Innovation is a leadership capability
Most private companies approach innovation as something that happens occasionally: a new product, a new market, a new initiative. The companies that sustain growth over time approach it differently. They build the organizational capability to spot opportunities, run experiments, and adapt before they have to.
Private companies are better positioned to innovate than they think. Most don't act like it
Large companies innovate slowly because they have to protect what they have. Private companies - smaller, faster, closer to their customers - have a structural advantage. They can move before the market forces them to.
But most don't. The ideas are there. The organization isn't built to act on them. Innovation stays on the agenda without getting the attention, the resources, or the leadership permission it needs to go anywhere.
The result: incremental improvement when the situation calls for something bigger. Or missed opportunities that a competitor captures first.
Private companies where the work is personal.
Dave's clientsare owners and leaders of private companies: family businesses, closely-held companies,and founder-led firms where decisions carry real weight and relationshipsmatter. Not publicly traded. Not on a venture capital timeline. Running on thefounder's conviction, the leadership team's trust, and years of built equity.
These are $1M to$20M companies. Thirty employees or a hundred. Services businesses,manufacturers, professional firms. What they share: a leader who takes the workseriously, cares about the culture they've built, and needs a thinking partnerwho can hold up in the room.
Three kinds of innovation work
Building the innovation capability
Most private companies need leaders who know how to create the conditions for new ideas to surface, get tested, and move forward, more than they need an innovation department. Dave works with leadership teams to build that capability: how to create space for experimentation, how to resource new initiatives without starving the core business, and how to evaluate ideas against strategy rather than enthusiasm.
New ventures and new offerings
When a company is ready to move into a new market, launch a new product, or build a new service line, the strategic questions are different from the day-to-day. What does the new opportunity actually require? What does it mean for the existing business? How do you stage the investment so you learn before you commit? Dave has helped private companies work through these questions and launch new initiatives that hold up under real conditions.
Organizational adaptation
Sometimes the innovation work is about adapting the business model, the go-to-market approach, or the organizational structure to a market that has changed. Dave helps leaders recognize when the current model has run its course and navigate the transition to what comes next.
Innovation without strategy is just activity
Dave's innovation work is anchored in his broader strategy practice. The question is what you should do, given where the company is going and what you're trying to build.
That framing matters. It keeps innovation from becoming a distraction from the core business and grounds it in the company's competitive position. New ideas get evaluated against the strategy.
For companies using the Growth Stack framework, innovation lives in the Growth System layer - above the operating mechanics, in the domain of culture, leadership, and strategic direction. It requires that layer to be working. Dave helps companies build both.
Private company leaders who know they need to evolve and aren't sure how to make it happen
The clients who engage Dave on innovation tend to be in one of two situations.
They see an opportunity - a new market, a new offering, a new business model - and they want to pursue it without disrupting what's already working. The question is how to structure the initiative, resource it appropriately, and give it a chance without betting the company.
Or they sense that the current model is running out of runway. The market is shifting, the competitive dynamics are changing, and doing more of what got them here won't get them to the next stage. They need to adapt, and they need a thinking partner who can help them see clearly and move deliberately.
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