Brecht Vanlerberghe, CR & DO It is better to be a forerunner than to respond to the market

What do you think is the main challenge for What’s Cooking?

Our most important challenge is, without a doubt, creating value through innovation for all our stakeholders – shareholders, suppliers, customers and, certainly not in the least, the consumer. To do so, we must seize opportunities whether they occur in the market or in society, and tap into the potential and fundamental knowledge of our organisation.

Hence, we need robust processes and stable product quality, good scouting and a feel for customer needs. Those are the keys to achieving disruptive innovations as a market leader, in addition to the buy-in of our customers and close collaborations within our company.

Building relationships and joining forces with other companies, partners, governments and knowledge institutions is and will always be fundamental.

What drives sustainable growth?

I am confident that, in the long term, sustainability is the winning bid. Customers and consumers care about more than just tasty and affordable products: health and sustainability are also high on their list of priorities.

Working sustainably means taking care of current and future generations, but capturing value is an absolute prerequisite for sustainable business operations as well. We need knowledge as well as straightforward communication with customers and partners in the value chain.

Furthermore, consistency is crucial: offering sustainable products in non-sustainable packaging obviously does not make sense. That is why we are organising ourselves around products as well as around processes and packaging. We want to listen to all internal and external stakeholders to remain up to speed, and to optimally address everyone’s interests.

How do we handle this?

In a rapidly changing world, responsiveness is of the essence. To me, that means more than meeting demands. It’s also about being able to react almost instantly.

A good technological understanding of our own products and processes should enable us to shorten the lead time of developments and innovations, and to increase their success rate. From an R&D point of view, we want to see how we can support NPD in the business units. There are challenges ahead, but our organisation has the knowledge and ideas to face them with confidence. We just need to implement and optimise these ideas with an open mind.

We also want to be where new knowledge arises and innovations happen. Collaborations with strategic partners and knowledge institutions should speed up the innovation process and help us approach the associated risks and costs from a different angle. Clear agreements about exploitation and ownership are a must to accelerate growth together.

Where do the opportunities lie?

Consumers are increasingly aware of alternative proteins, among other things. That is a great opportunity for What’s Cooking?, and one which we are happy and eager to seize. After all, it is better to be a forerunner than to respond to the market. That’s what allows you to remain in charge of your own success. We will organise ourselves optimally to take on this pioneering role, using continuous process and product improvement, as well as disruption. The future looks promising.

Brecht Vanlerberghe CR & DO

Ann De Jaeger, General Counsel & Corporate Affairs Director