Innovation is about solving problems and ensuring a sustainable future is one of our greatest challenges. In the setting of the food industry, the case explores how organizations can use innovation to reimagine a system and lead transformation.

In the case, Chef Dan Barber, one the world’s top chefs reorganizes to create an innovation engine focused on rearchitecting the food system to make it regenerative—meaning it puts back more than it takes. Although set in the food industry, the case teaches lessons about innovation, organization change, and transformation relevant to any industry. For example, how do you organize for innovation? How do you help people change? How does the “soil” of an organization affect the quality of the work it does. These and many other lessons are relevant both to the sustainability challenge but also the innovation challenge faced by all organizations. 

The case teaches about innovation, regenerative design, and affection. Regenerative design involves reimagining a system—particularly the people who work in an organization—to give back as much as it takes and so is widely applicable outside the food industry. Affection is about the crucial process of engaging the heart in the change process.