Chris Heemskerk
Most large organisations now claim an AI strategy and an innovation function. Few can show what either has produced in the last twelve months. Pilots multiply, capability stalls, and the question of how to move from experimentation to operating advantage stays open.
Chris Heemskerk is a former Google operator and founder of The Innovation Alliance who helps senior teams turn innovation and AI from pilot activity into a managed operating capability.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Chris Heemskerk
- Operator credibility from inside Google, where he led Scaled Acquisitions for North America and advised the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs documented in the Harvard Business School case study by Linda Hill and Emily Tedards.
- A defined framework set, including The Innovation Scorecard and The Innovation Engine, that gives boards a way to assess innovation capability across culture, organisation, external posture and effectiveness, rather than relying on anecdote.
- Practical authority on AI deployment: he speaks as a practitioner who has built scaled sales and product operations, not as an external commentator on the technology.
- Faculty standing at the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability, with formal innovation leadership credentials from Harvard Business School and design thinking certification from Stanford, supporting executive-level training and masterclass briefs.
Biography highlights
- Founder and CEO, The Innovation Alliance
- Former Head of Scaled Acquisitions, Google North America
- Strategic advisor named in the Harvard Business School case “Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)” (Case 423-076)
- Faculty, European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability
- Author of The Innovation Scorecard and The Innovation Engine frameworks
- Executive Certification in Innovation Leadership, Harvard Business School; Design Thinking, Stanford University; MSc Marketing, London School of Business and Finance
Biography
Most large organisations now run innovation teams and AI working groups. Far fewer can name what those teams have shipped, retired, or scaled in the last year. The gap between activity and operating advantage is where senior leaders get exposed, and it is the gap Chris Heemskerk works in.
His credibility on that question is operator credibility. As Head of Scaled Acquisitions for Google North America, he ran a large commercial operation inside one of the most studied innovation environments in business. He then helped initiate the partnership between Google Ads and Harvard Business School that produced the case “Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A),” authored by Linda Hill and Emily Tedards, in which he is named as a strategic advisor on the bet-sourcing framework that vetted and accelerated new pipeline opportunities.
That experience now sits behind two frameworks he uses with executive teams: The Innovation Scorecard, which assesses innovation capability across culture, organisation, external posture and effectiveness, and The Innovation Engine, which sets out the operating system for sustained innovation output. As Founder and CEO of The Innovation Alliance, and as faculty at the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability, he works with senior teams on the same question he faced as an operator: how to turn ambition into a managed capability.
For boards looking at their AI agenda, the value is specific. Heemskerk speaks as someone who has built scaled commercial operations and has the structured material to translate AI ambition into how a function actually runs, what it measures, and what it discards.
Key speaking topics
- Innovation strategy
- Innovation culture
- AI deployment in large organisations
- Operating models for scaled innovation
- Digital transformation
- Executive masterclasses on innovation leadership
Ideal for
- CEOs and C-suite leaders setting AI and innovation strategy
- Chief Innovation Officers and heads of strategy operationalising new capability
- Boards reviewing innovation governance and AI exposure
- Senior commercial and digital transformation leaders moving beyond pilots
Audience outcomes
- A defined view of where the organisation sits on the four pillars of innovation capability
- Practical reference points from inside Google for how scaled operations adopt new technology
- A sharper distinction between innovation theatre and innovation that produces operating output
- Frameworks executives can return to after the keynote, including the Innovation Scorecard and Innovation Engine
Talks
A keynote on how to install the conditions, structures and metrics that produce sustained innovation output inside large organisations.
Key takeaways:
- The four pillars that determine whether an innovation function produces value
- Why culture follows operating design, not the other way round
- How Google’s SAIL approach translates to non-tech organisations
A practitioner view on moving from AI pilots to AI as an operating capability, anchored on real deployment experience.
Key takeaways:
- What separates AI adoption from AI integration
- Where leadership attention has the highest leverage in an AI programme
- A working model for governance, talent and customer-facing AI
A one-day session for C-suite and senior executive teams on innovation leadership and operating discipline.
Key takeaways:
- Diagnosis of the organisation’s innovation capability using The Innovation Scorecard
- Tools for portfolio discipline across innovation bets
- A working roadmap for the next twelve months of innovation and AI investment