Keynote Speaker · Innovation, Transformation & The Future of Work

Breakthrough
Innovation.

A system, not a moment.

Most companies treat a breakthrough as luck, a flash of genius you sit and wait for. It isn't. It's a system you can build on purpose: how an organisation is designed, wired and run, and how AI is actually used. I help leaders build it, so innovation becomes repeatable instead of accidental.

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Trusted on stage by teams from

Circle KBootsHPonXVista Outdoor

Speaking

Four talks. One idea: structure is what makes breakthroughs repeat, or what quietly kills them.

Keynotes and workshops on org design, AI, and the systems behind breakthrough innovation. Available for in-person and virtual sessions.

The Companies That Saw It Coming and Died Anyway

Kodak invented the digital camera. Boeing knew. The failure is almost never a missed signal; it's a structure that couldn't act on what the people already saw. I walk leaders through how good companies, full of smart people, get killed by their own operating model, and how to spot the same wiring in your own org before it costs you.

Conference keynotes · leadership all-hands

Why the problem is almost never the idea, the talent, or the market
How structure quietly overrules what people already know
The early signs your organization can see a threat but can't respond to it

Building a Breakthrough Structure

Most organizations try to fix innovation with a reorg or a new tool. It rarely works. I show leaders how to wire the structure, the roles, processes, and rhythms, so a breakthrough scales across the team instead of dying with one person.

Executive offsites · leadership all-hands

Why reorgs and tool roll-outs fail to change behavior, and what does
The structural levers that decide what a team can actually do
A repeatable operating model that makes breakthrough a habit, not an event

Individual AI vs. Collective AI

Most companies gave everyone a copilot and got a faster status quo. I show leaders the difference between AI that scales output and AI that scales judgment, and how to wire the organization for the second.

Executive offsites · leadership all-hands

Why AI made individuals faster but not the company smarter
Output versus judgment, and which one actually compounds
How to wire roles and processes so AI raises collective decision quality

Who Actually Gets to Decide

In most organizations, no one can tell you who owns a decision, which is why the same ones keep coming back around. I show leaders how to map decision rights, find the choices that quietly route through three layers of approval, and redesign so capability, not hierarchy, decides what moves.

Senior leadership · strategy offsites

Why an unclear decision is more expensive than a wrong one
How to find the decisions that keep coming back, and what that's costing you
Redesigning decision rights so the right person decides the first time

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The big idea

A breakthrough is not a moment. It's a system.

Most companies treat a breakthrough as luck, a flash of genius you sit and wait for. It is not. You can build the conditions that make breakthroughs happen on purpose, again and again, so innovation becomes something you produce rather than something you hope for.

That system has two halves: the culture and the structure. Two sides of one coin. They don't just support each other, they produce each other. Neither creates real breakthrough innovation on its own.

Most organisations try to fix the culture or fix the structure. The ones that keep breaking through fix both, and design them to reinforce each other. That is the work I do.

Breakthrough Culture

How people think, relate, lead and show up. The beliefs, habits and conversations that make breakthrough possible. The living, human half.

Breakthrough Structure

How the organisation is designed, wired and run: org design, processes, roles, rhythms, capabilities and how AI is actually used. The built, architectural half, and where I focus.

Where they meet: behaviour

For a behaviour to take hold it has to be permissible by both the culture and the structure. Change either one alone and nothing moves. The two halves meet in what people actually do.

About

Hi, I'm Preston.

For two decades I have worked inside the wiring of how companies actually operate: the org designs, the operating models, the processes and the rhythms that quietly decide what is and isn't possible.

A decade of building with Ford, Pfizer, Walgreens, BMS, Shell, HSBC, HP, Bushnell and Vista Outdoor taught me the same lesson. AI, and other tech improvements, made individuals faster. It rarely made the company smarter. The gap was never the tools. It was the structure they were dropped into.

Now I help scaling organisations build breakthrough innovation, co-host the Breakthrough Innovation Podcast, and speak on stages.

Innovation Labs

How I get the work unstuck.

Most companies don't fail for lack of effort. Many don't even share a direction of travel. Before anything moves, you have to get people on the same page. Then, instead of losing months in conference rooms, I run a design sprint to rapidly build and test the north star. Once the direction is validated, the teams get aligned and launched. I start wherever you are.

North Star

Half-day with your leadership team. We name the structural blockers stalling the work that matters and lock the direction.

Design Sprint

One week. We test the most expensive assumption with real customers and ship a working prototype your team can react to.

Team Launch

We hand the system back to your people, with the operating model and the cadence to keep moving without us.

Read the full method at centered.work

Watch & listen

Breakthrough Innovation Podcast.

The weekly conversation on what stalls teams and what moves them. Three hundred episodes and counting.

▶

Why Most Leaders Accidentally Sabotage Innovation, with Bruno Pesec

▶

What Every Founder Gets Wrong About Grit, Success and Sacrifice, with Garrett Wood

▶

You're Boring, and It's Costing You Business, with Anders Boulanger

▶

How Organically Grown Company Proves Purpose and Profit Aren't a Trade-Off

▶

Breakthrough Innovation Ep. 149, with Dave Schoof

Watch on YouTube All episodes

In their words

Leaders who've been in the room.

Preston helped us compress innovation timelines and build capability at the same time. His blend of facilitation, coaching, and partnership has transformed how our teams work and collaborate.

Sandra D'AmbrosioExecutive Program Manager, HP

An invaluable partner in helping us unlock a new level of innovation. He didn't just run workshops, he transformed how we think, collaborate, and execute.

Lara BowenChief Innovation Officer, Univet

Preston helped us validate critical assumptions fast. The sprint aligned our cross-functional teams and gave us clear customer evidence to move forward.

Chadwick AndrewsSr. Director, Bushnell Outdoor Products

Preston fundamentally changed how our teams approach innovation. We went from a culture of safe ideas to one where people actually push through the hard problems. That is not a workshop result. That is a system shift.

Sandra D'Ambrosio · Executive Program Manager, HP

Books

The long-form version.

Two books on building organisations that keep moving: the system behind breakthrough innovation, and the principles for leading agile teams.

Book 01

Breakthrough Innovation

Why breakthroughs are built, not waited for

A breakthrough is a system, not a moment. This is the book behind the idea: the culture that produces breakthroughs and the structure that compounds them, and why neither works without the other.

Learn more Get the book

Book 02

The Agile Code

Principles of Leading Agile Teams

The structural principles behind teams that keep moving. How to wire roles, rhythms and decision rights for speed without burning the people doing the work, drawn from a decade inside agile transformations.

Learn more Get the book

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Bring this idea
to your stage.

Tell me about your event and your audience. I will come back within two working days. I travel for the right room.

Available formats

KeynotesHalf-day workshopsLeadership offsitesFireside chatsPanelsVirtual sessions

Let's work together

Tell me what's stuck.

A thirty-minute conversation. No pitch, no slides. We talk about the work your team can't move, where the structure is fighting them, and where AI is making it worse instead of better. If we are a fit, we go from there.

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BreakthroughInnovation.