Agrifood Leaders: Make Something Wonderful

“The Age of Disruptive Products is Over” says a new report from Rabobank.?

I just so happened to read this article right after finishing “Make Something Wonderful," a free Steve Jobs archive book compiling his most iconic speeches, letters, and other musings. Love him or hate him, it's a book worth checking out.

Steve’s inspirational messages about believing in the power of change; of building things with meaning; of staying foolish and idealistic; of following our passions and persevering through setbacks are messages we all need to hear right now.?

Our planet is literally burning, and at the heart of this crisis is our agrifood system. Yet, according to Rabobank, many of our industry leaders are choosing to opt for "safe bets” and to adhere to conventional thinking.

The full report is only available to Rabo customers, but the summaries available online share the reasons for this: new and disruptive segments (such as plant-based proteins) have faced significant consumer acceptance and supply chain limitations that have hampered revenue growth and profitability. Consequently, consumer food companies are shifting their focus towards "commercially viable, incremental innovation."

Can we really afford to be ‘incremental’ right now??

It is clear that our current innovation and investment models are faltering. Headlines day after day announce that promising agrifood solutions are failing, caught in hype cycles that lead to inefficient outcomes.?Visionary founders are exhausted and can't find the support systems they need.

Current innovation & investment models:?

• Aren’t keeping up with the rapid pace of change in the world.
• Don’t speak the language or share the values of the rising generations.?
• Have unrealistic expectations around timelines, milestones, and definitions of success.?
• Prioritize short-term financial returns instead of social and environmentally-impactful outcomes that yield long-term monetary gains.

As a result, we experience:

• Great innovations that never make it to market.
• Hype cycles & misplaced investment dollars.?
• Unrealised commercial opportunities.??
• Talent being chased out of the space.

While I understand the pressures of the market and the need for companies to meet the interests of shareholders, I refuse to succumb to incremental thinking and action. Especially for an industry as important and monumental as ours.

Now is the time get out of our comfort zones.

A couple of weeks ago I was presenting to a group of C-suite leaders from a major food company. I showcased some truly exciting next-gen food solutions from around the world relevant to the future of their business. One of the leaders approached me afterwards and said: “These are really cool projects, but they are still quite small and early stage. How will they ever scale?"?

Without hesitation, I replied, "Well, YOU have the power and resources to help them scale. I would love to help you and your colleagues find a pathway for implementation of a pilot project with one of them. I can help you navigate your internal systems so that you can support emerging innovations and unlock new commercial opportunities."?

Yet, his skepticism remained, as he then questioned the compatibility of such solutions with the existing business cases that he would have to develop with his internal teams.?

This incremental mindset is at the crux of the issue.?

Our current approach to ‘innovation' is built upon outdated assumptions and models that defend the status quo instead of build the new. I believe that we can - and have to - overcome this in order to create significant change.?

As one example, I was able to "build the new" when I worked at one of the largest agribusiness companies in the world. I was part of a small team who pioneered a groundbreaking initiative to make our valuable IP assets open and available to competing plant breeding companies and research institutes.

Sharing our IP did not seem like an obvious thing to do to our business leaders. We had spent hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D to develop our plant breeding traits, so the usual and expected approach was to patent them and defend them at all costs. We had to work long and hard to convince these business leaders about why an open and collaborative approach to sharing IP made sense - and it's a good thing we did, because it paid off in enormous ways.

Back then, I was the youngest member of our leadership team. Instead of being intimidated by this, I made the decision to use this as a chance to share my unique next-gen perspective about the key issues facing the company. I was the one in the team who had grown up in a world of crumbling IP paradigms (just think of Napster and Limewire) and therefore could see the writing on the wall that our approach of defending IP and patents in the way we always had wasn’t the direction the industry - or the world - was heading.

Our business leaders were making strategic investment decisions by looking at a limited set of criteria: how much market share could they could capture and what revenues could they generate through traditional IP protection strategies. They weren’t necessarily factoring in the changes happening around us - e.g. that open-source business models were being successfully deployed in other industries; that fundamental societal questions were being asked about patents in plants; and that we were spending an incredible amount of time and money on endeavors like PR and lobbying campaigns, losing a public reputation battle along the way.?

When we started to look more holistically at the costs and efforts associated with preserving our old models versus investing in something new, suddenly it became clear that it made sense to look at our crazy opportunity as something that could be both future-proofing and cost-saving.?

Setting up an open IP platform took us way out of our comfort zone - but, as mentioned, it paid off by carving out unexpected revenue streams and licensing deals. We also shaped a new discourse about how patents in agriculture could be used to share innovation instead of closing it off, which improved our reputation in the eyes of influential stakeholders like governments, NGOs, employees, and consumers. Importantly, we also fostered a major licensing collaboration with our staunchest competitor, all thanks to the trust and goodwill we built.

Being brave enough to question our assumptions and think differently led to some truly transformative changes for our company and eventually, the agricultural industry at large. Soon, other companies in the plant breeding industry came together to forge a similar industry-wide open IP and licensing approach - an amazing feat for all of us.

This is just one example that shows that corporate innovation can be about so much more than incremental thinking or safe solutions that are commercially-viable in the short term. The opportunities and benefits of investing in radical innovation are so much broader, helping to drive forward long-term transformation in companies, across industries,?and in society at large.?

Back to the report at hand. Reading the takeaways of the Rabobank report definitely feels discouraging at a time like this.

Why are our food companies focused on making potato chips smaller, when they could be using their best and brightest minds and resources to help scale and support innovation and startups that can make nutritious foods from diversified crops and build resilient supply chains that empower farmers and regenerate ecosystems?

If you’re reading this, I am sure that you have an important role to play in your company and in our industry. I want you to know that you have the chance to say “Yes” more often to crazy ideas that don't fit your usual mold and models. You have the capability to resist the inertia you face in your organization.

I know that this has been a tough few years in the industry and that consumer behaviors are hard to change, but we have to remember that these are the exact challenges our world's agrifood innovators love to - and are ready to - roll up their sleeves to solve. They just need the backing of people like you, our industry leaders.

When faced with the chance to drive forward disruptive change, I was once in your shoes. Therefore, I deeply understand the pressures you face in your job to look at innovation opportunities through the lens that business understands (e.g. scale, quick ROIs)

But I made it happen. And if I can do it, you can too.?

There's so much to gain from thinking big when it comes to innovation. Not just commercially, but also from the personal excitement and joy that you will experience. There is nothing more fulfilling than being part of unleashing the energy, passion, and imagination that brought you to work in this sector in the first place.

Why settle for mere incremental when we have the opportunity to be part of something extraordinary?!

We have not only a responsibility, but a massive opportunity right here in front of us. That's why I am asking you to heed the advice of Steve and choose to build the new... and make something wonderful.