Entrepreneur and industrialist W.K. Kellogg founded the Kellogg Company, known originally the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, in 1906. Today Kellogg is a highly successful business with one of the most recognizable consumer brands in the world, generating over $13 billion in revenues in 2020. Each year college students are given the opportunity to embrace Kellogg’s entrepreneurial spirit through an internship program run by eighteen94 capital, Kellogg’s venture capital fund.
Kellogg’s 2021 Intern Innovation Challenge attracts college students who are interested in building their entrepreneurial skills. For some, the summer experience may put them on the path to start a business and have the exciting journey taken by successful entrepreneurs. With this program, interns are tasked with finding an innovation that aligns with the company’s “Deploy for Growth Strategy”.
The program’s end goal is to create an innovative new product that can be taken to market. The interns’ assignment is very much a real world challenge, giving them firsthand exposure to what almost all entrepreneurs face when introducing their products or services for the first time.
“The best part about working with a startup business and eighteen94 was that they were really willing and open to accept new ideas, so we were able to take risks and be bold with what we wanted to do,” explains Katie Haefner who has the role of Co-Captain and Sales Intern in one of the intern groups.
The Challenge focuses on a different area of the business each year. Some of the winning innovations have been successful such as Pop-Tart Bites, developed by the 2017 intern class. This year the students were broken into three teams and each was assigned one of three eighteen94 investment companies, Kuli Kuli, Siren Snacks and Taali Foods.
Kuli Kuli is a food business based in Oakland, California and founded by Lisa Kurtis following her Peace Corps assignment in Niger. Along with co-founder Jordan Moncharmont, the two launched a company that works with women-owned and small family cooperatives in West Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Siren Snacks was founded by Abby and Elizabeth Giannuzi and focuses on the improvement of the environment, health, and animal welfare through their plant-based, protein bars.
Taali Foods is a snack company founded by Aditya Kaji and Aarti Kochhar Kaji dedicated to ensuring their supply chain is sustainable with 100% natural ingredients.
Once a team is assigned a startup food company, the interns analyze the business model and the competitive landscape, while also aligning their potential innovation with their company’s established brand identity. When approaching various situations over the course of the project, the groups are given guidance from a mentor who meets with them almost weekly to keep them on track.
“115 years after our founding, the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of W.K. Kellogg lives on today and we know innovation must be the basis for how we operate within all functions and at every level of the organization,” said Simon Burton, eighteen94 co-fund manager. “And in just seven weeks, the interns proved that when collaboration, a shared passion and commitment to success are in the mix, the innovative ideas are limitless.”
The Challenge is just one of a number of ways that Kellogg strategically pursues new ideas from a broad innovation landscape. Their other initiatives include the Innovation Suite, the world-class Center for Sensory and Consumer Discovery and the Kellogg Center for Culinary Innovation.
All of these endeavors contribute to Kellogg retaining its entrepreneurial spirit and a nimbleness that enables the company to move with “agility and think like a start-up”. That entrepreneurial mindset is particularly important in the highly competitive food industry where new products are continually emerging to meet the ever-changing demands and needs of consumers. Tapping into the thinking and needs of future consumers brings another point of view and level of energy to Kellogg.
“The excitement and creativity the interns displayed was inspiring, and while we can’t share any of the 2021 innovations yet, if and when one makes it to market, we’ll be sure to highlight the product’s innovation journey,” Burton added.
To be successful, a business owner must be a risk taker. WK Kellogg like other true entrepreneurs knew this when he founded his startup over a century ago, never imagining what the company would become today. However, entrepreneurs also calculate their risks, so they can avoid pitfalls and setbacks that prevent a small business from growing.
Kellogg, like others that followed, began as an unproven aspiring entrepreneur. The path he chose was full of challenges. Yet for Kellogg and a select few, the journey serves to mold them into innovative successful business leaders. They kept the entrepreneurial spirit that led them to found a company on a vision and then they worked tirelessly for its success.
