Mehmood Khan, PepsiCo vice chairman and chief scientific officer, global research 1xbet online sports betting and development
Landon Lecture
April 25, 2016
Choose Both
Thank 1xbet online sports betting to Provost Mason and everyone at Kansas State University for your kind invitation and warm welcome. It is an honor to be here today and to join the ranks of those who have come before me in delivering this lecture over the past 50 years.
Before we get started, 1xbet online sports betting 's a misperception I'd like to clear up.
It's about my work at PepsiCo. When I was introduced, 1xbet online sports betting might have been given the impression that at PepsiCo. we make foods and beverages.
It's reasonable 1xbet online sports betting should have reached that conclusion.
After 1xbet online sports betting , we make snacks down in Texas … we blend Naked Juice out in California … we mill Quaker Oats here in the Midwest … and we bottle and can Diet Pepsi up in New York and around the world.
1xbet online sports betting 've also seen our trucks on highways and on grocery store docks, unloading our products and stocking them on store shelves.
In fact, worldwide, we make and sell nearly 3,000 different 1xbet online sports betting and beverage products.
I'm not disputing we make foods and beverages.
But I want 1xbet online sports betting to understand that making foods and beverages is just a detail.
Let me be clear: It is a very, very, very important detail.
But it's 1xbet online sports betting a detail.
Manufacturing, shipping and selling PepsiCo. 1xbet online sports betting — that's the easy part.
We've been doing it for a very long time and — if 1xbet online sports betting 'll forgive my immodesty — we've gotten quite good at it.
What we really do at PepsiCo. is make choices.
Thousands of them. Every day.
Choices that determine what people will eat. And how much 1xbet online sports betting 'll have to pay for their food. Choices about where to source our ingredients … or not source them. Choices about whom to hire or promote … or pass over.
And let me tell 1xbet online sports betting , consistently making the smart choice … the fair choice …the right choice … is a lot harder 1xbet online sports betting making a bag of potato chips.
I share this story with 1xbet online sports betting today because all of 1xbet online sports betting are in the business of making choices, too.
And now more 1xbet online sports betting ever, current and future leaders are being presented with choices — hard choices. Choices that we'll either get right or get wrong.
Because we're now operating in a world 1xbet online sports betting new technologies are forcing us to make choices that sometimes place progress and fairness into conflict.
Which is why I want to challenge us 1xbet online sports betting to start thinking differently about the way we approach our work … and about the intended and unintended consequences of our choices.
It is also why I also want to thankall of 1xbet online sports betting — the faculty, staff, students and friends of K State — for giving me the privilege to stand before 1xbet online sports betting to share my views and join the roster of distinguished speakers who precede me as Landon Lecturers. (Six former U.S. presidents, world leaders, Supreme Court justices, CEOs and 1xbet online sports betting other prominent figures.)
1xbet online sports betting /Environmental Sustainability
One of the biggest challenges we face 1xbet online sports betting is how to feed an expanding global population.
And this isn't just a problem that impacts the AG majors in the room and 1xbet online sports betting who work in the F&B industry —it's a problem that impacts every person on the planet.
In the richest parts of the world, too many 1xbet online sports betting eat too much … and in the poorest parts of the world, too many 1xbet online sports betting don't have enough to eat. That gap is about to widen.
Consider this: The global population will expand from 7 billion to 9.5 billion 1xbet online sports betting by 2050. Let me underscore this last part: We're talking about an additional 2.5 billion mouths to feed in just 35 1xbet online sports betting .This will occur in the lifetime of most of the 1xbet online sports betting in this room.
At the same time: Over that same 35-year period, food availability and prices will become more volatile. Shortages in water, energy, and land will impact how 1xbet online sports betting will eat — or not eat.
The path we are on is not sustainable. We have some 1xbet online sports betting to make.
For example, should we continue to invest in potato and corn production on a global scale? Or should we migrate to alternative crops that might be gentler on the land or require less water to thrive? At 1xbet online sports betting company, there are literally dozens of choices like this we're confronted with daily.
And then 1xbet online sports betting are the even harder choices.
If 25 or 35 years from now poverty is increasing, how do we fairly price our foods and beverages and make safe, healthy food available to all? And here is a horrible choice I hope we never have to make: If demand for food is higher than supply 25 or 35 years from now, 1xbet online sports betting gets fed and 1xbet online sports betting does not?
Social/Economic Sustainability
When it comes to the choices we face, I'm not just talking 1xbet online sports betting the path to sustainable food production, but ensuring sustainable societies, 1xbet online sports betting .
Of the 7 billion 1xbet online sports betting who inhabit the earth today, most of them — about 90 percent — are being left behind.
If we want to help them catch up, we're going to have to make some hard choices 1xbet online sports betting technology.
I'm a scientist. I get as excited as anyone in this room when new technologies emerge. Like many of 1xbet online sports betting , two of my favorite words in the English language are "disruptive technology."
But we have a responsibility to consider the unintended consequences of technological disruption, which can decimate livelihoods and displace 1xbet online sports betting .
Let me tell 1xbet online sports betting what I mean.
For 1xbet online sports betting students in the room, I invite 1xbet online sports betting to join me on a college road trip back in time.
- 1xbet online sports betting I was a student back in the late 1970s, in Liverpool, England, I used to go to the local record store to buy albums made by the city's legendary hometown band — The Beatles.
- When I needed money to buy books for the new semester, I went to a bank around the corner from 1xbet online sports betting dormitory and stood in line to cash a check.
- 1xbet online sports betting I needed a taxi, I stood on the corner like everybody else and awaited the arrival of one of those iconic British black taxicabs.
1xbet online sports betting fast forward …
- Today 1xbet online sports betting can press an icon on your phone and a private car will arrive moments later at your doorstep.
- Today bank lobbies are empty because most 1xbet online sports betting bank online.
- 1xbet online sports betting the record store no longer exists because music fans stream music direct from their phones.
All of this is welcome news for everybody in this room because 1xbet online sports betting makes our lives simpler.
But what happens to all those 1xbet online sports betting — most of them under-skilled? The teenage clerk at the record store, the single mom who works as a bank teller, the third-generation taxi driver — and tens of millions more like them who have been displaced by technology?
Technology disrupts. And some 1xbet online sports betting say the disrupted must learn new skills and adapt to the global economy.
This may be true, but increasingly, many people who have been disrupted are not adapting. Instead, 1xbet online sports betting 're responding to unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety by causing disruptions of their own. 1xbet online sports betting are making themselves heard — even here in America.
Now imagine that you are an inhabitant of the Middle East or Africa where the challenges are exponentially larger; where technology either lags or has leap-frogged over the majority of the population; where there is chronic economic immobility and even retardation … where access to safe food and potable water is limited. 1xbet online sports betting are making themselves heard, too — not only in their home countries, but across the world.
The path we're on is not politically, socially or economically sustainable.
We have some 1xbet online sports betting to make.
Ethical Sustainability
I sometimes worry that the path we're on is not "ethically sustainable" 1xbet online sports betting .
With too much frequency we hear 1xbet online sports betting business crises — from oil spills, to E.coli breakouts, to economic meltdowns.
In the aftermath of 1xbet online sports betting scandals, after the autopsies have been performed by the news media, regulators, commentators and lawyers, we often discover that these crisis situations were not acts of God or accidental mishaps, but were acts of greed or hubris.
Somebody got cute … and then 1xbet online sports betting got caught.
In fact, in some industries today — not many, but some — executives actually perform cost-benefit analyses of obeying the law or breaking it. 1xbet online sports betting bake the cost of product recalls or government fines into their business plans. And when their misdeeds are made public, instead of owning responsibility, 1xbet online sports betting evade it.
The institutions and individuals who get themselves into these messes are often proudly — almost belligerently — mathematical in their thinking. 1xbet online sports betting crunch the numbers. 1xbet online sports betting run their risk models. 1xbet online sports betting pride themselves on their analytics and obedience to data. 1xbet online sports betting view almost any topic as a math problem to be solved.
But 1xbet online sports betting don't recognize — or calculate — the impact of their actions.
Ethical lapses have created a crisis of confidence in many of our great public institutions. And not just our biggest companies. The public's confidence in academia — where I launched 1xbet online sports betting career — may be greater than in business or Congress … but confidence in academic institutions has in recent years slipped too, according to pollsters.
And for similar reasons.
Every couple of 1xbet online sports betting , it seems, there's a scandal in academia, whether it's related to plagiarism, or grant-making, or conducting scientific studies that do more to capture headlines or funding than advance common knowledge and understanding.
The erosion of public confidence in our great institutions is not sustainable. We have some 1xbet online sports betting to make.
But I am an optimist. I think we can choose wisely. In fact, 1xbet online sports betting of us already are choosing wisely.
Painting on a Global Canvas
1xbet online sports betting , as learning is shared and new technologies are exported globally, we are presented with the opportunity to paint on very big canvases.
A century ago, a student attending this university might have applied his learning on the family farm — perhaps a couple of hundred acres in Franklin or McPherson County. I can't imagine he gave much thought to how his work might impact 1xbet online sports betting in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia.
But today, the work men and women conduct here in research bioenergy, animal health, plant science, and food safety and security has implications worldwide. The same progress 1xbet online sports betting bring to Franklin County can be shared with farmers in Thailand.
I marvel at how big our canvases have become. When I began my career as a physician, I treated individuals. Next I went to work for a drug company, where I treated populations. Today, I work for a company that provides more than 1 billion servings of food a day to 1xbet online sports betting in more than 200 countries. My work impacts 1xbet online sports betting across the globe.
It's a great privilege. But it is also a huge responsibility.
Nearly a decade ago, 1xbet online sports betting I joined PepsiCo., we saw a growing consumer focus on health and wellness and rising environmental concerns in communities across the globe.
At the same time, we also looked out across a 1xbet online sports betting landscape that operated under the false assumption that sustainability and profitability had to be an either/or choice.
Against that backdrop, we chose both. We resolved to embed sustainability into our 1xbet online sports betting — and make sustainable 1xbet online sports betting practices a growth engine for PepsiCo.
It was our premise then — as 1xbet online sports betting — that sustainability and profitability not only can be — but must be — inextricably linked if a company expects to retain its license to operate.
What was a fairly novel idea back then has gained enormous traction a decade on. I am heartened to see that more individuals and institutions are beginning to choose this path, especially an emerging class of socially minded entrepreneurs.
A shift is underway: Not so long ago, companies made money any way 1xbet online sports betting could, and made as much of it as 1xbet online sports betting could. If there was money left over at the end of the fiscal year, after all the expenses were paid, many wrote a check to a charity.
But 1xbet online sports betting , how 1xbet online sports betting make your money is becoming as important as how much money 1xbet online sports betting make.
But heading down the path of ethical sustainability presents a new set of choices.
I am a scientist. And many of 1xbet online sports betting in the audience are either trained scientists or training to become one.
We scientists usually launch a scientific inquiry by asking a deceptively simple question: Can we?
At 1xbet online sports betting company, those questions might look like …
- Can we take an iconic 1xbet online sports betting product beloved by millions … and increase its nutrition credentials without compromising its flavor or good standing in the market?
- Can we improve sustainability on the farms 1xbet online sports betting our raw ingredients are grown?
- Can we reduce our water consumption by 50 percent?
- Can we capture 1xbet online sports betting bigger crop yields while using 1xbet online sports betting less water and land?
Next, we ask the harder question: "How 1xbet online sports betting we…?"
This is where the sleeves are rolled up. This is where the real science gets done: The computer modeling … the lab testing … the prototypes that fail, and fail again, and fail again, until 1xbet online sports betting finally get it right.
For a food and beverage company, that translates into putting a new or improved product on the grocery shelf. For 1xbet online sports betting , that might mean conducting experiments and publishing your results in an academic journal. For a member of Congress, that might mean shepherding a legislative proposal into law.
But there's a third question I'm increasingly asking. And encourage all of 1xbet online sports betting to ask yourselves as well:
"Should we…?"
It's the hardest question of all. A question I was not trained to explore 1xbet online sports betting I was a student.
As a scientist — a person trained to be deductive — I'm discovering that my job 1xbet online sports betting is requiring I become a lot more inductive in 1xbet online sports betting approach to problem-solving. I have to see around corners. I have to factor in the unintended consequences that scientific breakthroughs can generate. I have to figure out how to balance progress with fairness.
Increasingly, I'm requiring that the 1xbet online sports betting who work for me do the same.
I have an R&D team of more than 2,000 1xbet online sports betting . Their job is to innovate, to make existing products better and invent new products.
On their best days, 1xbet online sports betting invent entirely new food and beverage categories, as 1xbet online sports betting have here in the U.S. and abroad in recent years.
1xbet online sports betting are under pressure to perform. I have given the team a huge innovation target — with huge dollar figures attached.
Not too long ago, during a brainstorm at PepsiCo., a new product idea was introduced by one of our R&D 1xbet online sports betting .
It was a product that I'm certain would have benefited our bottom line. But I'm not so sure it would have delivered much benefit to the 1xbet online sports betting we feed in more than 200 countries.
I wasn't in attendance at the brainstorm. But later I learned someone felt empowered to speak up and say, "Even though we have the 1xbet online sports betting to make this product, I don't think we should launch it."
Apparently a consensus soon emerged that it was simply not the right thing to do.
And without waiting for me to spike the product, which I would have, the team walked away from what promised to be a certain moneymaker — at least in the short term.
The idea never made it to 1xbet online sports betting desk — only the story of how the idea was killed.
At the risk of being immodest for the second time 1xbet online sports betting , this might be the greatest compliment I've received in my career.
For people like 1xbet online sports betting and me who work in science and technology professions, we will be presented with more choices like these in the years ahead.
And that's influencing the way we choose our employees at PepsiCo.
I can tell 1xbet online sports betting that inside my company, it is these scientists who transcend the purely quantitative, that we recruit, promote, and do everything within our power to retain.
In fact, it is my belief that the 1xbet online sports betting who assume leadership positions in the science and technology industries, a generation from now, will be those who choose progress and fairness.
I'm convinced this fusion of skills will benefit not only the public scientists are expected to serve — but will also be good for 1xbet online sports betting own career development.
Because hard science and technology skills are all perishable products with an average lifespan of about five years. That's right: Almost everything we know about how to grow corn today, or treat a tumor, will be obsolete in five years. All of us 1xbet online sports betting work in the fields represented here today must keep updating and relearning our skills for the rest of our careers.
Science skills are just details. 1xbet online sports betting are very, very, very important details — but details nonetheless.
That's why I believe our next-generation leaders are thinking and behaving in ways that fuse progress with fairness.
1xbet online sports betting remain deeply committed to the core tenets of science of course. 1xbet online sports betting seek the answers to our most stubborn problems. 1xbet online sports betting are innately curious. 1xbet online sports betting relentlessly probe. 1xbet online sports betting generate reams and reams of good, solid data. 1xbet online sports betting develop steel-trap minds.
But 1xbet online sports betting don't stop there. 1xbet online sports betting see around corners. 1xbet online sports betting bring creativity and compassion to their work. 1xbet online sports betting use science and technology to connect the rich and poor … to help bring progress to the people who need it most … to help elevate the 90 percent of the world that is lagging behind.
1xbet online sports betting do both.
I've talked a lot this morning about the choices 1xbet online sports betting who work in science and technology must confront. I could give us a hundred more to choose from. Instead, in closing, I'd like to present just one.
If there's one choice I'd encourage 1xbet online sports betting of us here to make, it's this:
Instead of choosing 1xbet online sports betting to become über-rational Mr. Spock or ultra-compassionate Mother Theresa, let us choose to become both.
1xbet online sports betting we do, we'll change the world for the better. I guarantee it.
Thank 1xbet online sports betting .