Impacting your business at our Global Application Center
Questions can lead to answers. Or to more questions with better answers. That’s one reason why @Tim de Lange, our Global Application Center Manager, likes his job. Find out how this ability to ask questions enables Tim and his team to help our clients sell novel health treats, like collagen drinks and collagen bakery, with total confidence.
‘As application experts, part of our job is to ask all the questions about an ingredient. Our science colleagues might come up with 10 grams of something, then our colleagues at the Rousselot Pilot Hall may pilot 5 kgs. Then it comes to us to test in applications and we start working with the pilot sample to see what can be done with it. We explore specific applications for potential target markets, we find out how the ingredient will behave in different, realistic production conditions. Does it dissolve? How does it taste after different processes? Does it interact? We check everything, so we can anticipate customer questions, legislation and more. We call it proactive care. Customers who believe a Rousselot solution will solve their problem do so because we show them in advance that it will. We prove it. This is what differentiates us from other companies.’
Collagen’s heat stability
As an example of the Global Application Center’s hands-on approach, Tim takes the question of collagen’s heat stability. ‘Heat stability is important in some market segments; for example, collagen bakery products get put in the oven for ten minutes or so. But will the collagen still be bioactive when the product comes out of the oven? We asked the science people. We checked the amino acids. We checked the molecular weights. And we discovered that there is a high probability the collagen will still be bioactive. But what about collagen products that have to be baked for much longer, say collagen bread, which may go into the oven for thirty minutes? We tested that too. People believe it when they see it. That’s why we always go back to science to keep ahead of the game – we want our clients to know they will get the data from us.’
Know-how, ideas, timing
At the Global Application Center and the broader Science & Innovation department it is a part of, answers, customer value and game-changing applications do not fall from the sky. Explains Tim, ‘Innovation and application are integrated in our work. When we identify problems or opportunities, our Activity Board can add them to its list of Activities. There are Hot Projects – on the go right now – and Long-Term Projects in the pipeline. Trade fairs, customer questions and other sources feed our pipeline. A science article might prompt new thoughts and ideas, or tell us the time is right for us to move a particular project forward in the pipeline.
Timing is as important in innovation and application as knowledge and insights. If the timing is right, customers will embrace your idea. If you’re too early, or they’re busy with more pressing issues, they won’t. And sometimes, public opinion and legislation converge to raise questions among customer, incentivizing us into innovating together. It’s a complex mix – and our job at the Global Application Center is to operate right in the sweet spot of all those factors.’