Why an end-in-mind approach to innovation is key to raising sustainability

“Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C. When you sing you begin with DO-RE-MI.”

Anyone who has ever decided to hike up a mountain knows the importance of keeping the end in mind by visualizing the summit and then taking the key steps – fitness training, skills development, route planning and more – to ensure one gets there. And, as we all know, we truly have a mountain to climb when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. Innovation will play a central role.

The philosophy of end-in-mind innovation was popularized by the American management expert Stephen Covey in his smash-hit book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, published in 1989. This approach helps to create clarity of purpose, enables strategic planning and aids resource optimization. Fundamentally, it enables a shift from effort-based to results-based thinking.

There are many famous cases of this approach having had a huge impact upon society. One example is former US President John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting humans on the moon by the end of the 1960s, which enabled specific goals to be set and guided the marshalling of enormous resources to a singular purpose. Another example is Steve Jobs’ conceptualization of the iPhone: rather than trying to create a slightly better version of what had gone before in terms of mobile phones, Jobs had a clear vision of creating something entirely new, with sleek design, an advanced touchscreen, intuitive navigation and powerful capabilities.

This second example is key to understanding the power of end-in-mind philosophy. It enables us to achieve goals in entirely new ways, whereas traditional approaches to innovation may often only lead to iterative improvements (for example, mobile phones that are cheaper, smaller or maintain better network signal for calls, but not phones that can store hundreds of thousands of songs, take high-quality photos or can be used to make payments in shops, exploit AI to analyse voice commands and even monitor vital health signs).

Creating clear, inspiring visions is essential if we are going to be successful in tackling the greatest challenge of the 21st century: the climate crisis. We are also going to have to be open to doing things differently. One area of innovation that I believe can make a real difference on this front is advanced biotechnology. At dsm-firmenich, we use advanced biotechnology – in combination with our other cutting-edge science capabilities – to achieve breakthrough innovations and boost the sustainability of our products: we use biotechnology to make ingredients for food, health supplements, beauty products and more that are better for both people and planet.

For example, it was an end-in-mind approach to innovation that enabled us to develop a new way to produce omega-3 fatty acids, which are greatly beneficial to human health and are used in animal feeds. Through Veramaris, our joint venture with Evonik, we have pioneered a new biotechnology-based way to produce omega-3s using algae, rather than harvesting them from fish. With scale, this approach is becoming cheaper and more efficient – as well as protecting fish stocks. Keeping the end in mind was not just about having a clear vision for the final product, it was also about predicting the wider context: we had to anticipate the future status of fish stocks, climate pressures and the global demand for omega-3s across the food and health sectors.

Another important end to keep in mind is the final scale: this is a central challenge across many industries, but is particularly important when it comes to biotechnology. The key is to scale down before you scale up. By working to apply all large-scale stresses in the lab at an early stage, we have found that we can reduce the likelihood of surprises upon scaling up and ensure our processes are well adapted to the realities of industrial-scale production. This has helped us to be agile and achieve a competitive edge.

Finally, the most important thing to consider when innovating to improve sustainability – across all industries – is that any new process must offer same-or-better performance, new functionality and deliver value. Otherwise, it will not be successfully adopted. When it comes to biotechnology, a key aspect in ensuring that new, more sustainable processes can compete with established ones is making sure regulations are conducive to innovation. Given the vital role advanced biotechnology will play in supporting the transition to more effective, competitive, resilient and sustainable therapies, food systems, consumer products and manufacturing processes, we need to shift regulatory pathways to value the benefits of forward-looking approaches, while balancing the risks. In short, the end-in mind approach can be just as important for policymakers as it is for business innovators.

By creating inspiring goals and being pragmatic about how we achieve them, we can make a real difference in boosting the sustainability of key biomanufacturing and food-production processes. The end-in-mind approach helps to drive innovation by creating a ‘pull’ (rather than relying on a ‘push’ that may actually create obstacles). It also helps us to unite efforts behind a clear vision of success, before working together to find the best way to make that vision a reality. Perhaps most importantly, the end-in-mind philosophy helps us to stretch ourselves: we know that incremental steps will not be enough to create the sustainable future we need: we’re going to require both incremental improvements and transformative innovations.

That’s why, when I am in the Alps, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, I’ll be telling everyone – although not in song form like Julie Andrews – that the end is often the best place to start when it comes to innovating to make our world more sustainable.