The Dynamics Towards Multiple Strategic Options: A Conceptual Approach

Ambidextrous strategies are strategies in which multiple strategic options are combined (for instance innovation and cost leadership). This paper shows that various companies often end up in following an ambidextrous strategy, due to a typical evolution in "contradictions" that characterize their strategic problem context. Often a company starts facing dichotomies in the beginning, while facing paradoxes in a later stage. Such a dynamic trajectory is illustrated, using AMD as a case study. The case study shows that an ambidextrous strategy is often not a choice, but the result of a dynamic process with no other choice left.