An Aria for the Ambidextrous Organization

25 Nov 2021

An Aria for the Ambidextrous Organization

Atlanta Opera Director gets down to business with Michael Tushman

Re: Tomer Zvulun (PLDA 21); Michael L. Tushman (Baker Foundation Professor Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus)

Topics: Competition-Competitive Strategy Arts-General Leadership-General Social Enterprise-Nonprofit Organizations

HBS Professor Michael Tushman and Tomer Zvulun (PLDA 21, 2021)
Photo via The Atlanta Opera

Atlanta Opera General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun (PLDA 21, 2021) calls his time at HBS some of his “most impactful as an adult,” crediting Professor Michael Tushman’s ideas for the inspiration and title of his TED talk, “The Ambidextrous Opera Company.” In a recent episode of the Atlanta Opera podcast The Business of Opera, Zvulun talks to Tushman about the role of strategy, innovation, and leadership in operating an arts nonprofit in a competitive environment to ensure its future growth and organizational health.

Zvulun, the subject of an HBS case by Tushman, cites Tushman’s new book, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma as the operating manual for creating an ambidextrous organization—one that, as Tushman says, has “the dynamic capability…to exploit existing strategies better than anyone and simultaneously explore new terrain.” Doing this can present a contradiction for organizations, Tushman admits, but being able to “live into the ability of operating multiple strategies simultaneously” creates the sort of ambidexterity necessary for any organization—including an opera company—to thrive.

LISTEN HERE