Page 137 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

124 grow from within

tions. . . . We needed a new approach to complement our busi-
ness units and Cargill Ventures [an internal venture group].”
One of the first questions in setting up the EBA was where
it should look for opportunities. Cargill decided to stay within
the agriculture and food supply chain, but that’s a large space.
Indeed, expanding into new business areas related to agricul-
ture has been a hallmark of Cargill’s growth. Its founding busi-
ness was a grain storage elevator near a railroad track, then the
company began transporting grain, then it began trading com-
modities, then it went into the primary transformation busi-
nesses (e.g., turning soybeans into protein, oils, and so on),
which led into businesses such as animal feed and basic food
supplies. Nevertheless, at Cargill and elsewhere, existing busi-
ness unit managers often don’t know what to do with new con-
cepts that don’t fit their business, and management incentives
typically discourage them from absorbing near-term losses.
That’s where the Emerging Business Accelerator comes in.
Cargill believed that many new business opportunities were
not being pursued because of a lack of fit within existing busi-
nesses, a higher risk profile, or unfocused attention. It wanted
to shorten the cycle time it was taking to generate new busi-
nesses. Prior to the EBA, new ventures were run by people who
were already running other businesses. It was seen as impor-
tant that new business development projects be pursued by
full-time, independent teams. EBA was created in 2004 for the
following purposes:

• To be a global clearinghouse to originate value
propositions, that is, a place for people to send their new
business ideas
• To focus on opportunities that will generate revenues
within three years (so that people would not think of EBA
as an R&D funding source)