Kellogg Food & Agribusiness Club (kFAB) | Impossible Foods - Chris Gunther

Please introduce yourself - why did you decide to pursue an internship in the food & ag business?

My name is Chris and I'm a 2nd year MMM. I'm originally from the Bay Area but I came to Kellogg from Boston where I was working for Altman Solon, a strategy consulting firm focused on the telecom, media, and technology industries. Last year, I was a part of the Kellogg Retail Club, Sports Business Club, and GEN and this year I'm serving as one of the co-presidents of GEN.

A few years ago I listened to Pat Brown, the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, talk about the environmental impact of animal-based agriculture on the How I Built This podcast. Shortly after, I decided to go vegetarian and have become more acquainted with the Impossible Burger since. Last spring, when I saw the Impossible job posting I jumped at the opportunity to work on an innovative product and contribute to a mission I care about, replacing animals as a food production technology by 2035 to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

How did you approach the internship recruiting process? Did you know that you wanted to intern within food & ag?

Coming into business school, I knew I wanted to intern with a mission-driven company that shared my values. I originally thought that would be something in the health and wellness space, a cross between sports, tech, and sustainability. I started networking with companies like Nike and Peloton, as well as big tech companies like Microsoft and Apple with the goal of working on their sustainability and/or health initiatives. That's all to say I was pretty broad in my search and not at all focused on food and ag. It wasn't until I saw the Impossible job posting that I realized how closely it aligned with my values and what I wanted to get out of the summer.

Role-wise, I was originally interested in a Product Manager position, and only considered applying to the Pricing and Business Management team at Impossible because of the great experience I had in Anna Tuchman's class, Retail Analytics and Pricing. I'm so glad I did, because that team was a perfect fit for me, and I got to work closely with the PM intern on his main project for the summer.

Please briefly describe your summer internship.

I interned in Impossible's product group, specifically on the Pricing and Business Management team. My team had two parts, Pricing and (you guessed it) Business Management, and I did a project in each area.

On the pricing side, one of my projects for the summer was to better understand how Impossible's menu price in restaurants impacted sales and use that knolwedge to recommend a go-forward pricing strategy. There's a lot to consider in any price setting exercise, from competition, to portfolio strategy and cannibalization, to consumer psychology, but it was especially interesting at Impossible given the important role of price. If you listen to any interview with Pat Brown, he'll mention price as one of three product attributes Impossible prioritizes (along with taste and health). It is an interesting balancing act, wanting to lower price to increase volume and drive toward our mission while simultaneously needing to sustain the business and maintain the brand image.

On the business management side, I collaborated with Product Management and Consumer Insights on a go-to-market recommendation for a new product, that we'll hopefully see in stores soon. The output was a primer we presented to the President of the company and heads of Sales, R&D, and more laying out how we thought Impossible should enter the dairy space, considering mission alignment, market size, competition, and a ton of other business factors.

To what degree did your internship provide you with a good understanding of the industry and function?

Impossible is a pretty unique company in that it is half food and half tech. I definitely learned a ton about how both types of companies organize and operate but, because of the mixture, didn't get the full, "typical" picture of either. For example, unlike most established CPG companies, Impossible does not have a dedicated brand management function, instead distributing that role across marketing, PM, and other teams. Moreover, the "technical" PMs at Impossible had to know materials science, not computer science like more traditional PMs in the tech industry. Impossible is also a relatively younger company and is rapidly expanding and scaling, so during my summer I was able to witness first-hand how processes and entire functions arise and are built out.

Overall though, I did learn a ton about how the food & ag industry works and about the pricing function in consumer-facing companies. There's no replacement for sitting in on daily meetings with teams from sales, product, and operations overcoming challenges live. I was also able to set up dozens of 1-on-1s across teams at Impossible, from sales to legal to HR, and join the weekly All Hands meetings to learn more about what others at the company were working on.

To what degree did your internship provide you the opportunity to develop new skills, knowledge, or a relevant network within the company?

Coming into the internship, I wanted to learn more about how data informs product decisions, see a new product I work on in market, and build a network at the company. Through my two main projects I was able to check off all three goals. I had experience with data analysis and quantification from consulting, and I was able to apply those skills to my project, while expanding into new development areas. Specifically, I learned how to use the data to put a stake in the ground and make a clear, direct recommendation, something you don't always have to do in strategy consulting. I certainly gained a much better understanding of trends in the food space as well, in my own research as well as directly from Pat Brown himself. There is so much innovation and activity happening in next gen meats, and it was exciting to dig into.

Did your internship experience influence or change your post-Kellogg career goals?

My internship experience definitely reinforced my longer-term goal of working within a mission-driven company and opened up the world of food and ag to me. I could definitely see myself returning to Impossible's product team, or a similar company / function in a different industry. The internship was definitely helpful in building up my resume with experiences I can talk to and apply in those future roles.

What advice would you give current students seeking positions in the food & ag industry?

1. Be open to new opportunities, whether that's a different industry than you were expecting or a different role or location.

2. Keep prioritizing even if your top priorities don't work out. Then actual align your behaviors with your current priorities.

3. Be patient – it is stressful to not have a job in March, but there are so many cool opportunities still coming.

4. Try the Impossible Chicken nuggets. They're delicious.