Six Paths is a strategy and innovation consulting firm helping companies increase growth and profitability. We collaborate with our clients to build innovation capabilities, devise growth strategies, create better products and services and reinvent business models.
We believe that:
- Any organisation could be (and should be) innovative. As any person can be creative as long as she has the right environment and stimuli, similarly, any organisation can be innovative as long as people have the skills and tools, are empowered with innovation processes and have the avenue to collaborate and communicate their propositions for effective implementation.
- Most successful companies at innovation are those who have strong innovation capabilities.
- Innovative cultures do not appear by accident – they are the result of conscious actions of various actors within the organisation, among which top leadership plays a pivotal role. In other words, we can say that is it strategy that shapes structure.
- Business model innovation is the most sustainable form of innovation and the most powerful, in terms of growth and profitability. For example, the studies of Prof. Kim and Mauborgne on 150 companies over 120 years show that among the analyzed business launches, 14% were business model innovations (‘blue ocean’ strategic moves), but they generated 38% of total revenues and 61% of profits.
OUR APPROACH
Typically our projects involve working collaboratively with teams of managers with the mission of creating new strategic offerings. Our engagement comes in a variety of formats, from structuring the participants thinking during workshops, to validating the assumptions with potential customers and gathering additional insights during field work. Our final recommendations build on the analysis of the above insights and creating strategic plans, viable commercial offerings.
As facilitators we introduce creativity and innovation tools to participants and guide their thinking along the process, involving elements of both analytical and creative thinking. As challengers, we push managers outside their comfort zone and question their conventional assumptions, while bringing external learning from our experience outside their industry.
In addition, we help companies make innovation sustainable through the implementation of digital tools, such as our web-based collaborative idea management platform for corporate innovation.
OUR TEAM
Six Paths Consulting is a collaborative network of strategy and innovation experts, with experience across various industries and geographies. Most of our partners have a T-shape profile, meaning they have a wide range of skills in different areas and a deep expertise in a key area, such as strategy, innovation, design thinking or leadership.
The advantage for clients is increased value, quality and flexibility, as our collaborative network model enables us to choose the best skills required for the specific needs of a project.
Ioan Carpus
Founder and Partner
Ioan Carpus, who is currently the Managing Partner, co-founded the network in 2010. Ioan helps companies pursue organic growth by optimizing their portfolio strategy and by innovating with them to create profitable business models, appealing products and services and amazing customer experiences. He also enables organizations to innovate systematically to stay ahead of the game, by strengthening their innovation capabilities and by driving culture change.
His success stories include names such as AstraZeneca, Bridgestone, Goodrich, GSK, Heineken, Materialise and Money Supermarket. Ioan has an MBA from INSEAD – France / Singapore and is Blue Ocean Strategy certified expert.
John van der Linden
Partner
A former Global Open Innovation Manager at Procter & Gamble, John is now an innovation consultant based in Brussels, visiting professor at Solvay Business School and investor. His last P&G assignment was a highly strategic one, as he managed P&G’s Connect & Develop Program. He led a wide range of innovation roles at Procter & Gamble, from Fabric Care (Ariel, Dash, Dreft) through to Beauty care (Olay, Gillette), Oral Care (Oral-B & Crest), and Home Care (Swiffer & Mr. Clean/Propper).
With a proven ability to understand and improve the value generation of innovation and brand building, John helps organizations improve their strategic innovation output. John mentors a range of start-ups and is a board member of an Accelerator in Belgium.
Cristina Taboada
Partner
Cristina accelerates growth by applying the principles of design thinking and anthropological research to today’s most pressing business challenges. She has an extensive track record structuring and scaling innovation capabilities for F500 and VC/Buyout companies. Her expertise is in eliciting early insights to identify and frame real opportunities, driving desirable, feasible, viable change in co-creation with customers and the outside world. Cristina uses a pragmatic, long-term thinking, short-term actions approach that engages and equips teams to learn, grow, and iterate their way to success.
Cristina is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. An American living in Brussels, Cristina is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.
Nitin Batra
Partner
Nitin Batra has two decades of experience helping companies deliver growth from innovations, both as a McKinsey consultant and in corporate innovation departments of leading global corporations. He has worked as the Global Head of Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, held senior marketing strategy roles at Pfizer, and led strategy projects as a consultant at McKinsey. He is also the founder of HatchCube, a company that uses technology to create innovations, and is a respected expert in the area of strategic innovation.
Nitin has an MBA from INSEAD, Bachelors in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), a Management Certification from Tuck Business School, and has coached with WhatIf Innovation Company.
OUR WORK
Our work so far covers a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, FMCG, banking and aerospace, across Europe, South-East Asia and East Africa. Here are some of the recommendations of our clients:
Maintaining a high level of creative and innovative research in plant breeding is essential for the Dutch biotechnology company KeyGene N.V. The two-day Creative Thinking and Innovation Workshop gave us new concepts and tools to assist management and employees in their creative and innovative thinking and also in improving our own works council daily work.
Dr. Diana Rigola, Scientist, KEYGENE N.V.
At Transelectrica we were confronted with a legacy mindset in a heavy infrastructure engineering environment. With the help of the facilitated Blue Ocean Session led by Six Paths Consulting we managed to open our eyes towards innovation and unexpected pockets of growth that we could leverage in the future. The engagement managed to drop the seeds for a long term continuous transformation process.
Andrei Benghea Malaies, CEO, Transelectrica
Continuum of innovation is key in a startup. The lean startup process is always at the verge of new products development. Fast prototyping and validation of concepts must become a religion. Hence, when in the field, it is good to get someone with an external point of view who can take one step behind before you make the big jump. This is what Six Paths is all about. Supporting growth and helping you staying the course are the main assets they will bring to you.
Georges Caron, CEO, Keemotion
