The Ambidextrous Organization

The advice Manuel Krauß least wants to hear is simple: just do it, and skip the validation. He has seen the problem that follows when an organization commits money before it has learned enough about the business it hopes to build.

In this Innovation Rockstars episode, the Bosch innovation consultant explains how teams can explore new business models while the established business keeps operating. The challenge is organizational as much as methodological. New ventures need protection from premature targets and slow decisions, but they also need access to the capabilities that make a large company valuable.

Krauß brings experience from logistics, supply chain management and sales, as well as co-founding a food and beverage startup alongside his corporate career. His approach to innovation starts with a demanding question: what evidence would justify putting more resources behind this idea?

One framework, different levels of uncertainty

At Bosch, Krauß describes innovation across the core business, adjacent opportunities and areas beyond the core. Responsibility varies, with business units leading much of the work close to their existing activities and central teams involved further out.

That organizational picture does not mean every area uses an unrelated innovation method. He explains that the Bosch Innovation Framework applies to both improving established businesses and exploring new ones. The balance of effort changes with the uncertainty.

A project close to the core may spend more attention on efficiency and execution. A more unfamiliar opportunity needs longer on strategic fit, problem definition and validation. The team may not yet know who its customers are or whether it has found a need important enough to build a business around.

Using a common framework can also prompt a product team to look beyond its first concept. Could a component become part of a service? Could the company facilitate an activity rather than simply sell into it? Those questions help expose business-model options that a narrower product discussion might miss.

Protect the venture without losing the corporate advantage

Krauß does not offer one ideal organizational structure for exploration. Separate units can work, and so can protected freedom within an existing organization. Both require careful management.

The danger is that a small venture gets judged by expectations designed for a mature business. Strong targets imposed too early can overwhelm a team that is still testing basic assumptions. Long decision chains and established processes can create similar problems.

Yet total separation has a cost. A venture may benefit from the corporation's production capabilities, sales channels and market access. The task is to make those assets available without absorbing the venture into the core before it is ready.

Strategic fit therefore matters early. An idea with a clear home in an existing business may stay there. Something spanning several units or entering unfamiliar territory may need a different arrangement. Krauß describes those decisions as dependent on the individual case, including its maturity and fit with Bosch.

Ask for lessons learned, not a better pitch

The accelerator process Krauß outlines makes validation concrete. Teams enter with more than an isolated product idea: they need an initial business-model concept, capacity to work on it and support from a sponsor.

The first phase focuses on customer development. In the program he describes, teams are asked to complete 100 customer interviews in eight weeks. He acknowledges that this is demanding, particularly for B2B models. Weekly coaching helps teams interpret what they are learning about the need they intend to address.

The presentation at the end has a specific purpose:

“We don't pitch. We show our lessons learned.”

Teams make a go or no-go decision, alongside the coaches' assessment, using the evidence collected. Those continuing enter a further validation phase of roughly six to seven months, developing early demonstrators and an MVP to test the proposed solution with customers.

The distinction matters for R&D leaders reviewing a project. A persuasive presentation can conceal unresolved assumptions. A discussion of what has been learned makes those assumptions visible and gives the next investment decision a more useful basis.

Make stopping an available outcome

Krauß argues that many organizations have plenty of ideas. The harder work is validating them, incubating the promising ones and eventually building businesses of meaningful scale.

One obstacle is the project that survives without gaining traction. He describes ideas remaining inside corporations for years because nobody is willing to stop them. Previous investment becomes an argument for continuing, even when the market evidence remains weak.

“Actually, many companies struggle to kill a bad idea.”

Senior-management support matters here, but not as detailed control over every venture decision. Krauß wants leaders to provide freedom, capacity and expert support. Teams need skills in customer interviews, experimentation and interpreting evidence, as well as permission to reach an unwelcome conclusion.

A validation process only works if stopping is a real possibility. Otherwise, it becomes another stage through which an existing commitment is expected to pass.

Look beyond the product being sold

Krauß illustrates the approach with Refine My Site, an idea originating in Bosch's power tools division. The opportunity extended beyond selling tools to helping construction-site stakeholders coordinate work through digital information.

He describes validation around needs such as labor coordination, schedules and tool locations. The team progressed through both accelerator phases with a go decision and was moving into incubation or scaling at the time of the conversation.

The example shows why business-model exploration belongs alongside technical development. Knowledge of a product's environment can reveal a related customer problem, but that problem still needs to be tested. For Krauß, the corporate advantage becomes useful when a team combines those assets with disciplined learning and earns the decision to move further.