Welcome to Renovah, an organisation championing The Leadership Code. Six distinct leaders sit on Renovah’s Executive Committee (ExCo). Today we meet Marina, the one who asks: what’s next, and how can we get there smarter?

Role: Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Renovah

Years in Leadership: 15

Leadership Archetype: Growth

Marina has made her organisation a place where strategy and execution scale in tandem. Responsible for steering the growth agenda, from market positioning and competitor analysis to organic expansion and acquisitions, she’s credited with positioning Renovah as one of the fastest-adapting firms in its sector.

Her leadership style centres on one imperative: that Renovah anticipates disruption, innovates at pace, and models adaptability before the world outpaces it.

Marina embodies The Leadership Code’s Growth archetype:

“Fostering a culture of continuous learning, adaptability and innovation by embracing challenges, developing others, and seeking opportunities for growth and improvement.”

What’s on Marina’s radar

Marina’s focus is squarely on ensuring strategy translates into sustainable execution. Right now, she’s driving initiatives that combine bold market ambition with the organisational muscle to deliver:

• Strategic growth levers: She is defining Renovah’s pathways for expansion and mapping how each move aligns with long-term positioning.
• Innovation pipeline: Marina is building Renovah’s portfolio of innovation bets, ensuring resources are allocated to opportunities with the highest potential.
• Market intelligence: She keeps a close eye on competitor activity and macro trends, turning insights into strategic pivots that protect Renovah’s edge and strengthen stakeholder confidence.
• Capability as enabler: Recognising that strategy without delivery falls flat, Marina ensures new skills and capacities are developed in lockstep with business priorities.
• Strategic resilience: She is fortifying Renovah’s ability to withstand disruption by aligning risk management, stakeholder engagement and capability investments across every function and level.

What drives her

Marina believes growth isn’t just about market share or quarterly results, it’s about building an organisation that stays one step ahead of disruption. For her, strategy only works if it’s future-proof, and that means combining clear direction with the adaptability to execute it. 

How that shows up:

• She stress-tests strategy against competitor moves and market shifts, ensuring Renovah’s growth agenda stays ahead of the curve.
• She treats innovation as a disciplined process, building experimentation into delivery so new ideas turn into measurable outcomes.
• She keeps capability tied to strategy, aligning skills investment with growth priorities like market entry, new business models and digital transformation.

Challenges she’s faced

Obstacle #1: Over-indexing on speed

Earlier in her career, Marina pushed strategic growth at a breakneck pace, pursuing too many initiatives at once without enough grounding in execution. The result was fatigue and fragmented delivery. She had to learn that sustainable growth is as much about pacing and focus as it is about ambition.

Obstacle #2: Treating learning as an event

In her early days, Marina leaned on high-profile initiatives to drive momentum. They created noise but rarely lasted. She’s since realised that growth only sticks when it’s continuous and cultural, embedded into everyday execution rather than tied to a single calendar moment.

The team context

Marina operates in an environment defined by disruption and constant innovation pressure. Her team includes:

• Cross-functional teams drawn from marketing, technology and operations, often anchored by innovation managers running pilots and proof-of-concepts to turn new ideas into scalable propositions.

• Virtual project teams bringing together specialists and strategy leads across geographies to tackle high-priority strategic objectives.
• A core leadership team of direct reports who operationalise strategy, track progress and ensure innovation initiatives move from plan to execution.

What impact she’s had

• Innovation ROI increased by 22%, with initiatives outperforming industry averages

• 15% revenue uplift from successful execution of multi-market expansion 

• 30% faster time-to-market on new products by streamlining innovation processes

How she got there

Marina’s Growth Leadership has been strengthened through Hanover’s targeted skills programmes, each designed to embed growth behaviours into her leadership practice. Here are the modules she’s engaged with through Hanover Leadership Solutions:

• Coaching as a leader: Working with Hanover coaches, Marina refined her ability to lead through influence rather than instruction. By using questions to unlock new thinking, she built a culture where cross-functional teams challenge assumptions and generate stronger strategic options.
• Inspiring innovation: These workshops taught Marina how to translate innovation potential into tangible outcomes. She now builds space for experimentation into every project and has trained her team to treat failures as learning curves rather than dead ends.
• Career development: This module gave Marina a strategic lens on talent growth. She applies it by aligning leadership potential with future business priorities, ensuring Renovah has the right people in place to deliver on long-term growth strategies.

Why Marina’s Growth Leadership matters

While most leaders chase results they can report in quarterly earnings, Marina proves growth is about far more than revenue. The real differentiator is whether a business can outlearn its competitors, place smart bets on innovation and execute growth strategies that stick.

Her presence on Renovah’s ExCo table balances operational focus with long-term positioning. Marina challenges the committee to weigh growth plans against market realities and competitive pressures, ensuring ambition is matched with execution.

Want more Marinas in your business?

Hanover helps organisations hardwire Growth Leadership into their culture. By embedding innovation, coaching and career development into leadership practice, our targeted modules enable businesses to create environments where growth is continuous, and disruption is constantly outpaced. 

Reach out to our Directors of Leadership Solutions, Brent Herman and Elle Robinson, to learn how Hanover’s Leadership Code is scaling future-ready Growth Leaders.