ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE

Lately, bigger hasn’t necessarily meant better. Large manufacturers have been losing share to smaller, more nimble companies who have overcome previously insurmountable barriers to entry and have rocked a staid industry with disruptive innovation at a staggering rate.

BUSINESS CONTEXT

In an environment where brand marketing was king, our client had aggressive topline growth targets that could only be achieved through a regular cadence of breakthrough new product innovation. But the organization was wired to focus on the bottomline, and its “new news” was limited to close-in renovation.

APPROACH

Our goal was to flip the scale by shifting the concentration of the organization’s resources and investment towards transformative innovation. To achieve this, we focused on the structural areas needed to effect longstanding change from process to talent, tools and capabilities to cultural support. Over the course of a year, we partnered with our client to develop an innovation center of excellence, designing a repeatable innovation process and the right tools and frameworks to support it.

Then, we shifted focus to the real key to success—the people. We knew the model would fail to make meaningful progress towards the company’s aspirational innovation goals if we didn’t focus on developing the people responsible for activating it. As part of a two-day training program developed to socialize and embed the new model amongst the cross-functional teams, I designed and facilitated workshops on nimble decision making and design thinking, tailored to the challenges our client experienced on a day-to-day basis.

OUTCOMES

With the pieces in place, our client gradually shifted focus to bigger bets, and, over time, nurtured an industry leading innovation function. Its growth orientation became a main selling point when the company was acquired in 2015.

RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY ACTIVITIES

Stakeholder Interviews
Process Development
Change Management
Tools & Capability Development
Culture Development
Training Design & Facilitation