“In a sense, companies also need to develop new forms of organizations that are ambidextrous.”
Idaho Power Company falls into the category of an “established organization” discussed in this opening chapter and the Preface. I have been looking at many of the resources that were cited in the opening chapter to see what was discussed about the Emerging Technologies in 1995, for example and finding many similar things to articles that were written today. Idaho Power Company is challenged by the ‘established org’ syndrome and emerging technologies must be relatively stable, tried and true before they become adopted and put into place. Time and time again with a new development, if there are problems, the consequences are significant and are right in front of the public to see, analyze and deal with. Right now today we are rolling out an IT improvement that is nearly a year behind schedule and full of daily problems that were not considered, or not identified as the project was developed.
I work with another major IT project that will provide many enhancements to the IT aspect of the company’s structure. The AMI project is relatively small and growing each day. Many of the problems and delays have been foreseen, but there are others that are not expected and create problems as we move forward from day to day. The new technology is really not ‘emerging’, the basic fundamentals of the project have been around for decades, but the technology used is relatively new and emerging. That being said, there are many different types of technologies available that were not so attractive 5 years ago when this AMI project was developed and forecast. Since it is a regulated company and there are recommendations from many customers and legislators, Idaho Power Company can rely on tested and reliable technologies far easier than new and un-tested technologies.
I am looking forward to the rest of this book, I think there will be many new and interesting things that companies do to react to ‘emerging technologies’. Near the end of the first chapter it reads, “An important part of managing emerging technologies is the ability to live with paradox, and its associated ambiguities. Simple, absolute answers are few and far between.” I tend to agree with the paradoxes that were listed and how they can affect companies, either cutting edge and new or established as is Idaho Power. Idaho Power relies on the “Simple, absolute answers” and will be left behind emerging technologies most of the time. I will be interested to see how some of the paradoxes are explained and apply to Idaho Power.
Will Idaho Power Company always be subject to technologies after they become main-stream?
Will the organization begin to adapt more readily with a newer workforce as some of the older generation retire?
I think this book and some more research will be helpful to answer some of these questions. Someone else may have thoughts on this??
Resources:
http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html
Academy of Management Executive; Aug95, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p7-18, 12p, 1 chart, 3 diagrams found at http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.boisestate.edu/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The challenges in dealing with an emerging technology are significant, so it does make sense that a large company would approach any new technologies with trepidation. The heavy regulation and localized monopolies that the government enforces for utilities provides a great barrier to the forces of these technologies. It seems to me that if a company like Idaho Power work operating in and unregulated industry they would be forced to take a more active and fast paced plan of action regarding technology. If they were to keep their current plan in such an environment I suspect there would be a significant chance that they would find themselves becoming quickly irrelevant as smaller more agile companies move in and take their business.
ReplyDeleteThe authors start out by telling us that established companies feel they must participate in emerging technologies for two reasons: 1) they feel newcomers will use the new technology to attack their existing core markets, and 2) if the emerging technology realizes its potential the opportunity in the market would be to large to ignore. Later they go on to discuss "fast-follower" strategy and "winner-take-all" markets. I wonder if Idaho Power is subject to these same rules or concerns since it is pretty much the only game in town. Being the only provider of power in the valley can Idaho Power sit back and wait for these innovations to be developed and jump in once they are proven? I would guess they could as long as they stay enough ahead of the technology curve so as no competitors could come in and steal the market with the latest technology.
ReplyDelete