Organizingfor Innovation

Organizing for Innovation

Jiahao Yang

4/5

https://www.wsj.com/articles/baidus-loss-is-a-setback-for-ai-in-china-1490270411?mg=id-wsj#livefyre-toggle-SB11871429478203413319904583039643013597934

The innovation going on here is about AI, the hottest topic in technology this year. The article says that recently, a top AI expert Andrew Ng left Baidu, one of the three top Internet giants in China. The reason why he left is still unknown yet. But from what I learn, Baidu is a failing Internet company that’s known as chasing profits over technology break throughs. There’re many Internet companies in China growing in a rapid speed and they are all ready to replace Baidu and take the third seat among Chinese Internet companies.

As for the organization for innovation at Baidu, according to the article, Baidu have many R&D centers in silicon valley and Seattle. This is obviously a decentralized R&D activity. They love to hire top techies from silicon valley or Chinese engineers who study abroad and have experience in top high-tech companies and Facebook and Google. Diversed skills and resources are being well employed here. However, they also encourage people to go back to the head quarter in China by paying them a certain amount of compensation. So they also have centralized organizing for innovation. This is where Ng used to be and it’s better than decentralized organization in making great changes in right directions without redundancy and so on.

In short, baidu combines centralized and decentralized activities in the innovation of AI. This structural dimension help them innovate in a more efficient way.