The Future of Nutrition Series offers insights into future developments and technologies set to innovate and change the the food & beverage industry.
While size gives larger food companies a strategic advantage in terms of marketing heft and brand recognition, they can be slower to react to market shifts and new consumer demands. This creates opportunities for more agile startups to prosper. What should businesses – large and small – be doing to embrace innovation and keep ahead of the competition?
February 19, 2020
These were some of the issues debated at a Future of Nutrition Summit 2019 panel discussion, entitled ‘Innovating the food system: how are companies embracing the faster pace of change in the food system?’, moderated by , Senior Business Developer Personalized Nutrition and Health at TNO. The panellists included , Director at New Nutrition Business, , CEO and Enchanteur at Presans, , Vice President at Danone’s Innovation Accelerator, , Managing Director Food & Agriculture Innovation at Rabobank, and also , CEO at CO:CUBED.
The best way to manage the difference in speed when it comes to innovation management between Corporates & Startups is to ensure that the process is well structured.
Sustainability should drive innovation, especially from a startup perspective.
Failures need to be embraced and learnt from, not scrutinised. However, remember to celebrate the successes too.
Think about innovation as you would diversity: everyone within the organisation has a responsibility towards innovation and should be included in the process, but also needs to be met where they are, instead of expecting the entire organisation to change.
Support from top management is key when convincing the board about an innovative idea; however, keep in mind that the entire business is needed to make anything happen.
