In categories that compete on newness, a Chief Innovation Officer builds the capability to create the future repeatably. Hiring one well takes clarity about what innovation means for your business. Here is how.
Define what innovation means here
A Chief Innovation Officer can mean a product-and-pipeline innovator, a business-model innovator, or a builder of innovation capability across the organisation. These are different profiles, so define what innovation the business genuinely needs first. In beauty and fast-moving consumer categories, the priority is often a repeatable pipeline of new products and ideas; in others, it is renewing the business model. Clarity here shapes the hire.
Creativity and capability-building together
The strongest innovation leaders combine genuine creativity and vision — a feel for what to create and why — with the ability to build the processes, culture, and teams that turn ideas into reality repeatably. Creativity without the capability to execute produces sporadic ideas; process without vision produces competent but uninspired output. The rare and valuable leaders hold both, making innovation a genuine, repeatable capability rather than a series of lucky launches.
Innovation through the organisation
Innovation rarely lives in one function — it cuts across product, R&D, marketing, and commercial. A Chief Innovation Officer often leads largely through influence, embedding innovation into how the business works and connecting the functions that make it happen. The ability to build an innovation culture and drive it across the organisation, not just run an innovation team, is central. Assessing for this organisational and cultural dimension matters alongside individual creativity.
How the search works
Define the specific innovation mandate and what the business needs, and a retained search can find a Chief Innovation Officer who combines creativity with the ability to build repeatable innovation capability.
Hiring an innovation leader?
We recruit Chief Innovation and Chief Product Officers across beauty and consumer businesses.
Explore Product & Innovation Search →Frequently asked questions
What should you look for when hiring a Chief Innovation Officer?
Genuine creativity and vision combined with the ability to build the processes, culture, and teams that turn ideas into reality repeatably — matched to whether you need product-and-pipeline, business-model, or capability-building innovation.
What is the difference between a Chief Innovation Officer and a Chief Product Officer?
A Chief Product Officer owns the product portfolio and pipeline; a Chief Innovation Officer owns the broader creation of new value — products, models, and ideas — and the capability to do it repeatably. They sometimes combine.
Related: What Does a Chief Innovation Officer Do? · What Does a Chief Product Officer Do? · How to Hire a Chief Product Officer
