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When David Bravo took over two years ago as Director of Innovation and Technology Scouting at Land O鈥橪akes Inc.鈥檚 Animal Nutrition business, he found a traditional organization relying on internal research and development to drive innovation.
The R&D group was staffed with scores of talented scientists pursuing various promising technologies, but the division lacked an innovation strategy to drive sustainable growth.
This recognition was the start of an immense effort to overhaul the division鈥檚 innovation system to one that capitalized not only on Land O鈥橪akes鈥� internal R&D but also incorporated valuable opportunities from the external ecosystem.
The changes made in the past two years have turned Land O鈥橪akes into an innovation powerhouse, a transformation of its strategy and approach that contains lessons for other organizations struggling to create a well-oiled innovation machine.
Understanding the company鈥檚 existing innovation strategy and underlying processes was the first step in revolutionizing Animal Nutrition鈥檚 innovation structure.
鈥淚f you are not able to articulate your innovation strategy, then you don鈥檛 have innovation strategy in your company,鈥� Bravo says.
This requires the company to have a long-term perspective and understand the challenges it might expect over a five- to 10-year horizon.
Successful innovation efforts look beyond internal R&D to leverage the host of opportunities available from outside sources. An innovative company will also have processes for developing new ideas into viable products, with a system of governance that allows a dynamic monitoring of the innovation portfolio as well as measurable metrics to keep everything moving along.
If any of those components are missing, it is time to rethink the innovation strategy.
While an organization might occasionally get lucky with a combination of random opportunities that crosses its radar, and some lucky breaks, winning at the innovation game requires a system.
After securing the support of the leadership across the Animal Nutrition business unit, the task of building an innovation system started. The company adopted a four-phase structure 鈥� the scouting process, the innovation process, the product development process, and post-launch R&D.
At the front end, a scouting team brings into the funnel new opportunities, partnership or acquisition candidates and technology licensing opportunities.
As opportunities advance through the front-end funnel, they can transition into the next phase, the innovation (incubation) process, and then the product development process. Opportunities can also enter the process in the mid and late stages of the pipeline, but those opportunities would need to be lower risk than those entering the pipeline earlier.
鈥淚n the last couple years, our business and innovation leadership team revisited and refocused our innovation strategy and priorities,鈥� says Adam DeRosier, general manager of Land O鈥橪akes feed additives business.
鈥淚n hindsight, that was the most important and easiest portion of our journey. We had established a newfound clarity by developing distinct innovation platforms with well-defined narratives on where we would play and how we will win.鈥�
The bigger challenge, says DeRosier, was delivering on these strategies through innovation management and governance.
As Land O鈥橪akes has discovered, innovation is a not necessarily a linear process. It can take years to generate value, and it can be hard to measure definitively.
Many companies fail when pursuing innovation because they do not have the patience to wait for the results. Instead of letting innovation set the pace, an organization鈥檚 leaders may be tempted to rush the process. But that rarely ends well.
Measuring the progress of projects in the innovation pipeline with an objective scoring system provides measurable results that can stave off the urge to hurry up the completion of a project.
When Land O鈥橪akes feed additive business began its quest to remake the innovation system, it did not worry too much about selecting an innovation software platform. Its innovation system was simply too immature to need the robust tools an innovation platform would provide.
Today, however, Land O鈥橪akes uses 奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 end-to-end innovation platform because it lets it have a single 鈥渟ource of truth鈥� for all innovation activities across the entire pipeline.
黑料吃瓜 is a provider of Innovation Ops software and solutions for corporations, universities, and government agencies. It helps clients succeed in today's innovation economy by coordinating global R&D and innovation programs 鈥� managing development portfolios, researching technology trends, finding innovation partners, identifying startups, and commercializing inventions.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 global innovation landscape 鈥� specifically in the world of agribusiness 鈥� is incredibly complex and competitive,鈥� says Vinny Kaimal, Vice President of Customer Success, 黑料吃瓜.
鈥淵et, many businesses lack the tools, know-how and expertise to operationalize innovation ops efforts so it can generate tangible and sustainable innovation success.鈥�
A key goal for Land O鈥橪akes was to overhaul its innovation approach in one of its emerging, high-growth business segments.
鈥淐orporations often misunderstand how innovation works in large companies,鈥� says Kaimal. 鈥淲ithout a well-defined system, processes, accountability and performance metrics, innovation is doomed to be ineffective."
奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 end-to-end innovation software enabled Land O鈥橪akes to embed its innovation processes into a platform that coordinates activities company-wide, provides visibility to all stakeholders and serves as the 鈥渟ingle source of knowledge鈥� for all innovation related activities.
In addition, the powerful Scout platform enables Technology Scouts to access the latest research, IP and investment information via a single source.
鈥淧rior to implementing 奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 innovation platform, we lacked a centralized and consistent approach to track and manage our innovation scouting and projects,鈥� says DeRosier.
鈥淲ith the 黑料吃瓜 platform, we found a great balance of customization and standardization to quickly set up an innovation platform to meet our specific approach.鈥�
奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 innovation platform shines light on a company鈥檚 innovation activities and brings transparency and accountability. This, in turn, helps the company truly understand what it is they are doing, and how well that aligns with the company strategy.
鈥淏y understanding what they actually do, vis-a-vis innovation, they are able to better optimize their innovation system, better manage their portfolio and make adjustments, and execute their innovation strategy,鈥� says Kaimal.
Building an innovation system requires patience and a willingness to adjust, but the dividends can be great.
For that reason, it鈥檚 important to monitor the health of the innovation system and to make sure it鈥檚 working as intended.
The key to an enduring innovation system is to create a culture that values innovation throughout the company. The Animal Nutrition Business unit of Land O鈥橪akes expects the new innovation system to start delivering real value over the next two to three years as some of the transformational opportunities enter the market.
鈥淪tay tuned,鈥� says DeRosier. 鈥淲e are excited on the progress of our pipeline of new feed additive products derived from phytogenic, or plant, molecules. The operational capabilities of 黑料吃瓜 and the Patent/IP landscape function (Scout) was a great enhancement to these innovation projects.鈥�
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