Mark-Hans Richer, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortune Brands Innovations, fosters innovation

🎥 Oct 30, 2024 📺 The Soul & Science Podcast with Jason Harris ⏱ 0m 👁 105 views

About Mark-hans Richer

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.

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Transcript (2 segments)

Interviewer0:00

How do you foster innovation within the teams that you manage and try to create?

Mark-hans Richer0:05

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 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. I think 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. Sometimes you've got to go advocate, you've got to run interference, and you've got to help them navigate around corners that they can't see. It isn't setting the example by having all the ideas, but setting the example that this is actually possible, letting them have a little sense of belief and faith. Once you've established that tone, then it sort of feeds itself.