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As a guest at the 16th Global Peter Drucker Forum, I had the honor of talking about recent developments in the global political landscape and their effects on society and the economy. The era of globalization as we have known it has ended and, unfortunately, we are not only being confronted with a new geopolitical situation, we must also simultaneously face the challenges of climate change and increasing biodiversity loss. In other words, globalization is over; global problems, however, will become ever more pressing. Against this background it is clear that we will only be able to feed and provide health care for a growing world population if we find new, uncommon ways to collaborate.
With our mission “Health for All, Hunger for None,” Bayer has set itself the clear goal of focusing all its efforts on the development of new and innovative products for health and nutrition. What’s more, we are also transforming ourselves into an enterprise where people are able to collaborate with a keen sense of ownership.
I will discuss the great opportunities that arise at the intersection of AI, biology and chemistry later. But before I do so, let me make clear that we can only leverage the full potential of the biorevolution if we reimagine how our operating systems work. One of the biggest enemies of adaptability and innovation is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy was largely an enabling factor for companies in the first Industrial Revolutions, but in the transformation to come, it paralyzes organizations at every turn. To exploit the potential of innovation, we need to work on new organizational models that can handle unprecedented complexity, foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and accelerate the translation of discoveries into solutions. Traditional command-and-control management approaches no longer offer the right answers to this.
Our approach at Bayer is built around dynamic shared ownership, where small teams work independently on mission-focused tasks. With 95% of decision-making placed at team level, the model emphasizes autonomy, empowering teams to act quickly and decisively. We are creating a completely new system of collaboration with as little hierarchy and bureaucracy as possible. Terms like “span of control” are being replaced with “span of coaching,” signaling a manager’s role as a mentor and enabler rather than a supervisor and controller. This reimagined managerial function fosters a culture of empowerment and self-governance, reducing hierarchical constraints and facilitating a mission-driven atmosphere across the company. In this way, we are establishing the conditions needed to reduce bureaucracy and create more space for precisely those innovations that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Let me now explain why this is so important.
This year’s Nobel Laureates were announced a few weeks ago, with John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton recognized for their foundational work in machine learning, and David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design. So in effect AI won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. But this significant achievement was almost overlooked given all the AI related hype. After all, pundits might have predicted OpenAI to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, but chemistry?
Currently, work in laboratories around the world has been significantly more transformed by the confluence of AI, biology and chemistry (ABC), than anything we see in the office environments we all experience. The AI discussion should look beyond the dramatic changes in workplaces for knowledge workers and pay more attention to life sciences. The McKinsey Global Institute deserves credit for coining the term “biorevolution” in its May 2020 paper opening our minds to what will be possible [mgi_the bio revolution_executive summary_may 2020.pdf] . This process is transforming medicine, agriculture, and material sciences. Here are 10 examples:
- Protein Folding: Advances in understanding and predicting protein structures, such as those achieved by DeepMind’s AlphaFold, are revolutionizing biology by enabling scientists to predict the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences.
- Gene Sequencing: Gene sequencing, and new ways of doing it, even in living cells, have dramatically decreased in cost, making it more accessible and opening up new possibilities for research and personalized medicine.
- Gene Editing: Technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 and base editing have revolutionized gene editing, allowing precise modifications to DNA and enabling new treatments for genetic disorders.
- RNA Technology: For example, the development of mRNA vaccines, particularly for COVID-19, has demonstrated the potential of RNA-based technologies in rapidly developing effective vaccines.
- Synthetic Biology: Innovations in synthetic biology are enabling the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, which can be used in medicine, agriculture, and industry.
- Biocomputing: Advances in biocomputing are integrating biological data with computational tools, enhancing our ability to analyze and interpret complex biological systems.
- Cell Engineering: Techniques in cell engineering allow scientists to modify cells for therapeutic purposes, such as CAR-T cell therapy for cancer treatment.
- “Omics” Sciences: The integration of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics and other “omics” sciences provides a comprehensive understanding of biological systems and their interactions.
- Biological Engineering: Innovations in biological engineering are enabling the development of new materials, biofuels and bioproducts, contributing to sustainability and environmental protection.
- Microbiome Research: Advances in microbiome research are uncovering the crucial roles that microbial communities play in human health, agriculture, and the environment.
Growing up, we became proficient in programming computers. Today, sophisticated capabilities are programming minds beyond the influence of human storytelling or any mass media before. The future will be shaped by programming cells at breakneck speed. In 2020, when COVID-19 developed into a pandemic, none of the experts predicted we would be able to develop vaccines in a matter of months. However, the understanding of the ribosome and mRNA, the new possibilities made possible by gene editing, progress in chemistry in synthesizing nano lipids, and the coinciding victory of AlphaFold in the CASP 14 protein folding competition, allowed new vaccines around the world to loosen the grip of the pandemic on all our lives.
Today, inserting cells into the brains of Parkinson’s patients can stop and reverse the disease’s progression, with promising clinical trials ongoing. This may allow us to really treat Parkinson’s disease for the first time since its discovery over 200 years ago. Genetic disorders causing diseases like Sickle Cell or Huntington’s might be successfully treated by editing genes. Treatments reversing blindness are also in the cards. Today, daily nutrition of more than 4 billion humans relies on fertilizers synthesized through the Haber-Bosch-Process. Modifying plant genomes allows crops like maize, wheat, or rice to form symbiotic relationships with microorganisms, reducing fertilizer dependency and lowering global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 3%. New crops allowing for unparalleled crop rotations are in the works which would improve soil health, agricultural productivity and deliver plant-based feedstocks for the chemical industry and biofuels that no longer compete with food. They are essential for climate-smart regenerative agriculture.
While there is reason to be excited about the biorevolution, we also need to ensure that the new possibilities of synthetic biology are regulated in ways that prevent harm, avoid weaponization, secure intellectual property as well as access benefit sharing, and avoid political block confrontations similar to what companies like Huawei or ASML are already facing in the telecommunications- and microchip-production sectors. As far as patient populations are concerned, we need to innovate how healthcare systems reward outcomes such as reversing diseases, instead of paying upfront therapeutic inputs. This will help to make them accessible. Most notably, the uneven distribution of vaccines has taught us to ensure that all regions, especially the baby-boomer generation of our time currently growing up in Africa, have access to the new tools undergirding the age of biology.
We are entering a world of ever-accelerating biorevolution. In order to take advantage of its opportunities, we must do our homework at all levels. Bayer has long since started doing this.
About the author:
Matthias Berninger heads Public Affairs, Sustainability & Safety for the Bayer Group. In his role, he is responsible for the company’s global public affairs activities and has developed Bayer’s global sustainability strategy, anchoring it into the company’s business strategy.