Michael L. Tushman

Michael L. Tushman is a senior fellow and professor emeritus at Harvard Business School. His work addresses organizational change, innovation, and the challenges of leading established organizations through shifts in their environments.

Tushman and Charles A. O’Reilly III coauthored The Ambidextrous Organization. Its accessible abstract sets out a distinction between exploiting existing capabilities and exploring new opportunities. The authors describe separating exploratory units from traditional operations while connecting them through senior leadership. For an article about strategic optionality, this offers an organizational perspective on preserving room to learn without neglecting the current business. It is an approach proposed by the authors, not a demonstrated prescription for every firm or a substitute for judging which alternatives merit resources.