Managing necessary paradoxes of broad-based, discontinuous, high-technology products through organizational structure

Abstract

In this paper, I explore what competencies are required for a company with broad-based, discontinuous, high-technology products. Many of the competencies the company must support are seemingly contradictory. Some examples include managing deliberate versus emergent strategy, market focus versus disruptive design, and exploration versus exploitation. I propose a specific organizational structure to support such paradoxical competencies for a company with these characteristic broad, discontinuous, high-technology products.