This is a strange time to launch something new. While we recognize the deep chaos and pain the world is in right now, we also believe that the time is still right to unveil what we have been working on for several years. Companies need to innovate their way out of this crisis to survive in the short term and thrive beyond this season. Old orthodoxies are officially dead. New realities are obvious. And we’re in a unique position to help leaders in every industry make the most of this moment.

We created Clareo, a growth strategy firm, in 2003 to help leaders grow their businesses through innovation. Over the last 17 years, we have worked with many of the world’s major companies to create and refine their innovation strategies, programs, and capabilities. Our clients have seen celebratory successes, a few disappointing failures, and many, many pivots along the way. Nearly two decades of experience helping to facilitate and then witness the incredible potential of corporate innovation has strengthened our belief that it’s an essential component to a company’s resilience and longevity, and their ability to achieve growth and impact.

However, we’ve also seen innovation leaders struggle to scale their innovation programs among a diverse and distributed workforce, because they lacked the tools to do so. The tools available to them were either not fit for purpose, or hyper-focused on only one component of what makes innovation work, rather than the entire innovation workflow. We knew we needed to fix that. Today, we are launching Forest – new innovation management software by Clareo. 

We’ve been building Forest for several years with some of our most progressive clients. We wanted to be 100% sure that the tool delivered on its promise to create  transformational value. To do this, we embedded Clareo’s proven FastPath methodology into every facet of the functionality, to ensure that every employee – regardless of their experience – could achieve positive outcomes. We wanted to ensure that even skeptical senior executives would see proof that innovation can work at their company, and that it’s worth the effort and investment. 

Building Forest did not come without challenges and setbacks. We took risks, built – and then scrapped – features that flopped, took bold steps that have triumphed, and iterated on every single element to make the tool as effective as possible. We really love and believe in the tool we’ve built. We can’t wait for more people to use it and experience the impact it can have.

Why the name Forest? Too often, corporate innovation pundits suggest an “out with old, in with the new” mindset. We’ve never actually seen that work. Large companies are large because they have executed a once-perfect vision with excellence. While they need to adapt their approaches and innovate in new ways now, we respect the tremendous value they created in order to get to where they are now, and wanted to honor that legacy.

Forests are richly diverse at their core. Things are thriving, dying, or just beginning to sprout and grow. They house a wide array of species that must work together inharmony, sharing resources freely as needed. The most mature and healthy trees are often intertwined with other trees. Similarly, the best corporate innovators build a new vision within an already strong existing one. They respect and leverage the legacy of the core. We think the name Forest represents that truth.

Corporate innovation is struggling, and leaders need a way to translate ideas to value. With a product that has been validated, a comprehensive strategy for launch, and a passionate team equipped with the right kinds of experience, we believe now is the best time to launch Forest and enable innovators to scale their ambitions and create truly transformative impacts at their companies – and in the world at large.