MARCH 2018 GERMINATION.CA 27 Germination: What exactly is disrup- tion? Doug Miller: Disruptive innova- tion is a term coined by Clayton Christiansen’s 1997 article The Innovator’s Dilemma. Disruption occurs when a smaller company with fewer resources unseats an estab- lished business. The smaller company is able to achieve “disruptive innova- tion” by targeting segments of the marketplace that have been neglected by the larger company. This typically happens because the larger company is focused on the more profitable areas of their business and improv- ing service for their most demanding customers. The new company is able to attract the overlooked customers with a new or innovative technology better suited for their needs, and usu- ally at a lower price point. Germination: Can you give an example? Doug Miller: A textbook example is Blockbuster Video versus Netflix. At its peak, Blockbuster had 60,000 employ- ees, 9,000 locations, and a value of $8 billion. Enter Netflix. Netflix looked to a new technology — video stream- ing — to give it an advantage over Blockbuster. Netflix was able to offer a low-cost, on-demand, all-you-can- watch service. They were able to tap into a new market not serviced by Blockbuster. Quickly, Netflix became mainstream and is now embedded in our daily lives. Germination: Uber and Tesla are often referred to as disruptors. Doug Miller: Yes, but by Christiansen’s definition, these companies are not truly disruptive. Tesla did not enter the market at the bottom — it entered by offering high- end cars at a high price point. Only recently have they moved down- stream into the lower-cost market. Uber didn’t start at the bottom either. They focused on the mainstream, tar- geting customers who already used taxis. These are definitely innovative companies, but not disruptive in the true sense of the word. Germination: So what disruptors affect seed? Doug Miller: When it comes to the seed sector and disruption, I immedi- ately think of CRISPR. CRISPR has the potential to be faster, more precise and less expensive than transgenic breeding techniques. It’s a tool that could theoretically allow smaller com- panies with fewer resources to try to target a market segment that is cur- rently neglected by the existing mar- ketplace. We may see a new breeding institution create a new type of soy- beans for a specific market at a low price. Over time, this group could create new products for neglected customers and move upward in the market, disrupting larger companies. Erin Armstrong: The “virtual seed company” model is one that comes to mind. This is a model in place in the U.S. and it’s in the process of moving to Canada, and we all need to be aware of that and what the implications are, how it’s going to work and how it will impact whatever part of the value chain we operate in. Activities to-date have been the input side, but there’s talk of incorpo- rating seed into the “virtual” model. Today a producer goes to a retail