Fostering a culture that embraces new growth opportunities

Companies that innovate their business models often encounter internal cultural resistance.  Sara and the team faced this challenge in different ways at Schreiber. Getting the support from leaders and individual contributors was easy, but getting others at the middle management level on board proved to be much more difficult. When Sara and the team looked to find members to take part in innovation sprints, middle managers were faced with a challenging position.

When we decided to embark on the sprint and we had to resource it, we asked for people to step out of their day job and into this for 12 weeks. Senior leadership was aligned. They were excited and they understood. But that’s a huge ask for middle management because they're actually losing people for 12 weeks and those team members are not working on their team’s specific goals. It puts the middle managers in a very tough position.”

Sara Stabelfeldt

Director of Innovation at Schreiber Foods

Sara and the team took several actions to address this challenge and to begin to establish a culture of innovation. These included:

• Creating an updated application process for team members to work on innovation projects
• Cultivating internal career opportunities related to innovation
• Leading immersion trips for leaders to see how other companies innovate. These showcased the impact innovation could have and the value it could provide.

Showcasing the tangible results of innovation

To further showcase the value of innovation, the team at Schreiber wanted to be able to point to tangible results from internal innovation projects. Schreiber therefore partnered with Strategyzer to run a Discovery program. The Discovery program consists of an innovation sprint where teams develop, test, and adapt new growth ideas.

Strategyzer coaches guided the four teams through the three phases of the program. First, they led the teams through workshops to design the value proposition and business model of their ideas. Then they supported the teams through eight weeks of real world testing with customers. Lastly, they helped the four teams create an evidence-based pitch presentation. At the pitch event, executive leaders learned how to evaluate the teams’ work. Strategyzer trained them in the innovation metrics the teams had been working towards during the program. They were able to evaluate whether teams had evidence that customers cared about and were willing to pay for their growth ideas.

Sara and the team have used the Discovery program to highlight the tangible results innovation can produce at Schreiber. They are now looking to accelerate one of the projects that has gained a lot of traction. This momentum has allowed them to bring three new employees into their innovation team. Moving forward, Strategyzer will assist by training these employees to be innovation coaches.

It helped our organization understand that ‘wow, we can accomplish really impressive things in a short 12 weeks when we put people against this specific goal’. We've been able to point to the results to show the business that it's worthwhile to add three incremental headcount that do this full-time.”

Sara Stabelfeldt

Director of Innovation at Schreiber Foods