Jeffrey Bland (PhD) delivers a filmed monologue reflecting on mission-driven commerce using the history of WhiteWave (Silk) as a case study. He recounts founder Steve Demos' vision for organic, sustainable agriculture and Silk's mainstream breakthrough, then traces how corporate acquisition (eventually by Danone) and leadership changes led to dilution of original values (e.g., organic label removed). Bland uses this example to question whether transformative healthcare and other mission-focused movements will retain founder-driven integrity when scaled through larger corporate structures or be altered by market pressures.
Chapters
I've been thinking a lot recently about mission, about values, and about what it takes to take an idea and move it forward into transformation, the so called tipping point. And as I was having this thought, lo and behold, on the Wall Street Journal appeared in section B on the marketing section, this headline, which I think is symbolic of, of my question, Danone makes $10.4 billion US bet. And what did they bet? They bet that when they acquired WhiteWave, which is the maker of Silk, the soy beverage and other natural products of organic origin, that this was going to be a great portfolio enhancement for Dinault and the French company and take them forward in the world business community. Now, why am I bringing that up as a mission? Let me just give you a quick recounting because my story goes Back to the 70s with Steve Demos, who was the founder of White Wave Soy Products out of Boulder, Colorado, who through the sweat of his brow and that of his colleagues, ultimately birthed Silk, which became the first major transition product going from the natural foods, health food environment over into the standard food of commerce stores and took space in the refrigerator section of the supermarket as an alternative to cow's milk products. The concept of Demos and his company was to produce a sustainable agriculture, to focus on organic, to demonstrate the power of vegetarian eating and to really be transformative, not just through soy products, but through the whole agricultural movement. And you might recall it was then much later, actually in 2008, that that company had grown up to be quite a substantial company. He had achieved his dream in getting penetration of this concept into American commerce, helping organic agriculture. And then it was acquired by a company that was a dairy farm company. And that company and its CEO saw that this was an emerging market. And so this extraordinary idea, this idea of transformation, this idea of vision, this mission, then got embedded in this larger company. However, the CEO was given the chance, Steve Demos, to run his own division, which he did very well. And for two years it became the fastest growing and most profitable division within the parent. Only then to find that he was visited by the CEO and as was reported in the Wall street journal, about 2010, lo and behold, his position was that of being replaced by a new CEO who had a more street friendly market public experience. And now the company was embedded in a new leadership. Now, interestingly enough, it was felt by Mr. Demos that the company had such a deep and genetic underpinning of organic, of sustainable agriculture, of commerce that was going to build around people and around values that even if it was taken over by another company, it would be able to retain that mission. And that's why this particular report is, I think, so interesting, because now it's transitioned from that of its own vision into another company. And in so doing, you might recall that the organic labeling of silk was removed and replaced by natural. There was an erosion of the value principles and there was now moving from an ownership, entrepreneur, founder mentality into a management, business, public sector mentality into in which the erosion of much of what the company had stood for initially was now under market pressure and demands to change. Well, I think of the healthcare system in the same way. There are so many extraordinary people that have been involved in the development of new ideas, new concepts, new ways of personalizing patient centered health care, new ways of using functional thoughts and systems biology. And the question is, where will this go? Will this remain independent intact and grow itself up so that the founders ultimately preserve the integrity of the ideas? Or will it legitimately then move to a higher scalability through bigger business that will accrete and acquire these companies and ultimately in the process change its value system? It will be very interesting to follow, but it seems to me that the most likely way that we're really going to transform healthcare is to preserve the original mission and intent and a fire in the belly, not just about making the dollars, but really transforming health where the patient is in the center of the equation. The not the investment, not the doctor, not the insurance company, not the pharmaceutical company, but the patient. I think we'll see over the next few years as this opportunity to grow this model up starts to become very real, where it resides. I hope it resides within the bellies of those that are the passionate founders.
