Food continues to attract major investment, raising “$9.5 billion across 2,100 deals globally, said Zoe Leavitt, senior intelligence analyst at CB Insights, a data analytics firm.”
Much of this investment comes from venture funds, incubators and accelerators established by large companies who are being left behind. This demonstrates the fundamental failure of the entrenched NPD processes in large corporates. The days of lengthy stage-gate led processes with 12-18 month horizons are long gone! Far more agility is required and the investment in or acquisition of small innovative companies by lumbering market incumbents seems to be the only way they know how to react.
The main danger of this strategy is the crushing of the smaller acquisition by the larger incumbent. To prevent this I believe we’ll see the rise of the conglomerate again, with large companies being comprised of a myriad of smaller semi-autonomous units. How else will the agile acquisitions continue to innovate?
Scale no longer has the advantages it once did with innovation today being so rapid and disruptive.
It’s simply the most interesting time to be in the Food industry that I’ve seen in the last 30 years!
