Rebelling for innovation

Some rebellions are destructive. Others are constructive. In this second instalment on "Market Rebels," we dissect two rebellions that have brought about positive change: micro-brewing of American beer and Nouvelle Cuisine in France.

	Title:	Market Rebels
	Author:	Hayagreeva Rao
	Pages:	222pages
	Publisher:	Princeton University Press
	Price:	$29.95

To access the first part of this series, please click here.

Some rebellions are born in the sweat of battle and the blood of conflict. Other rebellions are milder. Perhaps professor Hayagreeva Rao’s Indian roots show in his choice to start his book with the latter – the soft, gentle rebellions that lead to innovation because they fulfil a need.

In this instalment we will examine in greater depth two of three positive rebellions that professor Rao covers in his book: the renaissance of micro-brewing in the USA of the 1980s, and the growth of Nouvelle Cuisine in French restaurants in the 1960s and 70s.
 

Is this relevant for managers? Professor Rao argues that yes. Understanding market trends and how they may affect businesses is important. Every economic sector has its rebels, hard at work trying to introduce their new ideas and prove their worth. Understanding and then transposing the impetus behind micro-brewing and Nouvelle Cuisine can help to discern market-shaking trends.

Trouble in the kitchen
For the Nouvelle Cuisine activists, the hot cause was for the chef to recapture artistic freedom. Under the heavy conformity of Escoffier’s rulebook, the chefs have limited freedom. Their success was measured by their ability to replicate menus and recipes and loyally serve the grandeur of an established dish, for example chicken stuffed with rice and bedecked with truffles.

Nouvelle Cuisine allowed the chefs to fly from the gilded cage and experiment with new combinations, new flavors and even new aesthetics. Plates could be rectangular and colored. Vegetables could come from centuries past. Flavors and spices could be from exotic locales. Herbs would preferably be fresh from the backyard. Out with the old; in with the new.

So the mobilization gathered steam, restaurant by restaurant. The support of the activist journalists and authors Gault and Millau (the names behind France’s second most popular restaurant guide after the Michelin) certainly helped.


 

What is to be learned?
Professor Rao points out that cultural industries thrive on oppositional identities and periodic self-questioning. Cinema has seen various ‘new wave’ movements, mostly after the Second World War. Nouvelle cuisine gathered steam as a means to attract clientele back into restaurants for something new. Originality generated renewed interest. Although Professor Rao does not predict a return to the old feasting methods of 17th century kings, perhaps a restaurant entrepreneur would like to try that out and see if the trend catches?

Storm in a still
Beer brewing in the United States has seen pendulum swings. When beer consumption grew with German settlers in the 19th century, it was a motley industry of small breweries, each following the recipes and traditions of its founders. So 19th century American beer was as diverse as German (and Belgian) beers still are today, and more than 4,000 small breweries worked to quench the growing country’s thirst.

The Prohibition (1920-1933) did not have such a salutary effect. The 1,100 breweries in operation at that time converted into soft drink or cereal drink manufacturers. But the Prohibition also gave rise to home-brewing, in massive proportions. The city of Cleveland alone was reported to have 100,000 homebrewers, albeit located in an area of strong German immigration.

After the lifting of Prohibition, gradual consolidation among beer producers started up. Big brewers gathered marketing momentum, assisted by consolidated distribution (fewer sales channels meant more centralized buying for more limited shelf space). The net effect? By 1981, the five largest beer firms accounted for 76% of the US market.

This was the fertile ground for a hot cause: disgust at ‘tasteless’ beer and choiceless store shelves. The activists who engulfed into the breach were amateur beer brewers, using their home stills, a few pounds of hops, some malt, some yeast and good water to produce small batches for their own consumption.

Soon some of these home brewers became brewpubs, where the public could enjoy an artisanal brew with more taste than a Schlitz or a Bud. From eight home brewers in 1980, the ranks swelled to 1,492 brewers by 2003. Professor Rao calls these activists evange-ale-ists.

How can one tell when a hot cause will generate massive mobilization? In the case of the automobile, the sheer genius of the invention was such that it caused a massive mobilization, which in turn caused major societal shift. Home brewing of beer can perhaps be qualified as less momentous. Yet both mobilizations teach us something about the positive power of hobbyists and fanatics and their transformative abilities.

In the next issue of Casium we will examine how negative rebellions can inhibit innovation.

Published in April 2010.
Next issue: May 12, 2010