Ambidextrous organizations separate their new, exploratory units from their traditional, exploitative ones, allowing for different processes, structures, and cultures; at the same time, they maintain tight links across units at the senior executive level. Yet is reality keeping up with the original idea? Are we indeed seeing better outcomes when innovation is structured with separate "units" for exploration vs exploitation? We'll hear from Raam and Marion how they are approaching this in their organizations.

"Raam" Venkatesan is a Multilingual, Multicultural and Ambidextrity executive with 25+ years experience. He helps to organizations develop capabilities to: • Become an ambidextrous organization: EXPLOITING existing business growth while EXPLORING and scaling new business/innovations/disruptive innovations • Digitally transform by accelerating insights with critical thinking, deep business analysis for commercialization and scaling • Execute "Ambidexterity" through corporate venturing, customer development (Jobs to be Done), market insights, and building a playbook full of new digital/cognitive business models • Create strategies on how, when & which business model to switch to, from the current one using unique techniques Marion, as head of the Amadeus Nexwave, the Amadeus business incubator, is leading a multi-site team of ~150 people – made of intrapreneurs, business developers, UX, Software engineers, digital marketers and experts in innovation management. The mission of her division is to identify, incubate and grow the next generation of Amadeus businesses, which will shape the travel experience of today and tomorrow. To do so, Marion’s teams are managing transformational innovation businesses that aim at providing the best travel experience possible for travelers. They are applying state-of-the-art business building methodologies to provide solutions which enable the travel ecosystem to address travellers’ needs and pain points. Today she is based at Amadeus’ headquarter in Nice and reports to the SVP of Corporate Strategy. She joined Amadeus in 2011, as the head of R&D Resource Capacity Management, and moved in 2013, to become the chief of staff for the Head of Amadeus Research & Development, and in 2017 she took the lead of the global Amadeus Innovation, Research & Ecosystems division. Before that she had spent 10 years managing research & innovation projects in Accenture Technology Labs. She graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique. A technical background with a good business acumen, her pragmatic approach combined with a forward-looking mind, and her collaborative mindset enable her to engage people into co-creating great businesses and driving change for the travel industry.