My first encounter with a zombie project arrived around the time zombies were filling films and video games. This one was less bloody but still haunted the business, chewing through time, money and energy. At first, I didn't even recognise what I was looking at.

This week I had the pleasure of talking with Mike Dickson from AXR, who is wonderfully in touch with many companies across consumer goods. We were comparing notes on what we're both hearing from the market, and the same refrain kept coming up: companies are worried about uncertainty.

I've sat in dozens of boardrooms where MDs admit they've got innovation theatre instead of innovation results. Projects everywhere, movement on everything, but somehow nothing actually ships.

Here's what I've learned: the problem isn't your team's desire or market timing. It's almost always one of five structural issues that compound that choke your innovation engine.

We were working on a household cleaner brand where the fragrance was clearly the hero. Consumers told us they loved it. But we couldn't figure out why it mattered so much, or where to take the product next.

Focus groups weren't helping as people were being very rational…

Picture this. Colgate’s Latin American Innovation team had grown to over 45 people. We were bursting at the seams in decrepit offices in a 1950’s factory in Mexico City. Conditions and morale were sinking fast.  

The call came in from the Division President. We’re moving offices. Here's an opportunity to create the best Innovation Center in the world. Oh, you’ve got 30% less space per person and must be within Corporate expenditure levels (think generic furniture…)

When people find out I’ve worked in innovation for a while, they often ask what makes the difference between ideas that work and ones that don’t. Honestly, I could talk about this for hours. There’s the technical disciplines, the curiosity mindset, rapid testing, customer engagement, lots of plain hard work and so on.

But I’ve noticed four recurring questions that tend to be pretty reliable predictors of whether something is going to work.

It’s harder than ever to profitably grow. Traditional consumer goods companies are under intense attack at three core levels. So what’s happening…