Consulting
& Advisory
Practical guidance for establishing, renewing, or sustaining a successful innovation capability
Bruce works with leaders, ranging from technologists, innovators, managers, executives, and owners, to address the organizational, strategic, process, and people-related issues that determine whether Breakthrough Innovation succeeds.
Why Conventional Approaches Often Fall Short
For decades, business practice and research have generally treated innovation as a complex process that can be defined, structured, closely managed, and repeated.
That approach has value. It can improve discipline and consistency, particularly when a company is pursuing incremental improvements within familiar markets, technologies, and business models.
Breakthrough Innovation is different. The opportunity may be unclear at the outset. The path forward may be nonlinear. Important information may emerge through experimentation, customer interaction, and the judgment of experienced functional contributors. The people pursuing the opportunity may need greater latitude than standard management systems allow.
When companies attempt to eliminate this uncertainty through additional structure, reviews, and controls, they can inadvertently limit the very behaviors required for meaningful innovation.
Bruce helps clients determine where structure is useful, where it becomes restrictive, and how innovation practices can be adapted to the company’s particular circumstances.
The “People” Dimension of Innovation
Bruce’s distinctive position is that innovation must be considered from both a process perspective and a people perspective.
His research and experience focus particularly on Serial Innovators: individuals embedded within established companies who repeatedly recognize valuable opportunities, connect technical and commercial insights, solve difficult customer problems, and move important ideas toward financial and strategic impact.
Their contributions are often substantial and disproportionate. Yet they may not resemble conventional leaders, fit standard career paths, or respond well to transactional or hierarchical management practices designed for more routine work.
Companies seeking renewal through Breakthrough Innovation must therefore consider how Serial Innovators are identified, where they are placed, how they are managed, what complementary roles they require, how their work is evaluated, and how they are developed, rewarded, and retained.
Bruce helps leaders understand and act upon both sides of the challenge.
What It Looks Like When You Engage Breakthrough Innovation Advisors
Bruce can engage flexibly, depending on where the company is in its innovation journey and what type of support is required.
01.
Discover the Potential
At this stage, the objective is to help leaders develop a clearer understanding of what Breakthrough Innovation could mean for the company and what may be preventing it.
Awareness-building presentations
Discussions with executives, technical leaders, innovators, owners, and board members
Assessments of current capabilities, practices, and organizational conditions
Initial workshops intended to build shared understanding
Identification of opportunities, barriers, and questions requiring further attention
02.
Plan and Prepare
Once the opportunities and obstacles are better understood, Bruce can help the company determine how to move forward.
More focused assessment
Skill-development workshops
Leadership alignment
Coaching and advising
Development or refinement of innovation practices
Acquisition and licensing advice
Identification of the people, capabilities, and resources required
03.
Transform
At this stage, the company begins implementing the desired capabilities and practices.
Continued coaching and advising
Facilitation of implementation
Development of leaders, managers, and innovators
Acquisition and licensing advisory and support
Hiring advisory and support
Adjustment of practices as experience reveals what works
04.
Sustain
The objective is to enable the company to continue benefiting from innovation after the initial work is complete.
Continued acquisition and licensing guidance
Hiring advice
Ongoing executive or board-level perspective
Board service
Periodic evaluation and adjustment of capabilities, systems, and organizational practices
Not every engagement progresses through all four stages. A client may require a single presentation, a focused assessment, an advisory relationship, or sustained support over time.
Ways Bruce Can Engage
Assessments
Assessments help leaders understand the company’s current innovation capability, the barriers limiting progress, and the issues that deserve attention. The objective is not merely to produce a report. It is to create a more accurate and useful understanding of the company’s current position.
Awareness-Building Presentations
A presentation or leadership discussion can introduce the differences between incremental and Breakthrough Innovation, explain the importance of Serial Innovators, challenge prevailing assumptions, and establish a common language for further work.
Skill-Development Workshops
Workshops can help leaders, managers, technical contributors, innovators, and their organizational partners develop the understanding and skills required to improve innovation outcomes.
Coaching & Advising
Bruce advises owners, directors, executives, technical leaders, managers, and innovators as they work through complex innovation-related decisions. The emphasis is on helping the client think more clearly, recognize important organizational dynamics, and develop an approach suited to its circumstances.
Board Service
Board service represents the most sustained form of involvement in Bruce’s engagement framework. It allows him to contribute continuing perspective on innovation, technology, manufacturing capability, technical talent, renewal, and long-term value.
Hiring Advisory & Support
As a company builds or strengthens an innovation capability, it may need to add leaders, technical contributors, innovators, or people serving in complementary organizational roles. Bruce can help clarify what the company needs and evaluate fit.
Acquisition & Licensing Advisory & Support
Not every valuable innovation must be created internally. Bruce can help companies consider when acquisition, licensing, partnership, or another form of external access may provide a more effective path.
For Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Small- and medium-sized companies often have deep domain expertise, close customer relationships, experienced people, and significant untapped potential.
They also operate with genuine constraints. Management capacity is limited. Capital must be used carefully. Innovation cannot become an expensive, highly staffed initiative removed from the practical requirements of the business.
Bruce helps owners and leadership teams develop an approach that is focused, manageable, and suited to the company’s resources and ambitions. This work draws in part from No-Excuses Innovation: Strategies for Small- and Medium-Sized Mature Enterprises.
For Large Enterprises
Larger companies frequently possess significant resources, experienced personnel, and formal innovation structures and processes. Yet organizational complexity, internal politics, competing priorities, and entrenched systems can make Breakthrough Innovation difficult.
Bruce helps all involved better understand these dynamics, improve alignment, simplify where appropriate, and more effectively identify and support the Serial Innovators who make exceptional contributions.
This work draws in part from Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms.
Client Perspectives
“During the time Bruce was involved with the class, it was consistently highly rated and had a strong track record of promoted Technologist-track individuals as graduates.”
— Nancy Dawers
Research Fellow and Victor Mills Society at Procter & Gamble
“I brought Bruce in across several innovation engagements over time, each building on the last. What stood out across all of this was his ability to strengthen both the system and the people within it.”
— Nat Sattler
Division President Dexter/MCE at Permag
“I have engaged Bruce on multiple occasions. His ability to translate deep expertise into clear, actionable insights grounded in practical application was so incredibly valuable. Each engagement provided a fresh perspective that was directly relevant to our work.”
— Christian Eitel
Head of Global Product Management at Bucher Hydraulics
Enabling the Client’s Experts
Bruce and his colleagues may possess deep technical expertise, but their role is generally not to substitute their technical judgment for that of the company’s own experts.
They bring experience and insight concerning how innovation succeeds, how technical capability is organized and supported, and how companies can create conditions in which their own experts produce stronger results.
Bruce may work individually or collaborate with selected colleagues from his network when the issue requires complementary experience.
Begin with the challenge your company is facing
A brief conversation can help determine whether Bruce’s perspective and experience are relevant to the opportunity or challenge you are considering.