Power struggle
Companies that became successful thanks to disruptive technological or other innovations need to get marketing right in the later phases. However, the dominant and acclaimed group of engineers can be unwilling to support such a change – as in the case study in a paper cited by the website of the business school INSEAD.
In one company, there were engineers whose opinion was that the company should continue investing in technology after their initial successes. However, more junior engineers who weren’t involved in the creation of the original technological infrastructure were more open to new strategic decisions.
There were also two groups of marketers. The new marketers in the company pushed very aggressively to break the resistance of the engineering department. The senior marketers were less aggressive.
Moderates cooperating
The group of moderate marketers was much more willing to work for the greater good of the company, not just for themselves, and the moderate engineers were open to change. The more conciliatory workers in both departments started to cooperate. They stopped battling each other. This group, that was able to work together, soon became the primary engine of innovations. The other group's projects never made it to launch.
These power dynamics can be compared to the Civil Rights Movement in the US. Moderate whites didn’t initially support Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for equality for African-Americans, until the emergence of radical, militant flank (the Black Panthers) got them to come to an agreement with the moderate members of the movement.
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