Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Fortune Brands Innovatns
Search every verified Mark-hans Richer interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Mark-Hans Richer, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Fortune Brands Innovations, has discussed his approach to fostering innovation within organizations. In a November 2024 appearance, he stated that innovation comes from "giving people permission" and that an executive's role is to "liberate" ideas from the organization by advocating for employees and helping them "navigate around corners that they can't see." He also emphasized the importance of maintaining long-term strategy, saying in a September 2024 podcast that "any one quarter, two quarter, one year type of financial challenge shouldn't change your fundamental strategies." Richer has also spoken about his career history and current responsibilities. He noted that his role at Fortune Brands Innovations involves managing "direct commerce business" and balancing "channel conflict" while serving consumers. Reflecting on past work, he said he helped turn around GMC trucks by developing the "We Are Professional Grade" tagline and that he "set up the innovation practice" at Moen from a product perspective. He described the company's recent work on a "smart water network" that can "control and conserve and personalize water throughout the entire home," which he called "the first time we've ever been able to create" such a system.
“A lot of it comes from just giving people permission. You know, you didn't get broken by people telling you no. People are going to tell you no because then there might be good reasons why there's no right and so you learn from those and you get smarter but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try.”
“A lot of people just stop trying after they've heard no a number of times or they just think that their boss isn't really ever going to be interested or their boss won't fight for them or help knock down the barriers to enable new ideas.”
“That's what an executive has to do; it can't just be about their ideas. It has to be about what else can you liberate from the organization for their ideas and sometimes you got to go advocate, you got to run interference and you got to help them navigate around corners that they can't see.”
“It isn't setting the example by having all the ideas and setting the example that this is actually possible, letting them have a little sense of belief and faith that and once you've established that tone then it sorts of feeds in itself.”
“You can't get everything you want that doesn't mean you give up it just means you recalibrate to keep the strategy. What you don't want to ever do is lose the strategy if you let that become okay every quarter we're going to come up with a new strategy to chase the market, that's a recipe for disaster.”
“We build iconic brands with soul and science: the soul is culturally relevant brand building and the science is the always on marketing activities that drive the bottom line.”
“Entrepreneurialism is the idea that you can force courage inside of a business. The businesses that actually have the most benefit from that are actually the bigger businesses that need that kind of thinking inside of them.”
“When you have something great, it's about modernizing it and adding to it, not necessarily divesting of it. Many new CMOs make the mistake of ripping everything out instead of building on the bones of what's successful.”
“My responsibility was to set up the innovation practice inside the company, really from a product perspective. We needed to establish well-worn processes around product innovation and we did, making huge strides.”
“Corporate America hasn't crushed me. People are going to tell you no, and there might be good reasons why, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. An executive has to liberate ideas from the organization and run interference to help them navigate around corners they can't see.”
“Balancing the need for quarter-to-quarter success with keeping brands in the spotlight requires recalibrating spend levels without losing the fundamental strategy. One bad quarter or spend cut shouldn't change your core strategy.”
“Fortune Brands Innovations is one of the most complicated businesses I've worked on because it's truly omni-channel. I am responsible for the direct commerce business, balancing channel conflict while serving the consumer and the brand.”
“I helped turn around GMC trucks when it was seen as the poor stepbrother to Chevy trucks. We developed the 'We Are Professional Grade' tagline, which is still used today, and GMC is now the second biggest division of General Motors.”
“My mantra from early on was 'Illegitimi non carborundum' which roughly means 'Don't let the bastards grind you down.' Many told me I was an idiot for trying, but I had conviction and paid back a $35,000 bank loan early from my first business.”
“This year is really the best ever because it's the first time we've ever been able to create a water network that can control and conserve and personalize water throughout the entire home — it's never been able to be done before and so it really does come back to the acquisition now of Flow, fully nested within the Moe...”
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