The Power of Purpose-Led Innovation

A small team at Distell began with a practical question: could the company make enough hand sanitiser for its own employees and sites? Then South Africa entered a hard lockdown, alcohol sales and production stopped, and the problem changed almost overnight. What had started as an internal project became a cross-functional effort responding to a much wider need.

Caroline Snyman recalls the company moving from idea to its first sanitiser product in 28 days. In this episode of Innovation Rockstars, Distell’s group innovation lead joins Dr. Christian Mühlroth to explain what made that response possible. The story takes place during the pandemic, but its central question reaches beyond crisis management: what allows a company to turn its existing expertise into something useful when the market it normally serves suddenly closes? Her answer puts team capacity and practical cooperation alongside strategy and foresight.

Four days to stop, much longer to restart

Snyman remembers the period around South Africa’s March 2020 lockdown as intensely uncertain. The company had only a few days to work through the implications of a shutdown affecting both production and sales.

The initial expectation was a 21-day interruption. In her account, operations instead remained on hold for 66 days. Even the company’s small non-alcoholic portfolio could not simply be supplied in the middle of the disruption.

The situation removed familiar options. It also brought together people who wanted to contribute while unable to do their usual jobs. Snyman describes that shared desire to make a difference as an important source of energy and focus.

The response did not begin with an entirely new organisational capability. It began with people and expertise that already existed, redirected towards an urgent problem. Recognising that available capacity was as important as identifying the opportunity itself.

Turn willingness into a working team

Before lockdown, three people had started investigating internal sanitiser production in response to shortages. As public demand intensified and normal operations stopped, the effort expanded across functions.

Snyman credits the speed of the response to skilled colleagues who were willing to participate and could work across organisational boundaries. Technical knowledge alone would not have been enough. People had to connect different parts of the business and make decisions together.

She describes the result as a collective achievement. The 28-day timeline is her account of reaching the first product, rather than a claim about how quickly every innovation project can or should move.

For R&D leaders, the example raises a capacity question that can get lost in strategy discussions. Who can actually work on an opportunity? Do they have access to the colleagues and capabilities needed to turn an idea into a usable product? A compelling proposal still needs people with the time and ability to carry it through.

Look beyond the product you cannot sell

The shift in thinking also reached marketing. Savanna, a cider brand associated with dry humour and local comedy, faced a world in which live entertainment had stopped and its own products could not be sold.

Snyman describes creating online platforms that allowed audiences to enjoy comedy while providing some continued livelihood for performers. The activity drew on an established brand relationship with comedy, rather than choosing an unrelated cause simply because it was available.

Another response involved non-alcoholic drinks. Marketing and technical teams worked together on a non-alcoholic cider, while the innovation team examined longer-term portfolio possibilities.

These initiatives addressed different needs. Sanitiser used capabilities in response to an urgent shortage. Comedy activity supported an existing community and brand connection. Non-alcoholic beverages opened a product direction closely related to the company’s expertise. Treating them separately makes the strategic choices easier to understand.

Ask again once the emergency passes

A rapid response can create a new product category without settling whether the business should remain in it. Snyman makes that distinction explicitly. At the time of the interview, Distell was still producing and selling sanitiser, but in lower quantities than earlier in the pandemic. Its longer-term place remained a question.

Non-alcoholic products, meanwhile, were showing sales momentum in her account. The experience had prompted a wider reconsideration of where growth could come from.

Snyman describes adjacent innovation through the capabilities already inside the organisation: beverage expertise, routes to market and understanding of consumers. Transformative opportunities could involve substantially different business models, ideally with a useful connection back to the wider company.

This is a portfolio discussion, not a reason to abandon the core business. The crisis exposed the risk of relying on familiar activities alone. It also showed that an emergency experiment needs another assessment when conditions change. Being able to produce something does not settle its enduring strategic value.

Build the capacity to execute the strategy

Snyman values foresight and human-centred design. Her experience added another requirement to those foundations: multidisciplinary teams capable of acting quickly together.

“That strategy still has to be executed”

The lesson is practical. A company can have a persuasive view of future opportunities and a strong understanding of customer needs, yet struggle to implement either if expertise remains separated or people have no capacity to participate.

There is a personal detail behind Snyman’s emphasis on making connections. She combines technical experience in production with commercial and marketing roles. She also admits that some of her best problem-solving happens on horseback around the farm. Ideas need room to form; delivering them requires the right people to come together.

Asked what to do when disruption arrives, her response is direct:

“Think long and hard about the consequences, and have more than one plan.”

Distell’s response illustrates why that matters. The first question concerned sanitiser for employees. The larger learning concerned how many different uses a business could find for the knowledge, relationships and skills it already possessed.