A global food and beverage company’s R&D team partnered with us to advance a stalled sustainable packaging initiative. By transforming organisational alignment and securing executive sponsorship, the team accelerated its timeline by up to two years – turning a once-isolated R&D effort into a company-wide strategic priority with breakthrough market potential.
- Outcome 1: Secured CEO and senior leadership support, transforming a stalled initiative into a strategic enter-prise priority – moving biodegradable packaging from R&D into the core business
- Outcome 2: Positioned the company to lead a multi-billion-dollar sustainable packaging market, with the CEO publicly committing to defining what is means to be a truly sustainable company
- Outcome 3: Established a new cadre of leaders equipped to drive future innovations and enterprise-wide change
The challenge
A global food and beverage company had spent over a decade developing industry-leading biodegradable packaging, yet the initiative remained stuck in R&D. Despite its potential to revolutionise sustainability in packaging, the project lacked executive sponsorship, alignment across business units and a clear path forward. Organisational complexity, entrenched hierarchy and siloed decision-making left the team without the influence or support needed to scale the innovation. In a business where marketing and sales drive strategic priorities, the absence of cross-functional backing rendered the effort stagnant. The team knew the technology’s potential – but needed a breakthrough in organisational alignment to bring it to life.
The core challenge was organisational, not technical. Despite years of R&D, the biodegradable packaging initiative couldn’t move forward without buy-in from senior leadership and key business units. The team faced a multi-layered, hierarchical decision-making environment with no clear path for enterprise-wide alignment. Marketing and sales – critical drivers of strategic initiatives – were disengaged, viewing the project as a niche R&D effort rather than a business imperative. Without a champion at the executive level, the innovation risked being shelved. The team needed to break through cultural inertia, reframe the project’s value and gain support from leaders who initially saw it as peripheral.
The approach
Our approach began with revealing and unhooking from the past, which guided the team to surface hidden assumptions that were stalling progress – namely, that decision-making in the organisation was too complex and hierarchical to navigate. Once these mental models were exposed, the team saw new possibilities for influence and alignment. Additionally, we worked with them to invent and implement bold new actions and strategic enrolment conversations. They reimagined their role, engaged executives across regions and functions and reframed the initiative as a business-critical opportunity. This shift empowered them to build cross-functional alignment, gain CEO sponsorship and transform the project into an enterprise-wide priority.
The value delivered
The project advanced one to two years ahead of schedule – an unprecedented acceleration for a 12-year R&D initiative. The team secured direct engagement with the CEO and earned enterprise-wide alignment, transforming the project from a siloed technical effort into a strategic priority. 46 key executives across global markets endorsed the initiative, and the business case was significantly strengthened to reflect its market potential. As a result, the company is now positioned to lead a sustainable packaging market worth tens of billions of dollars. Additionally, the team’s success built internal leadership capacity and introduced breakthrough thinking across future innovation efforts.