Ian McCarthy posted a link to Ben Thompson’s interesting analysis What if Steve Ballmer Ran Apple?
Steve Ballmer new Apple CEO & ambidexterity: exploitation (making money now) vs exploration (inventing the future) http://t.co/LY6O6XLR86
— Ian P. McCarthy (@Toffeemen68) August 25, 2013
As McCarthy points out strategic ambidexterity is a choice between short-term exploitation to maximize profit or longer-term exploration to create the future.
Strategy lessons in the technology sector can inform public-sector services. Organizations that aim to maximize and co-create value with clients and other stakeholders will have strong long-term prospects. The field of educational development, for example, wrestles with ambidexterity on a daily basis. Should one offer learning events that cut across an institution or should one dive deep into the situated mess of daily practices and look for ways to create value with communities in ways that matter most to people themselves over a longer time frame? These are wicked problems without easy answers, but, ultimately, I believe learning and development has better prospects if we situate ourselves with the clients we serve for the long haul.