We stand with the disruptors.
Innovation is a discipline you can learn, practise and master – and we’ll show you how.
We are a small but mighty team of strategy thinkers and innovation doers, united in our passion to get the best ideas working better, in the real world.
Innovation is a mindset, not a side project.
95% of innovation fails… Be the 5%.
The Innovation Paradox
Why smart companies still waste millions chasing the innovation unicorn.
We live in a world of disruption, yet established companies have become risk-averse. They focus on short-term results.
Predictability is rewarded, and uncertainty is avoided.
Successful businesses face another trap. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Why take the risk of abandoning a proven and profitable business model?
As a result, these large and successful businesses are often disrupted by start-ups. They have nothing to lose.
They are unburdened by legacy systems. They can make instant decisions.
Yet these start-ups often don’t have the resources, brands, or networks to scale quickly.
They look to the established players with envy, whilst scarcely believing their inertia…
Established businesses need to stop chasing the innovation unicorn (reward without risk).
Einstein defined insanity as: ‘Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’.
EDITORIALFeature: Growth Architects
Five growth principles we learned from Climb 25
At Climb25, the UK’s festival of innovation, industry and investment, Mark Roberts interviewed six guests for a series called Growth Architects. His aim was to discover insights for how successful businesses unlocked growth, regardless of size. In this article, Mark unpicks the lessons from start-up founders to business leaders in large corporations, to find the shared principles for business growth.
THE PROBLEMS WE HELP SOLVE
Do you recognise any of these problems?
Our FORGE™ methodology isn’t just trademarked, but tried and tested.
We work case-by-case with clients to understand where they are, what they need, and how best we can help get their innovation firing.
LACK OF FOCUS
Sharpen your quest. Too often we see teams chasing shiny solutions or falling in love with ideas before they’ve even defined the right problem. We help you cut through the noise, frame the right innovation question, and shine the spotlight where future growth really lies.
LACK OF ORIGINALITY
Ignite original thinking. Great ideas often get lost in the noise, blocked by naysayers or sidelined before they can shine. We help teams unlock creativity, inspire truly original thinking, and prioritise the ideas with the power to cut through and make a difference.
LACK OF RESULTS
Test, learn, adapt. Too often, fear of failure or slow decision-making holds innovation back. Experiments drag on, and choices are made without the right data. We help you measure what matters, move faster with confidence, and back the ideas that truly deliver.
LACK OF GROWTH
Scale what works. Many ventures stall after early wins, struggling to break through size barriers or bogged down by slow decisions, or held back by teams that aren’t fully bought in. We help you cut through the complexity, rally support, and create the momentum.
LACK OF ECOSYSTEM
Your network wins. Innovation doesn’t thrive in isolation, yet many teams carry all the risk themselves and miss out on talent. We help you open up, connect to the right partners, and build the networks that give innovation the best chance to succeed.
HOW WE DO IT
INNOVATION COACHING
1-1 or 1-Team coaching through FORGE, working with what’s already in place to help make it bigger, better, faster, and have the impact it deserves.
ACCELERATOR PROGRAMMES
A cohort-based virtual programme of interactive workshops, toolkits and mutual feedback to take organisations through FORGE at pace and together.
STRATEGIC SPRINTS
Bespoke support to unlock clarity and momentum at specific points in the FORGE framework.
Free 30-minute consultation
Book a free 30‑minute consultation with founder Mark Roberts and get clear on your next step.
We’ll use the time to understand your goals, diagnose your innovation challenges, and decide what’s right for you — hands‑on coaching, or joining an existing course or cohort.
No fluff, just practical advice and a simple plan to move forward.
OUR APPROACH
Simply put, we innovate how innovation gets done in established organisations.
We help get to the best ideas and get those best ideas to market faster, growing better and lasting longer.
Think of us as Innovation Coaches. Not Consultants. Consultants tend to disappear into a box, crunch the problem and return with a report. That’s not us.
Instead, we bring decades of experience, a toolkit packed with proven methods – including our FORGE-Innovation™ framework – and we roll up our sleeves alongside you. We flex our approach to your context, working shoulder-to-shoulder with your team to find the best way forward.
FREE RESOURCES
Tools, articles and interviews to help your innovation journey.
Are you focussing on the right opportunity?
Our framework helps connect your innovation pipeline to business & market priorities.
Are your innovations struggling to stand out?
Embrace our lateral thinking techniques to escape the herd and grab attention.
How quickly can you validate a new product?
Our methodology focuses on the only three indicators that really matter.
Are you moving sustainably from start-up to scale up?
We have experience from both sides to help scale projects for long term success.
Can you sustain an innovation pipeline?
Our approach transcends organisational boundaries to create a customer-focused ecosystem.
Just 10 quick questions and you'll have a much better idea on how to super-charge innovation in your company.
Start your journey to foster a culture of innovation with our FREE report card.
WHERE WE’VE HELPED
OUR TEAM
Our experience spans both the big and the small, and have spent several decades forging innovative ideas into businesses that scale.
Plus, we lean on an army of amazing, talented individuals and small organisations to help us out in specific areas where we are sadly lacking, such as design, product development, insight and research.
ABOUT RED LINE FOUNDRY
We believe that innovation, well done, can be a force for good; for businesses, for people and for the planet.
And we know – from experience – that doing innovation well is pretty damn difficult.
Especially in larger organisations where the processes and systems that are right for business efficiency, are, in fact, wrong for incubating innovation.
We know because we’ve been there. We’ve been in corporates and start-ups, consultancies and investment groups, advisory boards and even regional development forums. We’ve had a hand in innovation from every angle, basked in some genuine successes and learned from our fair share of flops.
OUR VALUES
ALL-IN
HANDS-ON
STRAIGHT-UP
Whatever we do and wherever we go, we’ll always show up as all-in (fully committed), hands-on (working with you, not for you and making it happen) and straight-up (keeping it simple, honest and no nonsense).