Case Studies: Navigating Innovation Leadership

Ridge Walking: Navigating Narrow Margins for Success

Consumer Goods Leadership Team: Trust on the Edge

The Challenge: A highly innovative leadership team found themselves on a narrow ridge—increased friction was threatening their £billion product roadmap just as they faced a rigorous financial review.

The Navigation: Using the Innovation Leadership Map as our compass, each team member identified their individual patterns before a two-hour micro-workshop. This "first-aid" approach quickly diagnosed the emotional dynamics causing the friction.

The Breakthrough: Six months later, insights from that brief intervention continue to guide decisions, revitalized the product roadmap, and built resilience that carried them through the financial review successfully.

Ethical AI CEO: Finding Her Voice

The Challenge: The CEO of an ethical AI company was stuck on a leadership ridge—unable to express clear vision or give direct feedback without taking customer data as personal critique.

The Navigation: Psychodynamic evaluation techniques served as a diagnostic compass, revealing behavioral patterns established early in her career that were now limiting her leadership effectiveness.

The Summit: With a redesigned leadership self-image and new engagement techniques, she now leads her industry niche with increased resilience and clear organizational vision.

Multiple Peaks: Managing Portfolio Challenges

The Challenge: Multiple peaks of competing innovation philosophies, positioning, and ways of working across a massive global consultancy created confusion rather than capability.

The Base Camp Strategy: A first-principles innovation training program created collaborative learning environments, working with real-world challenges across Meta and GSK partnerships.

The Infrastructure: After three years and hundreds of participants, the program maintains a 90+ NPS and is consistently oversubscribed—becoming the unified approach they needed across all operating units.

The Challenge: Mid-career professionals faced multiple peaks—transitioning from individual contributor to business leader while maintaining technical excellence and entrepreneurial thinking.

The Bridge-Building: A comprehensive leadership development program including specialized coaching modules created pathways between technical skills and leadership capabilities.

The Infrastructure: Achieved industry-leading 96% retention in a 30-40% churn industry, with above-average performance reviews and multiple new innovation initiatives launched.

New Dawn: From Stalled to Breakthrough

The Challenge: A 20-year heritage company faced unprecedented revenue decline and downsizing post-pandemic—their innovation engine had stalled.

The Long Ascent: Two years of coaching the CEO and COO provided space to reflect, diagnose, ideate, and rehearse organizational revitalization while navigating sensitive restructuring.

The Dawn: 2024 brought positive revenue growth and doubled headcount—a complete turnaround from near-collapse to thriving innovation.

The Challenge: A globally admired organization emerged from pandemic fog with a fragmented sense of identity, unable to launch new ventures despite strong culture.

The Compass Work: Social-analytic research revealed hidden assumptions that employees feared speaking out would threaten their collegial culture.

The Breakthrough: Collaborative identity development work restored trust, authenticity, and engagement—enabling both increased impact and employee satisfaction.

Mountain Tools: Individual Development

The Challenge: A strategic leader moved into operational oversight of mulregional functions amid board conflict and masculine industry culture.

The Training: Weekly then bi-weekly coaching sessions over 12 months developed new self-evaluation practices, capabilities, and operating models while testing organizational changeability.

The Summit: Her €100m budget was renewed for 5 years, and her organization became an industry exemplar.

Infrastructure Building: Systemic Solutions

The Challenge: A well-known gap between creative education and real-world capabilities left entering talent unprepared and employers frustrated.

The Bridge Construction: Partnering with Future Learn, designed action learning programs combining theoretical excellence from top schools (Central St Martins, UCL, Cambridge, Harvard) with practical empathy and design capabilities.

The Infrastructure: Created pathways that give young talent confidence and capabilities while providing employers with highly sought-after practical skills.