Innovation proves the product works

At the Exceptional Women Alliance (EWA), we bring together senior executive women who mentor one another to achieve both professional success and personal fulfillment through trusted peer relationships. As founder, chair, and CEO of EWA, I have the privilege of highlighting the insights of women leaders shaping industries across the globe.

This month, I introduce Dymeka Harrison, a commercialization and growth executive with more than two decades of experience leading commercial organizations across diagnostics, life sciences, and healthcare. She has worked with early-stage startups, growth-stage companies, and global enterprises, and regularly advises founders, boards, and investors on commercialization strategy, capital readiness, and scalable growth execution. Her work focuses on aligning commercial architecture with enterprise value creation.

Q: You posit that innovation alone does not build enduring companies. What do you mean by that?

Harrison: We celebrate innovation, and rightly so. Breakthrough products deserve attention. But innovation alone does not create durability.

I have been in boardrooms where the data was strong, projections were bold, and confidence was high. Then someone asks the question that shifts the conversation: “How exactly does this get adopted?”

That is the dividing line. Innovation proves the product works. Commercialization proves the organization works.

Adoption requires alignment, infrastructure, and discipline. Without that, even the strongest innovation struggles to scale.

Q: Where do you see companies make the biggest mistakes?

Harrison: In conversations with boards and executive teams, I often reference a well-known statistic: roughly 70% to 90% of startups fail. Many factors contribute to those outcomes, but a recurring theme I observe is underdeveloped commercial foundations.

In early-stage companies, commercial strategy often appears near the end of a fundraising deck. The focus remains on differentiation and milestones. But investors are asking more practical questions: Who is the real customer? What motivates that customer to change behavior? How long does that change realistically take? How does payment flow? What infrastructure supports scale?

When those answers are clear and aligned, capital helps scale what already works. When they are unclear, funding simply extends the runway without addressing the underlying structure.

Q: What does a strong commercial foundation include?

Harrison: Commercial strategy is not a department. It is an integrated system. It includes market segmentation, value proposition clarity, pricing architecture, reimbursement and regulatory pathways where relevant, distribution channels, demand generation, business development, strategic partnerships, sales execution, and operational readiness. When one of those elements is misaligned, growth becomes unstable. When they work together, scale becomes predictable.

Q: You have also worked with companies that were already in their market but struggling. What tends to happen there?

Harrison: The instinct in stalled organizations is often tactical. Add more salespeople. Increase activity. Expand coverage. But stalled growth is rarely an effort problem. It is usually structural.

If pricing does not reflect value, more calls will not fix it. If the wrong customer segment is targeted, more territory will not solve it. If operations cannot support scale, additional demand will expose the cracks.

Adding sales capacity to a misaligned commercial structure is like pressing harder on the accelerator when the engine is misfiring.

Q: That sounds like a leadership issue more than a sales issue.

Harrison: It is absolutely a leadership issue.

Ultimately, commercialization is a leadership choice. Leaders decide whether product, finance, operations, business development, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market strategy are aligned early on or remain siloed until friction arises. Leaders decide whether to test assumptions before scaling or correct them after decline.

Strong commercial architecture increases capital efficiency, improves forecasting accuracy, and strengthens valuation because growth becomes measurable rather than aspirational.

Q: What should leaders be asking themselves today?

Harrison: Not simply whether their innovation works. They should be asking whether their organization is built to carry it.

Whether you are building a diagnostic, a therapeutic, a medical device, an AI platform, or a consumer product, customers ask the same questions. Does this solve a meaningful problem? Is it worth the investment? Can I integrate it without disruption? Can I rely on it consistently?

Launch creates visibility. Adoption creates durability. Innovation creates possibility. Commercial discipline converts possibility into enterprise value.

Larraine Segil is founder, chair, and CEO of the Exceptional Women Alliance.