Marko Rillo

Strategy Making during Ambidexterity Cycles Marko Rillo

Marko Rillo's doctoral dissertation defended at the University of St. Gallen focuses on strategy making in firms engaging in cyclical ambidexterity. Some firms change their strategic focus periodically between exploration (innovation) and exploitation (efficiency). This is called cyclical ambidexterity. This study focused on a particular aspect of cyclical ambidexterity. The aim of the thesis was to analyze what happens within the organizations in the course of these shifts. To observe and explain the inner workings of this change process, the study took the strategy as practice view. Marko Rillo focused on two companies from telecommunications industry. One organization, a fixed line operator was in a phase of changing its primary strategic orientation from exploration to exploitation, and the other, mobile phone operator in the opposite direction - from exploitation to exploration. The author of the study collected information in first person via interviews and by observing strategy discussions. He also measured relative degree ambidexterity during 15-year period. The study contributes to literature on organizational ambidexterity and results in a better understanding of the process and practices associated with cyclical ambidexterity. It shows that when engaging in cyclical ambidexterity, companies keep multiple capabilities for strategy-making in-house, activating the latent practices that are deemed suitable for the associated upcoming shift of strategic orientation and deactivating those active practices that have become redundant.