The power of unlikely partnerships
Brock H Leach is the former chief innovation officer at PepsiCo and a member of PepsiCo’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Board on Health and Wellness. As such, he brings an interesting perspective to the discussion of corporate accountability and consumer action when it comes to the obesity pandemic. In order to come up with solutions to an intractable problem, he says, you need creativity. And for consumer groups, that means holding companies to account by appealing to the competitive advantage of healthier food offerings.
“The food industry is incredibly competitive so the company that figures out how to deliver those [offerings] will be the company that wins – and leading companies are starting to do so.”
Consumers, he says, desperately need healthier food options that are easier and more fun and more rewarding. And food companies should be introducing healthier products that consumers want to eat.
Rather than taking an adversarial role, consumer groups and food companies should identify the common ground and use this as the basis for innovation.
“We can be collaborators and if you want to propose an unlikely partnership, you’ll get a much more receptive audience that you would have five years ago. Companies are stepping up to the plate.”
CHOICE’s position on what corporations, consumers and government need to do to combat the obesity epidemic can be found on our campaign page.
You can view Mr Leach’s presentation below:
