Nestle wants to kill a third of their 100,000 SKUs in 3 years.

How many got a post-mortem? Zero.

Most FMCG innovation teams are optimised to avoid failure.

That's why they stop innovating.

→ Wins get celebrated. Misses get buried.

→ Pipeline activity stays high. Category share stays flat.

→ Promotions go to safe bets. Bold moves get scrutinised.

The pattern is consistent across organisations.

Risk avoidance gets rewarded.

Risk-taking gets penalised.

The 3 signals your culture punishes innovation risk:

1. Failed launches disappear without debriefs

No post-mortem. No shared learnings.

The project ends. The team moves on.

Same mistakes repeat 18 months later.

2. Your best people avoid high-risk projects

Career progression favours consistent delivery.

They've seen what happens to colleagues who miss.

Breakthrough projects get staffed with whoever's available.

3. Innovation reviews optimise for approval

The pipeline fills with safe bets.

Teams present what will pass the gate.

Ambitious concepts get diluted before they reach leadership.

What changes this:

→ Rapid post-mortems shared company-wide

→ Promotion criteria that include intelligent risk-taking

→ Separating project outcomes from individual performance reviews

The strategic signal:

Organisations that learn from failure outpace those that hide it.

The difference is systematic, not cultural.

How many of your failed launches got formal debriefs last year?