THE CLIENT
Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, a division of Church & Dwight, is a science-led supplier of nutritional ingredients and solutions for animal and food production systems globally. With a strong technical heritage, dedicated customer relationships, and an ambitious growth mandate, the organization had both the ambition and the culture to become an innovation leader. Building an innovation system for growth requires more than ambition — it demands the right infrastructure. Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition had one, but not the other.
THE CHALLENGE
Arm and Hammer Animal Nutrition had been innovating in pockets for years. Design thinking had been applied to specific challenges. Acquisitions had expanded technical capabilities. But organic growth through innovation remained a tough challenge, and the leadership team knew why.
Innovation was fragmented. There was no shared definition of innovation. No structured process to move ideas from insight to commercialization. No governance, no portfolio management, no clear ownership. Product development dominated the agenda, while opportunities in services, digital agriculture, and adjacent markets went unexplored or failed to reach commercialisation. A company-wide innovation survey confirmed what leaders already sensed: AHAFP scored below the minimal maturity threshold required to innovate successfully for any organization to achieve its growth goals.
The deeper challenge: employees wanted to innovate, but lacked the infrastructure, clarity, and support to do so effectively. The link between business strategy and innovation needed strengthening.
Without a structured innovation system for growth, the company would continue generating incremental ideas rather than the bolder portfolio its strategy demanded.
APPROACH
Strategos partnered with Arm and Hammer Animal Nutrition to design and build an enterprise-wide innovation capability, not as a one-time program, but as a sustainable system embedded in the organization’s DNA.
Drawing on decades of experience transforming how organizations lead, govern, and operationalize innovation, Strategos brought a structured methodology and a challenging perspective. The engagement began with a rigorous current-state assessment: employee surveys, stakeholder interviews, portfolio analysis, and process reviews. This diagnostic revealed both the gaps and the genuine strengths the company could build on: an evidence-driven culture, executive support, and a workforce that was ready and willing.
THE SOLUTION
Strategos designed an Innovation System for growth tailored to the company’s strategic goals and maturity level, structured around four parallel tracks:
Processes & Structures — An end-to-end innovation process (Aim → Explore → Design → Develop → Launch → Scale) with stage gates, portfolio management, and a governance structure anchored by an Innovation Board and an Innovation Director role.
Leadership & Strategy — Clear aiming points to direct innovation investment, leadership training, and a shared future perspective that connected daily work to long-term strategic intent.
Action — Immediate activation through the “Jobs to Be Done” customer insight framework, early-stage opportunity development in adjacencies, and a prioritized portfolio of innovation projects spanning core, adjacent, and transformational spaces.
Engagement — Targeted innovation campaigns, communication planning, and a front-line challenge program to unlock ideas from customer-facing employees across the organization.
The design philosophy was deliberate: build capability inside the organisation, not dependency on Strategos. Involvement was structured to decrease over time as internal confidence and competence grew. Learning by doing real business challenges, not classroom exercises.
OUTCOMES AND IMPACT
Arm and Hammer Animal Nutrition emerged from the engagement with a clear innovation mandate, a governance structure, and a portfolio of prioritized projects across species, markets, and innovation types, from diagnostic services to digital AgTech to pet food adjacencies. The organization moved from scattered efforts and unclear ownership to a coherent system connecting strategy, resources, and execution.
More fundamentally, it now had what it previously lacked: a shared language for innovation, a process everyone could participate in, and a roadmap for becoming the recognized innovation leader in its industry, by customers, employees, partners, and competitors alike.
