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Why do organizations say innovation is mission-critical, then create conditions that make innovation almost impossible?
Fiona Stevenson has spent her career on both sides of that problem.
After 12 years at Procter & Gamble, she co-founded The Idea Suite, an innovation consultancy that has worked across hundreds of innovation projects. She is also the co-author of Built for Breakthrough: Why Innovation Fails and How Smart Leaders Get It Right.
In this conversation, Fiona joins Marc and Vassilis to unpack why innovation usually fails long before the idea itself is tested.
They explore the famous Febreze story and why understanding the actual consumer problem changed the brand’s trajectory, before getting into the organizational conditions required for innovation to survive.
Fiona explains why big innovation ambitions often collide with tiny budgets, part-time teams and unrealistic timelines; why past data can become dangerous when designing for the future; and why innovators need to build evidence instead of waiting for certainty.
The conversation also covers Fiona’s six-stage innovation framework:
Identify → Insights → Inspiration → Ideation → Iteration → Implementation
And perhaps a seventh: Intuition.
Plus:
Why “we should…” is not an idea
Why “How might we?” is such a powerful innovation question
How AI is dramatically lowering the cost of prototyping
Why AI should be an input, not the final output
How implementation destroys good ideas through “death by a thousand cuts”
Why innovation needs dedicated time, not calendar scraps
How to create an innovation charter
Why the best first step is simply defining the problem properly
If your organization wants innovation but struggles to actually get ideas into market, this episode is for you.
Enjoy the show!
Chapters:
00:00 Why Innovation Dies Before the Whiteboard
01:36 Meet Fiona Stevenson
02:16 From P&G to Innovation Consulting
04:07 Moving From Client Side to Consulting
05:41 The Febreze Innovation Story
09:09 Why Consumer Understanding Comes First
10:59 What Is Innovation, Really?
13:02 The Uber Opportunity Fiona Turned Down
14:24 Different Types of Innovation
16:23 Big Innovation Ambitions vs. Organizational Reality
17:44 Why Stakeholder Alignment Matters
20:16 The Innovation Charter
21:24 Fear and the Unknown
22:00 Why Past Data Can Mislead Innovation
23:48 Why Great Marketers Can Struggle With Innovation
25:29 Getting Innovation Out the Door
27:24 The Future Has No Data
28:04 Challenging Assumptions With First Principles
30:00 AI as a Tool for Building Evidence
32:00 AI, Prototyping and Creative Potential
32:51 AI Should Be an Input, Not the Output
34:15 “We Should” Is Not an Idea
36:03 Why “How Might We?” Changes the Conversation
37:39 Fiona’s Six I’s of Innovation
39:09 Insights, Inspiration & Ideation
40:28 Why Iteration Matters
41:53 Implementation and Death by a Thousand Cuts
42:18 Protecting the Idea’s DNA
42:45 Is Intuition the Seventh I?
45:05 Why Skipping Steps Kills Innovation
47:06 The Most Undervalued Stage
48:49 How Innovation Survives Budget Pressure
50:17 Why Innovation Can’t Be a Side Job
51:39 What to Do Monday Morning
53:48 Why Innovation Needs Champions
54:26 It’s Never Too Late to Redefine the Problem
55:41 Built for Breakthrough Resources
56:11 Where to Find Fiona
Link to the book:
Built for Breakthrough - https://www.builtforbreakthrough.com/
