Evolution by design : story of a complex adaptive brand
“A complex adaptive system is a system that is complex in that it is a dynamic network of interactions, but the behavior of the ensemble may not be predictable according to the behavior of the components. It is adaptive in that the individual and collective behavior mutate and self-organize corresponding to the change-initiating micro-event or collection of events.” — INSIGHTS FROM COMPLEXITY THEORY: UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS BETTER (1)
This is the story of one such organization and the evolution of its brand.
The first seed of Future Food was sown in 2013 after Sara’s inspiring participation in G20 in Moscow where she was immersed in participatory multi-stakeholder gatherings and debates about our future. It is there that she realized that food was a crucial part of every important conversation about securing our tomorrow. On her return, she started investigating and weaving, together with Professor Matteo Vignoli and her business partner Andrea Magelli, a global innovation ecosystem rooted in her home city of Bologna. Its branches reach out to all over the world, from Shanghai to Tokyo to San Francisco. After a year of hackathons, conventions, innovation projects, and more, Future Food Institute was incorporated with this trademark.
A hexagon with six dots in the form of an F. What do you see in this hexagon? Is it a prismatic cell of a beehive or is it a piece of an ever-unfolding puzzle or a tribute to Bucky’s iconic geodesic dome? For us, this was the start of a journey that has seen many great companions and thinkers like Tim West, Michael Bakker, Miriam Lueck, Carol Sanford, Michela Petronio, Todd Porter and more- united in this global movement for positive impact, starting from food.
The Future Food Hexagon is an ecosystemic unit representing a catalyst of collaborations and partnerships to create a world with human and nature harmony. With ecosystemic partnerships as the basis of our operations, we have created living labs, conventions, business strategies, new food products, knowledge frameworks, and countless learning experiences along with forward-thinkers in corporations, governments, and academia.
Entering the tenth year of our conception, we can’t help but reflect on the impacts of the global pandemic and the war on our already strained planet. In 2020 we hosted a series of conversations along with one of the most insightful and out-of-the-box thinkers of our times, Carlo Giardinetti, and the founder of Reboot the Future, Kim Polman. The series was called Goodaftercovid and was dedicated to preparing ourselves for the world post pandemic. We could not have imagined the scale of the fragility and vulnerability of unsustainable food systems. It was necessary to understand what we had forgotten: restoring our connection with nature, beauty, and well-being. We realized that restoring the universal human values, such as collaboration, compassion, respect, trust, and reciprocity to re-evaluate relationships in a deeper and more caring way, was the only path forward.There was a need to reflect this kindness, fluidity, and adaptability in our identity.
From sustainable to regenerative
In 2017, Future Food took part in the G7 Agriculture Ministerial Meeting and hosted an international conference — Agrogeneration: Agri and Future Food retreat. Our guest speakers Stephen Ritz, from Green Bronx Machine, and Michiel Bakker, then head of global Google Food, shared their knowledge on “How Can Food Change the World.” This moment marked an important transition at Future Food as we realized that the expression ‘Sustainable’ in some way represented the idea of ‘doing less harm’, while our ambition is to do exponential good. Starting from agriculture, we began working with the concept of regeneration in every other facet of our economic, social, and political systems. In 2019, we tested and published the Earth Regeneration Toolbox, Future Food’s first framework to foster holistic and interconnected thinking towards a systemic regeneration of our ecology. This movement in many ways is about going from a linear to a circular approach. Not just making our current supply chains more sustainable but creating regenerative webs of value. Not just doing less harm, but activating infinite healthy mechanisms and cycles of revival.
Future Food, as it is today, could not have been possible without its underlying commitment to diversity. For us, creating a working environment where diversity thrives is more than an effort in inclusion, it is our true secret sauce. Since day one, our round tables, hackathons, and projects have brought together voices representing diverse nations, backgrounds, generations, and disciplines. Our boot camps cultivate intergenerational communities with a age range of 13–100 yrs. We strive for cross and transdisciplinarity in our teams and train them in partnership with other organizations: for example our long-standing relationship with the Basque Culinary Center that breeds talents presenting both scientific and culinary skills. We currently have team members based on three continents that continuously fuel this ecosystem diversity. The interconnected lines represent the journeys of our people coming together and complimenting each other’s worlds.
It is this collective effort that Future Food is counting on to make our world a better place, starting from food.
Credit : Design realization in collaboration with Alexandra Meurisse, BA Graphic and digital media student at Arteveldehogeschool (Belgium)
Reference :
(1) Anish, S., & Gupta, A. (2010). Insights from complexity theory: Understanding organizations better. Indian Institute of Management, (2010).
