On Building What Comes Next

Reflections from more than three decades of building companies, investment platforms, and emerging enterprises.

 

Toward a Culture of Regeneration

Every generation inherits both the achievements and the unfinished work of those who came before.

Modern agriculture is considered one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments. But is it? Through remarkable advances in genetics, mechanization, chemistry, irrigation, crop science, and logistics, …….

Every great achievement, however, invites a deeper question. Not simply, “What have we accomplished?” But rather, “What have we learned?”

As our understanding has grown, so too has our awareness that productivity alone cannot define success. Healthy soils. Clean water. Farmer prosperity. Biodiversity. Nutritious food. Strong rural communities. Long-term economic resilience. These are not independent objectives. They are expressions of the same living system. The next chapter of agriculture will not be written by abandoning the past. It will be written by integrating what we have learned into a more complete understanding of how living systems flourish.

 

When Risk Has No Structure

Why good companies struggle when risk is separated from the people with the control, capacity, information, and return required to carry it. After working with, investing in, and building companies over many years, I have become less interested in asking whether a venture is “risky.” Of course it is. Anything worth building contains uncertainty. The more useful question is:

Where does the risk really sit, and does the person carrying that risk have the ability to do anything about it?

 

Building the Regenerative Business

Creating what does not yet Exist. We are entering a period in which many of the systems we inherited no longer seem adequate for the world we are trying to create. This is increasingly apparent in agriculture, energy, health, water, finance, education and even in the way we organize companies themselves. We can see what is breaking down. We can see the unintended consequences of systems designed primarily around efficiency, extraction, control and financial optimization. And there is a growing desire among entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders to create something different.

It is now time for all to contribute back to the world and instead of asking “What can we get?” , ask “What can we give?”

 

The Farmer Must Prosper

Why agriculture cannot regenerate while farmers carry a disproportionate share of the risk.