CIO — The result of nine months of talks between General Mills and DuPont surprised even those involved. The two industry giants, with almost three centuries of business traditions behind them, last September created 8th Continent, a joint venture designed to speed new soy-based products to market while remaining nimble enough to respond to an exploding demand for health foods.
What was unexpected to those involved in the talks is what didn’t 93happen: a straightforward purchase or licensing pact, or a deal under which General Mills could buy and use DuPont’s soy isolates. General Mills, for one, had swung plenty of such agreements, and one of them (an international cereal strategic alliance with NestlŽ) is hugely successful. From the start, though, the vision for 8th Continent was different. This would be a lasting relationship, with both sides contributing people and resources to their corporate child?$40 million for the first two-and-a-half years. And yet the child, quite on purpose, would be markedly different from its parents. 8th Continent would remain small. It would avoid the stodgy, bureaucratic levels of decision making familiar to General Mills and DuPont. It would move quickly, with an emphasis on creativity.
The managers of 8th Continent would act like upstarts, says its 42-year-old president and CEO, Scott Lutz. "I have to get these big companies to allow us to be daring and to respond to market conditions and changes quickly and flexibly," says Lutz. "I’m supposed to act as a corporate revolutionary and push both sides hard." Some companies wouldn’t allow this, Lutz adds. "They’d get scared and veto our ideas and bog us down, but both General Mills and DuPont have been quite tolerant. Even so, I have to be careful and pick my battles. If I push too hard and too fast, people will entrench and I won’t get anywhere. I sometimes have to walk the fine line between being courageous and being stupid."
No one would think of calling Lutz stupid. High-energy, yes?both in his career and in his intense manner of speaking, the way he launches words and ideas at you. Innovative, you bet. Before joining General Mills 10 years ago, Lutz dreamed up the Tide Racing Team for Procter & Gamble in the mid-1980s. Later, he led the General Mills creative team that in 1995 developed eat-on-the-fly GoGurt. Eighteen months ago, his group launched Milk ’n Cereal bars, a product that has grown into a $100 million business. This latest project, 8th Continent soy milk, was due to hit grocery shelves this July. The result of an innovative partnership, 8th Continent impressed judges to make it a CIO-100 honoree.
