Your innovation pipeline is busy.
But is it producing enough growth?
I spent 25 years leading innovation inside global consumer goods companies, so I understand first-hand where pipelines lose focus, where launches stall, and how innovation actually turns into growth.
Many consumer goods companies are investing heavily in innovation.
Yet too much of that effort is tied up in projects that never make a real commercial difference.
I help CEOs, MDs and CMOs cut wasted pipeline effort, improve launch quality and turn innovation into stronger growth.
Signs your innovation pipeline needs attention
Too many projects live at once, but few make a real commercial difference
Launches absorb time and budget but fail to shift sales enough
Teams feel stretched across too many competing priorities
Innovation takes energy but leadership confidence is slipping
The Innovation Pipeline Reality Check
A short diagnostic that helps leadership teams see where the system is slowing innovation down.
We look at:
how many projects are actually active
where resources are being spread too thin
why launches may be losing momentum
what should change in the next 90 days
The result is a clear view of what is holding innovation back and what to fix first.
When innovation gets busy, growth often gets blurry
Most businesses don’t struggle because they lack ideas.
They struggle because the system around innovation has become overloaded.
Too many projects.
Too many handovers.
Too many compromises before launch.
The result:
Pipelines full of activity but short on impact.
Launches absorbing time and budget without shifting sales enough.
Teams stretched across too many priorities.
Confidence in innovation quietly fading
Helping innovation work harder commercially
My role is simple.
Help leadership teams turn innovation back into a disciplined growth engine.
That usually means:
cutting projects that absorb effort without creating value
focusing resources on fewer, stronger bets
improving how ideas move from concept to launch
strengthening cross-functional execution
The goal isn’t more innovation.
The goal is better growth from the innovation effort already underway.
Innovation is consuming resources without creating enough growth.
Too many projects stay alive for too long, which spreads time, money and talent too thin. The pipeline looks active, but the commercial return is weaker than it should be.Launches are not delivering enough incremental value.
Products get to market, but too few create meaningful additional sales, margin or momentum. Over time, that starts to erode confidence in the whole innovation agenda.Complexity is slowing decisions and weakening execution.
When ownership is unclear and priorities compete, even strong ideas lose speed and impact. The issue is rarely a lack of ideas. More often, it is a system that makes execution harder than it should be.
This is usually fixable.
Not by adding more process, but by sharpening choices, focusing resources and building a pipeline that can actually deliver.
Three problems we see repeatedly
Experience inside the system
I spent more than 25 years inside major consumer goods companies leading innovation, strategy and growth.
That means I understand how innovation really works inside organisations.
Not the process diagrams - the reality.
Competing priorities.
Too many projects.
Launches that weaken before they reach the shelf.
My role is to help leadership teams cut through that complexity and refocus innovation on growth.
Testimonials
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![A smiling, bald man with a beard in a dark suit and white shirt, posing in front of a plain background.]()
Ian brings clear outside-in thinking and is not afraid to challenge the status quo. He combines bold ideas with a very practical understanding of how organisations actually work, building strong collaboration across teams while helping us arrive at sharper solutions
Yves Briantais
Vice President Marketing -
![A man with short black hair, smiling while wearing a dark suit jacket and white shirt, standing in front of a wooden bookshelf filled with books.]()
What stands out about Ian is his rare ability to combine strategic thinking with practical action. He quickly gets to the heart of the consumer opportunity, asks the right questions, and helps teams cut through complexity to focus on what really matters. The result is ideas that are both commercially sound and genuinely impactful.
Ram Raghavan
President -
![Professional headshot of a middle-aged man with short dark hair, light beard, dressed in a white shirt and navy blazer, smiling against a plain background.]()
An innovator’s innovator, combining deep consumer insight, clear strategic thinking, and strong execution skills to take ideas from discovery to market success. A natural team builder, he inspires and leads others to deliver outstanding results
David Scharf
Vice President, Global Marketing & Innovation -
![Portrait of a man smiling outdoors with autumn foliage in the background.]()
Ian combines strong innovation thinking with a clear sense of commercial reality. He brings fresh perspective, challenges assumptions in a constructive way, and helps teams focus on ideas that can genuinely deliver growth.
Lars Birkenstaedt
President & Managing Director -
![A woman with shoulder-length reddish-brown hair and light skin, smiling outdoors with a blurred green leafy background.]()
Drove double digit share growth in a complex & intensely competitive market for us. Solidly commercial with great executional savvy.
Juliet Jacobs
Senior Marketing Director
If your pipeline feels busy but not productive
You’re not alone.
Many consumer goods businesses are discovering that more innovation activity doesn’t automatically mean more growth.
Sometimes the most valuable step is simply stepping back and pressure testing the pipeline.