Our innovation strategy

When you established the ETH Zurich platform, how did you recognize that plant-based meat would become such a trend?

We looked at pressures on the food system and at scientific trends. Setting up the World Food System Center at ETH Zurich to explore global food challenges gave us early insight into the pressures that the agricultural system would be under. It became clear that if the global population grew to 10 billion, we would need to deliver protein more efficiently. Of course, plant-based meat is only one of those solutions, but it became clear to us that with our capabilities and technologies we had the potential to become a key player in that space.

How do you manage such long timescales when it comes to changing markets?

Food is a conservative industry, based on traditions and great taste, and with a large installed asset base. This means that change can take some time. Recently, we have seen an explosion of the food and agriculture start-up space. Start-ups move at a pace that outstrips the market and can disrupt the traditional industry, but they frequently lack access to the necessary infrastructure. As such, we have formed partnerships in Singapore, Germany, China, Switzerland, and the US, providing access to technologies, process experts, and ingredient and flavor partners to support plant-based meat start-ups. These facilities are not exclusively for start-ups; many of our more established customers take advantage of them. To take a trend from the research stage to being able to underpin a global shift in dietary behavior, as in the case of plant-based meats, you need to partner with existing and new companies and ensure they have the facilities to create, test, and scale production.

A very important source for us is being close to our customers who study trends in great depth. We build partnerships with our customers to jointly understand trends and then help them to take advantage of these trends. At our Networking Days, we engage in discussions with customers and experts to gain greater clarity on future requirements. These avenues give us a broad perspective, as identifying a new trend or business opportunity involves piecing information together from multiple sources.

How do you bring all that information together?

Once we identify an opportunity, we start basic research by combining the knowledge of colleagues and external experts to see if this is a business opportunity. The board of our Urs Bühler Innovation Fund plays a key role in bringing views together from different industries and technology spaces. We also explore how we can contribute to addressing the global challenges – for example, what is the role we can play in enabling our industry to contribute more strongly to mitigating global warming? This all factors into the formation of our 5-year strategic plan which guides our implementation priorities.

What process does each business use to move from initial idea into a business proposal?

There are different ways of doing this. If it is a new product development, technology, or service, we have a well-established project management process to carry out our own development. If it is an existing technology that is being adapted into a new application, it requires less R&D and can often be managed in our network of application centers.

Do you have examples of where Bühler applied existing technologies?

Deploying proven technology into a new application space is always an interesting option, as it is quicker and has less associated risk. With broad technology and process portfolios both in food and in advanced materials, we have several successful examples of this, such as the use of battery technology. We combined our know-how and experience from our Grinding & Dispersing business and our decades of experience in extrusion to improve the efficiency and product quality consistency of lithium-ion battery production through a continuous electrode slurry process. Another example is working with companies to put additional protein such as pulses into the pasta experience to get more nutrition onto the table for kids. We are taking an existing technology and adding another dimension to a staple food by changing the ingredients, while maintaining the performance of the product in its preparation.

How do you decide to allocate your R&D budget? 

There needs to be close alignment with the business leaders and our strategy. Then we look at the resources and investment needed to make this a success relative to the opportunity it provides. We decide what we will do, then we assess how we can leverage our ecosystem of partners to do this faster and with a higher chance of success.