LUX EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE HOUSTONReviving the Search for Rapid Returns

INVITE-ONLY EVENT

LUX EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE HOUSTON
Reviving the Search for Rapid Returns

Location: Magnolia Hotel Houston, 1100 Texas Ave, Houston, TX 77002

Date: Monday, April 7, 2025

Time: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m. CT

This exclusive event is complimentary to invitees. A networking lunch and dinner will be provided.

Sign Up to Learn More About the Lux Executive Roundtable

About the Event

As costs for innovation escalate, CTOs/CIOs tell us that boards and investors are questioning conventional approaches and demanding greater ROI for innovation in chemicals, energy, manufacturing, and other mature industries. Even in the alcoholic beverage industry, which has long prided itself in its intensely frenetic product/market innovation with some leaders claiming idea-to-market timelines as short as 6 months — the majority of innovation in recent years has failed dramatically. How will this industry innovate in 2025 as celebrity brands continue to encroach, Gen Z resists the alcohol habit, and GLP-1 drugs limit consumption even among true adherents? Time is becoming a rapidly depleting resource in industry transitions. Directing innovation bets for earlier success will be a crucial imperative for innovation leaders in 2025.

This invitation-only opportunity offers:

Exclusive gathering to tackle big challenges in innovation-related decision making — complimentary for Lux clients.
Invitation-only event for C-level leaders within large, global companies in adjacent industries.
Peer-group learning, contributing, and networking around critical leadership issues.
Confidential, safe space for CTOs, CIOs, CSOs, and CEOs to engage in open, intellectual dialogue — guided by Lux and molded by the leaders in the Roundtable.
Actionable takeaways, including frameworks and follow-on conversations.

Event Details

Location: Magnolia Hotel Houston, 1100 Texas Ave, Houston, TX 77002
Date: Monday, April 7, 2025
Time: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m. CT

This exclusive event is complimentary to invitees. A networking lunch and dinner will be provided.

For your convenience, a block of rooms has been reserved at the Magnolia Hotel Houston. To make your reservation and receive a discounted rate, please use this booking link. The booking link and discounted rate will expire on Monday, March 31st.

Days until the Lux Executive Roundtable Houston!

Time (CT)	Description
12:00p.m. – 1:00p.m.	Networking Lunch
1:00p.m. – 2:15p.m.	Leadership Challenge: Portfolio Allocation As an innovation leader thrust into this era of hyperfocus around short-term ROI, if you were given only one year to accomplish results, how would you configure your innovation portfolio? Which of these would best represent your portfolio mix for incremental vs. transitional vs. transformational bets: (a) 60:30:10, (b) 100:0:0, or (c) 0:100:0? If you choose (a), how do you plan to accelerate time to market for your incremental innovation bets? How would you work with leaders within business divisions, marketing, and finance so that every incremental innovation bet pays off? If you choose (b), how will you retain and grow talent within the innovation/R&D teams that is excited to work only on transformational innovation bets? Where will you deploy AI to compensate for any attrition in the ranks? If you choose (c), how will you hasten consensus with internal/external stakeholders that would rather you pursue incremental innovation instead? How will you choose which customers’ near-term innovation needs to deprioritize?
2:15p.m. – 2:30p.m.	Networking Coffee Break
2:30p.m. – 3:30p.m.	Potential Avenues: Innovation Outcomes Given your choice of portfolio mix above, how would you extrapolate from your experience? What criteria will you use to measure and track returns from your innovation portfolio mix? Will these be solely financial criteria (e.g., NPV, IRR, revenue, vitality index), or will you devise other measures for success? Based on the success you encounter by the end of the year, how will you alter your portfolio mix for subsequent years? What other decisions (other than innovation portfolio mix) would you apply constrained-timeline thinking to, in order to harvest efficiencies? Can AI play a role in enhancing your decision-making prowess?
3:30p.m. – 3:45p.m.	Taking Action: Three Questions What is the biggest learning from today’s discussion, and how will you operationalize it within your own organization? What questions remain in your mind about the ideas, challenges, and solutions that we discussed today? What would you suggest as a topic/agenda for our next Executive Roundtable?
	Evening Networking Dinner

Moderators

Arij van Berkel, Ph.D.

Chief Product Officer

Marisa Kopec

Chief Executive Officer

Naveen Krishnamurthy

Senior Vice President of Lux Executive Programs

LUX EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE HOUSTON
Reviving the Search for Rapid Returns

You will hear from a member of our team shortly. If you have any questions, please reach out to events@luxresearchinc.com

About the Lux Forums

The Lux Forums are a premier opportunity for innovation decision-makers to learn more about consumer insights and the commercially viable science and technology needed to enable human-centric innovation. This event series brings together global analysts, executives, and industry thought leaders to learn from each other and tackle the most critical issues facing our industry today.

At the Lux Forum, subject matter experts will provide meaningful insights relevant to oil and gas, utilities, industrials, chemicals, and consumer products innovation leaders. In this exclusive setting, attendees will make connections with executive-level industry counterparts through networking sessions and will take in cutting-edge research from the leading provider of sustainable innovation research and advisory services, Lux Research. These forums will deliver the thinking you need to accelerate the pace of innovation at your company.