Innovation and Growth Strategy

Innovation and Growth Strategy is a 5-day senior strategy course delivered by Mars Training Centre UK in London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubai and Bangkok, and online — designed for directors, growth leaders and senior executives responsible for the next chapter of their organisation's growth.

Most organisations want growth. Few have a credible growth strategy. The growth that matters — sustained, profitable and aligned with the business — comes from a deliberate portfolio of bets across horizons, from incremental improvement of the core to genuinely new spaces. This programme is built for senior leaders who want to build and govern that portfolio rather than rely on the budget cycle to do the work for them.

Across five focused days, you will work through the major frameworks of innovation and growth — Horizon 1, 2 and 3, the innovation portfolio, jobs-to-be-done, the lean-startup discipline as adapted for established firms, the build, buy or partner choice, and the governance that prevents innovation from becoming theatre — apply them to real cases drawn from British, European, Gulf and Asian businesses, and build a growth strategy for an area of your own organisation. The programme is delivered by senior practitioners with executive and innovation experience.

What You Will Learn

• Distinguish innovation from growth, and design a strategy that does both well.
• Build a credible Horizon 1, 2 and 3 innovation portfolio.
• Apply jobs-to-be-done thinking to identify real growth opportunities.
• Use the lean-startup discipline as adapted for established firms.
• Choose deliberately between organic, inorganic and partnered paths to growth.
• Govern innovation — what the board owns, what management owns, what the team owns.
• Recognise and dismantle innovation theatre.
• Stress-test growth assumptions and unit economics.
• Lead the organisational change that growth strategies require.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a working growth strategy for an area of your business, a sharper view of the difference between real innovation and innovation theatre, and a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a senior leader who can build and govern a credible innovation and growth portfolio, allocate capital to it with discipline, and avoid the standard sources of waste in corporate innovation.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior leaders responsible for growth, including:

• Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Growth Officers
• Heads of innovation, corporate venturing and new business
• Directors of business units, products and customer
• General managers and country managers
• Heads of marketing, research and development, and digital
• Family-business principals shaping the next chapter of growth
• Senior public-sector executives leading service innovation

The seniority floor is senior manager and above. The course is delivered in person over five consecutive days and carries a fee of £4,950.