The secret behind innovation that matters: Scale

Everyone loves the “aha” moment—that big idea, concept, or insight. But real impact happens when innovation takes root, at scale. This is where the rubber really meets the road.

We are facing some of the biggest global challenges in decades—from socioeconomic changes and an aging population to climate impacts and the real need to feed our rapidly changing world. Innovation is how we turn challenges into ideas and actionable results. But it only matters when it can be scaled, making its way from whiteboards and pilot plants into the real world on shelves and in people’s lives.

So, what does it take to make that happen? The best recipe for scalable innovation starts with the right culture, partners, and willingness to stay the course.

Build a culture of innovation

You don’t get world-changing ideas by staying comfortable. The essence of innovation is stepping into something new. Scaling innovation starts by intentionally building a culture of innovation, with the right mindset, beliefs and behaviors. My teams have done this by:

• Attracting top talent: Innovation begins with innovators. We consistently focus on recruiting deep expertise and curious minds to our team.
  
• Building world-class capabilities: Driving growth requires investing in capabilities needed for the future (looking at emerging spaces 3-5 years out) even in tough times.
  
• Focusing on customer and consumer needs: Know your “why.” For us, it’s fulfilling our purpose through solutions that deliver value to our customers and their consumers. Dedicated innovation and technical teams tagged to strategic customers have made all the difference.
  
• Enhancing innovation systems and processes. Governance and defined processes aren’t optional. We got creative, working with our audit team to make innovation measurable and so it sticks.

Innovation isn’t just R&D. It’s a mindset that thrives on experimentation, tolerates failure, and encourages rapid iteration. When you focus not only on the idea, but how that idea creates impact for customers across your organization or industry, that’s where the magic happens. You can reinforce how your unique capabilities, processes, and portfolio connect, building conviction to act across an organization, together.

Partnerships drive exponential possibility

I’ve been asked a lot about what the benefits are of companies collaborating to drive scalable innovations. To me it’s simple. Innovation is the ultimate team sport. No one succeeds alone. Period.

Scaling innovations demands a connected system across the supply chain, geographies, and partners. This approach unites experts from academia, startups, VCs, suppliers, and brand-name companies around the same goal: finding science-driven innovations that work.

Part of the equation is balancing profit, purpose, and demand. Innovations must make business sense and deliver profits. But you can’t abandon ship at the first sign of short-term volatility.

That’s why this kind of integration is rare and powerful. Sharing risks and rewards requires a foundation of partnership, trust, and clear understanding of the role each of us plays in the full innovation ecosystem.

For Cargill, which supports 30+ startups in 11 countries and almost every continent, partnership takes many forms. We have an early validation program to address the biggest startup challenges, moving from concept to scale. We also partner with universities and accelerators to advance critical research and innovations. And we partner with customers to achieve shared goals of improved health, nutrition, sustainability, and food system resilience

Stay the course

Great ideas are just the beginning. Too many innovations are celebrated early, hitting the top of the hype curve before getting filed away. Why? Because scaling isn’t easy.

Scale demands rigor, patience, and some grit. It takes science, systems, and the right incentives to stay committed long enough to see real results. It’s the repeatable and reliable innovations that make the real difference, including those that are accessible.  

To make sure your innovations stick, build scalability into your innovation plans from the start. Think in systems, prioritize speed, and access and always collaborate. Balance delivering for today (we’re all accountable to the bottom line) without losing sight of the long-term vision.

The future belongs to those who not only imagine what’s possible but who can build it at scale. That’s how we move from “aha” to innovations that truly change our world.

Florian Schattenmann is CTO of Cargill.