SMALL & MEDIUM BUSINESS INNOVATION CONSULTANTS.
The Innovation Agenda is an independent strategic innovation consultancy that helps to grow food, beverage and wellness businesses via meaningful innovation programs and projects. We're not an academic or theoretical organisation - we are actual innovation practitioners that have direct experience in building brands and businesses through innovation for some of the world's largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) organisations.
Our innovation experience:
Innovation initiatives and NPD projects (excluding BAU ‘renovation’)
Incremental annual net revenue (including multiple $10M+ ventures)
Success rate for all innovation (vs. industry average at 15%)
FUELING PURPOSE-DRIVEN INNOVATION
Moving from “what’s in it for us?” to “how can we help?”
Short-sighted businesses drive short-lived innovation most of the time. The incredible focus that is given to short-term share and cost-cutting initiatives hardly accounts for the future or for external factors that will influence that future. When innovation is simply viewed as a tool to close budget gaps, or as a quick and easy method to boost sales, the risks of failure are elevated. Not only this, but ‘short-termism’ also leaves a business prone to disruption, decline and possible future obsolescence.
We help our clients to be progressive and foresight-led, dedicating energy and focus towards innovative projects and ventures that are designed to solve real problems for people and the planet. These ventures don’t need to be entirely selfless, profit and purpose can and will co-exist.
WE HELP TO SUPPORT YOUR INNOVATION NEEDS
WHAT WE DO
We help startups, small & medium businesses to do better kinds of innovation, and be better at it.
We work with food, beverage, health & wellness organisations that seek the experience, rigour and sophistication of large global business best-practice. We act as coaches, mentors and catalysts for break-through innovation.
CREATION OF NEW VENTURES
End-to-end facilitation of new innovation projects and ventures, from insight through to commercialisation.
STRATEGIC CONSULTING
Advice and guidance on innovation strategy, innovation structures, specific projects and business model options.
INNOVATION AUDITING
Independent review of existing innovation strategy, functional processes and pipeline of NPD projects.
THIRD-PARTY CONNECTIONS
Foster collaboration and connection between our clients, co-manufacturers and relevant agency partners.
WE help you OVERCOME the factors that suffocate innovation
Confusion and ambiguity surrounding innovation.
Ad-hoc techniques and linear project management.
High failure rates for innovation (85% of new ventures fail)
Starting with solutions without understanding problems.
Comfort, complacency, short-sightedness and naivety.
Perceptions that creativity and commerciality are unrelated.
Innovation programs solely based on profit and cost-reduction.
...AND OXYGENATE YOUR INNOVATION EFFORTS
CONSCIOUSNESS
Mindful, ‘purpose-led' approach to innovation.
CONSISTENCY
Flexible, modern innovation processes & principles.
CODE-BREAKING
Curiosity that anchors innovation in problem-solving.
CREATIVITY
Applying more value to insight, foresight and lateral thinking.
CONFIDENCE
Open-minded, test-and-learn rigour for greater success.
COMMERCIALITY
Building ventures that are financially-robust.
CARE
Using innovation as means to do better by people and the planet.
WHO WE
As corporate innovation practitioners, entrepreneurs and small business owners, we understand that the challenges faced by businesses may look very different, depending on the size, maturity and nature of a particular organisation.
Our aim is to help you out with these challenges, addressing them in a way that is complementary to your existing capabilities and competencies. Here’s just some of the ways we help food and beverage-associated businesses:
START-UPS
Networking and introductions, strategic marketing and product development advice, contract manufacturing search, innovation tools and processes.
SMALL BUSINESSES
Networking and introductions, strategic advice on scaling and growth pathways, marketing and product development guidance, innovation pipeline auditing, contract manufacturing search, innovation tools and processes, distribution and retailer meeting support.
ESTABLISHED BUSINESSES
Networking and collaboration opportunities, brokering new ventures (with start-ups, small businesses and/or contract manufacturers), assets capability and utilisation improvements, strategic innovation and research support, innovation tools and processes, innovation pipeline auditing and disruption risk profiling.
CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS
Networking and business development, innovation-driven improvements in asset utilisation, innovation project advice, new ventures creation (with start-ups, small businesses and/or large established organisations).
BUSINESS SUPPLIERS
Assist in commercialising or scaling intellectual property, catalyse new ventures with business partners, innovation strategy development.
PEOPLE
The Innovation Agenda is led by innovation practitioners who collectively have more than 30 years’ experience driving business growth through innovative solutions, including new products, services and business models.
ADAM HAMILTON
Founder & Managing Director
Adam is an entrepreneur, brand marketer and innovation practitioner with over 15 years’ worth of experience working for some of the world’s largest consumer food and beverage businesses such as Mars, Kirin-owned Lion Co., Kraft-Heinz, Mondelez, Devondale Murray Goulburn (now Saputo) and Glanbia. He has first-hand experience with ‘turning big ships’, influencing global-level change and building innovation functions and strategies from scratch. Adam’s development of breakthrough innovation programs and new product initiatives have generated more than $100 million in incremental net revenue.
Adam has a Bachelor of Commerce (marketing management and e-commerce) from Murdoch University, is a scholar of The Marketing Academy and is a qualified nutritionist.
ALASTAIR KENVYN
Partner
Alastair has 17 years’ worth of sales, marketing and innovation experience in some of the largest and most successful consumer goods organisations around the world including Unilever and AB Inbev. He was previously a partner at ZX Ventures, AB-InBev’s global disruptive innovation unit based in New York, where he led the design and creation of Zxlerator, an organic innovation engine which is rolling out globally. Alastair has experience working across the full spectrum of innovation, from traditional new product development inside big business, through to Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) and partnering with start-ups.
Alastair has a Bachelor of Marketing and is an MBA graduate at the Australian Graduate School of Management.
AS INNOVATION PRACTITIONERS, WE'VE DRIVEN SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION PROGRAMS & PROJECTS FOR THESE ORGANISATIONS:
