, variances and plans to get back on track.
Colfax also has a track record. Most senior managers have come from Danaher which has had above 20% earnings gains for 20 years or more. Both management teams frequently double margins and double organic growth in the companies they acquire, exactly the sort of ambidextrous performance that most companies are looking for.
So maybe we do not need to create structural ambidexterity. Maybe we can do it with ambidextrous processes.
I run courses on organisation design and operating model improvements at Ashridge business school
Ashridge on Strategy 
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