Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators

Chapter Four

WHY TENSIONS RISE WHENNEWCO BORROWS FROM CORECO

OVERCOMING the forgetting challenge is necessary but not sufficient. To have the best possible chance at success, NewCo must also borrow CoreCo resources.¹ This requires a delicate balance. New-Co must be distinct from CoreCo, because a distinct organizational design enables NewCo to forget. At the same time, NewCo must not be isolated from CoreCo. The two business units must be linked, even though interactions between NewCo and CoreCo will inevitably create frictions. Only when NewCo is both distinct from and linked to Core-Co can NewCo both forget and borrow.

The story of New York Times Digital (NYTD), the Internet division of The New York Times Company (hereafter, “the company”) ...