In most companies, “risk” is a red flag. But for innovation leaders like Alice Ponti, it’s the starting point.
Ponti spent decades leading strategy and innovation at global consumer brands including L’Oréal, Diageo, and AB InBev. She’s launched products across continents, overhauled portfolios, and learned firsthand what causes corporate innovation to stall. Today, she’s the SVP of Innovation and Strategy at VentureFuel, where she helps Fortune 500 companies tap into startup ecosystems to de-risk their R&D efforts and accelerate growth.
In Episode 9 of Faces of Innovation, she offers a blunt but deeply experienced take: corporate innovation can’t rely on traditional playbooks anymore. Companies need new strategies, new structures, and new kinds of talent if they want to compete in a landscape defined by speed, optionality, and disruption.
Here’s what stood out.
MOST COMPANIES OVERESTIMATE THE RISK OF INNOVATION—AND UNDERESTIMATE THE RISK OF STANDING STILL
Most leadership teams know that innovation is risky. But they still behave as if success is guaranteed.
Alice calls this “a kind of collective amnesia.” Even when teams know 90% of projects won’t make it to market, they set goals and KPIs that assume otherwise.
The result?
- Pressure to succeed leads to safe bets
- Teams avoid breakthrough ideas in favor of incremental fixes
- Long-term risks get buried under short-term P&L needs
The true danger, Alice argues, isn’t failure.
It’s the failure to recognize where disruption is actually happening—and respond fast enough.
“There’s actually a greater risk in not tackling your core business and future-proofing that, than there is in launching innovation on the side.”
— Alice Ponti
Executives often frame innovation as the riskiest part of their business. Ponti argues the opposite: the bigger risk is letting the core business run on autopilot while the market changes around you.
Too many teams treat innovation like a side bet or a P&L filler. But that mindset ignores the more existential risk—what happens when consumer behavior changes faster than your roadmap, or when a new player redefines the category?
“Often, the greater risk is in not tackling your core business and future-proofing it,” Ponti says.
Without innovation, your company isn’t just stagnating. It’s giving space for someone else to take your place.
STAGE GATE PROCESSES AREN’T DESIGNED FOR BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION
If you’re still managing breakthrough innovation with a rigid stage-gate process, you’re setting your teams up to fail. Ponti breaks it down clearly: traditional stage-gates work well for incremental moves, like a new flavor of an existing product. But for category-creating or model-breaking ideas? They’re too slow, too linear, and too inflexible.
Here’s why:
- Early-stage innovation needs rapid iteration—not quarterly approvals.
- Rigid gates create pressure to appear successful instead of encouraging real learning.
- Teams waste time trying to “pass” gates instead of testing what’s actually working.
Instead, Ponti calls for more entrepreneurial, lean testing in early stages—with smart pilots and measured risk-taking as the project matures.
HOW SOPHISTICATED COMPANIES ARE MANAGING RISK SMARTER
Ponti shares how leading organizations are evolving toward a portfolio-based risk model. Instead of betting everything on one big innovation, they build a mix of projects—some close to the core, some adjacent, and some breakthrough.
To do this well, companies are:
- Mapping out future demand landscapes
- Piloting new brands or ideas in tightly scoped markets
- Measuring traction using repeat purchase, rate of sale, and satisfaction metrics—not just test scores
That pilot-first mindset gives innovation teams room to iterate. It also gives leadership real-world data before investing in full-scale rollouts.
TALENT STRATEGY IS AS IMPORTANT AS PRODUCT STRATEGY
Innovation doesn’t come from process alone. It comes from people who are empowered to move fast, think independently, and challenge assumptions.
- Teams need psychological safety to take smart risks
- A “founder mindset” should be encouraged within the organization
- Coaching leadership on how to support—not stall—early-stage innovation is critical
Ponti describes running quarterly “growth board” meetings that gave leadership space to evaluate innovation progress without killing momentum too early. These sessions were coached on both sides: teams learned how to frame risk, and executives learned how to ask the right questions at the right time.
FINAL THOUGHTS: INNOVATION IS CONTAGIOUS BUT IT NEEDS PROTECTION
When innovation is visible and supported, it changes how other teams work. They get braver, faster, more curious. But this only happens when innovation teams are protected from misaligned expectations, rigid processes, and outdated evaluation frameworks.
Corporate innovators need a new playbook. And they need the leadership, structure, and talent to run it.
WANT HELP BUILDING AN INNOVATION TEAM WITH THAT FOUNDER MINDSET?
Bamboo Crowd can help you hire the right people—before your competition does. Fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.
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