vers+ (Innovation Quarter)
Under the umbrella vers+, a business development initiative of Innovation Quarter, a multi-company team had spent three years piloting the potential of vegetables to tackle problems like obesity, cancer, and physical performance. BMI helped turn these pilots into a repeatable innovation approach and viable business model, launched publicly as the vers+ foundation.
The challenge
The pilots, from serving fresh vegetables in daycare centers to personalizing food for prostate cancer patients, went well, but learning was slow and it was difficult to show the bigger potential. The challenge was to move beyond pilots and turn everything learned into a viable business model with clear value propositions serving different customers and stakeholders, balancing impact with commercial viability.
Our approach
BMI re-designed the team's learning-by-doing into a structured vers+ innovation approach, capturing learnings about customers and value creation and focusing experiments. This provided the basis for two value propositions to help market and knowledge consortia bring food innovations to market. BMI also designed and tested a visual format for exploring strategic partnerships, iteratively validated the vers+ business model, and crafted a compelling story to kickstart vers+ as a foundation.
The results
- The vers+ foundation launched publicly in October 2018 with a DNA dinner where more than 100 guests enjoyed a meal personalized to their own DNA.
- Clear value propositions now attract consortia to the personalized food revolution from both market and knowledge perspectives.
- Several strategic partnerships explored during the project have been formally signed, with new ones in exploration.
The method stayed with the team. It always does.
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