Innovation starts inside: Why organisational readiness is vital for growth

By Samy Mardolker, Managing Director, Singapore, M+C Saatchi Consulting

The world isn’t waiting. What used to be a five-year consumer shift now happens in 12-18 months. That means brand-led innovation can’t just be about new ideas. It must also be about whether your organisation is ready to deliver on those ideas—at scale, in market and in a timely fashion. If your business isn’t operationally aligned to support the future you’re creating, even the most consumer-centric innovation will stall.  

That’s why we begin every innovation project by assessing the business itself—not to limit ambition, but to ensure the organisation can accelerate change quickly enough to deliver on the future it’s aiming to reach. 

A proven approach we bring to our client partnerships is the Congruence Model, a foundational framework in change management, which maps how the organisation really works. It explores five areas that must align for change to land: workflows, people, structure, culture and leadership. 

To bring this to life, consider a hypothetical quick service restaurant (QSR) brand aiming to drive innovation of their delivery menu. Instead of rushing into tech features or packaging ideas, the first move is stakeholder immersion—each conversation mapped to a dimension of the Congruence Model. 

1. Workflows → Operations + Delivery Lead 

We ask: “Can your current delivery infrastructure support scale?”  

Operations: “We use a rider pool for peak hours. But if volume grows 3x the current demand, we’ll need third-party riders—who don’t follow our kitchen rhythms.” 

Insight: The issue isn’t just scaling—it’s synchronisation. If cooking times, rider availability, and customer locations don’t align, delivery fails. Innovation here requires crafting the right flow to meet increases in demand.  

2. People → Kitchen + Product Development 

We explore: “How well does the current menu travel?”  

The chef says: “Fried items suffer after 20 minutes. We avoid them for delivery, but the menu hasn’t adapted.” 

Insight: Without new kitchen formats or packaging solutions, certain categories can’t scale via delivery. The food must be reimagined for the journey, not just for taste. 

3. Structure → Supply Chain + Operations Planning 

We ask: “Can prep and dispatch be optimised across locations?”  

Operations: “Everything is prepped in-store. We’re considering central kitchens, but that’ll require major staff changes and delivery zoning.” 

Insight: The organisational structure isn’t ready for delivery-first logistics. Even if third-party platforms are used, internal systems need to be optimised for cooking times, rider location, and batching. This isn’t just new operations—it’s new sequencing. 

4. Culture → Brand + Marketing 

We ask: “How does the team view delivery?”  

The brand team: “We see it as a channel—something to boost sales on the side.” 

Insight: That mindset is outdated and can limit growth. Delivery isn’t a side hustle. Competing with cloud kitchens and food apps calls for treating delivery as a distinct brand experience. That shift requires reframing the role of delivery from margin filler to a strategic growth lever.  

5. Leadership → C-Suite Sponsorship 

We ask: “What does success in delivery look like?”  

The MD says: “Incremental growth is fine. But I don’t want a leaky bucket. We need a delivery experience that retains and repeats.” 

Insight: Leadership isn’t asking for experimentation. They want owned growth. That sets the tone for sustainable innovation that builds brand loyalty. 

Why this matters 

These insights didn’t surface through standard stakeholder conversations. They came from elicitation interviewing—a skillset borrowed from intelligence work and negotiation. We provoke. We reframe. We watch for tension. The aim is to reveal what stakeholders know but haven’t voiced—or don’t realise they know. That’s the real value of stakeholder engagement. We use other tools as well e.g. Lego Serious Play for strategic facilitation; simulation games to highlight cross functional team dynamics that might hold us back from accepting change.

In short, it’s not about polite alignment. It’s about unlocking the truth about what your organisation can absorb—and what it must become. 

What happens next? 

Once these insights are on the table, the brief sharpens. The delivery experience becomes more than a tech feature—it becomes an organisational upgrade. The operations team reevaluates dispatch logic. The brand team reframes its delivery voice. Product R&D pivots toward transit-resilient formats. Finance models volume-based incentives to stabilise rider costs.  

Innovation, in this context, isn’t a pitch. It’s a prototype for how the business needs to operate next year—not five years from now. 

The bottom line: 

Investigate your organisation before you innovate. Not to limit creativity or ambition—but to unlock speed, coherence, and scale. With today’s compressed market cycles, it’s not just the best ideas that win. Your strongest innovation will come from the ideas your organisation is ready to deliver on.