We Get You to Growth.
Growth Innovation Strategy (GIS) is a boutique innovation and strategy firm built for mid-market and PE-backed companies. We help leaders move faster — building AI-reinforced clarity, practical strategy, and measurable outcomes in days or weeks, not months.
Our mission:
To help mid-market leaders out-think, out-move, and out-earn their peers — every day.
We bring sharp thinking and real-world execution, practical leadership experience and a fresh, forward-looking approach. Our solutions deliver what growth-focused organizations actually need: Clarity, alignment, and action plans that move the needle — results not reports.
We’ve helped companies:
→ Build market leadership
→ Turn around failing businesses
→ Break through stalled growth
→ Launch new products and platforms
How?
By locking onto what matters most: Your key customers, growth levers, internal processes, and the alignment it takes to win.
When we engage, we bring:
→ A sharp outside view — to help you see what others miss
→ Concrete, actionable recommendations — starting with situation-specific playbooks
→ Real-world backing — what works, when you need outside help (and when you don’t)
And when it’s time to execute — we bring a network of experts in AI, IT, digital marketing, finance, and project management to help you drive results faster.
We’ve done this from every side: As industry leaders, as consultants, as functional experts, and as thought leaders. We’ve been where you are. We’ve helped companies get past it. And we stay on the edge of what’s possible — so you can too.
About the Founder
James Janega built Growth Innovation Strategy (GIS) to help mid-market leaders out-think, out-move, and out-earn their peers — fast.
As founder and Managing Partner of GIS, James works with clients ranging from international financial institutions and PE-backed midcaps to government agencies, family-owned businesses — even neighborhood taverns.
His background spans entrepreneurship, corporate partnerships, turnarounds, new product launches, and aligning leadership teams to drive results. Across every engagement, the goal is the same: Clarity, alignment, and measurable results that drive growth.
An expert in AI and digital transformation, James developed tools like TRENDWISE and STRATWISE to help companies anticipate disruption and act faster. He teaches innovation leadership to MBAs and executives as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business , where he co-directs international innovation programs for corporate leaders.
James also serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Chicago’s Duality Quantum Accelerator and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s EnterpriseWorks incubator — advising startups in AI, clean tech, and quantum.
Before GIS, James was an accomplished journalist at the Chicago Tribune. That’s where he learned to cut through complexity, tell clear stories, and make big ideas actionable — skills that now shape how GIS helps clients move.
He holds an MBA from Booth and studied AI management at MIT Sloan and CSAIL. Recognized as a thought leader in AI, foresight, and innovation strategy, James helps clients navigate fast-changing markets — and build future-ready businesses.
When not working with clients or teaching, he’s a triathlete, jazz musician, and an outdoor adventurer — and is happiest laughing with his wife and their two kids.
