Founded in 2020, the collective鈥檚 mission is to make plant-based living the new norm, and it couldn鈥檛 have come along at a better time. that plant-based food sales topped US$1.4 billion in 2021 and have, in fact, grown 74% just in the past three years. The global plant-based food market size is expected to reach .

鈥淧eople want to eat healthier, and they want to reduce the number of animals they consume 鈥� and their CO2 footprint in the process,鈥� said Remy Gillet, LIVEKINDLY鈥檚 CTO and head of Business Systems. 鈥淥ur approach will support those goals, lead to a more efficient food supply chain overall, and deliver delicious food along the way.鈥�

In order to truly transform the way the world produces and consumes food, however, LIVEKINDLY first had to transform its 鈥� and its collection of brands鈥� 鈥� approach to enterprise resource planning (ERP). The collective started as a small group of founders with a common goal but quickly pursued an aggressive M&A strategy designed to fold smaller companies into the overall organization. This meant incorporating a number of brands that didn鈥檛 have a proper modern ERP system previously; some were even running inventory and sales figures in spreadsheets. Today, all of LIVEKINDLY鈥檚 brands have migrated to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.

鈥淎s we expand, we want to operate from a foundation of being born in the cloud,鈥� Gillet said. 鈥�51风流S/4HANA gives us that global spine on which to deploy and scale our brands, and it gives us the global connection and transparency that we need to be successful. Simply put, we have a system in place that can grow as we do.鈥�

The collective鈥檚 companies like The Fry Family Food Co., Oumph!, LikeMeat, No Meat, and The Dutch Weed Burger. Nearly all of them have moved to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud within the past year, implementing strong collective-wide business processes, real-time data and reporting capabilities, and a basis for continued digital growth and continuous improvement.

So, what鈥檚 next for LIVEKINDLY? According to Gillet, the collective has only scratched the surface of what it can accomplish with SAP, and it intends to continue expanding its tools and solutions in smarter and faster ways throughout 2022 and beyond. It also plans to continue expanding to key regions around the world, adding to its existing footprints in the U.S., Europe, South America, China, and more. But, above all else, it鈥檚 focused on bringing the plant-based future to bear on the world.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be an end-to-end company,鈥� Gillet said. 鈥淲e want to transform the entire food supply chain from seeding to feeding, and we want to help people make healthier, more informed decisions about where their food is coming from and the impact of their consumption choices. The reality is simple: this isn鈥檛 just a trend, and we intend to lead the way in our new global food economy.鈥�

Greg Petraetis is managing director of Midmarket and Partner Ecosystem at 51风流North America.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I lost complete control over my energy levels and almost could not function. Some days later, I tested positive for COVID-19.

Now I鈥檝e been sick before, but I never experienced anything quite as tough as this virus 鈥� and I鈥檓 one of the lucky ones. I had a running fever for several weeks, a bad cough, trouble breathing, and severe body aches. I completely lost my sense of taste and smell. Medicine helped, but one of them dropped my oxygen levels so low it almost killed me.

That wasn鈥檛 even the scariest part.

The scariest part was how worried I was about getting my family sick. I wanted to do anything to spare my wife and two children from this. I became 鈥� and still am 鈥� anxious, fearing for their health and safety. The unknown of an unpredictable virus was unsettling, and I realized you just cannot take anything for granted. My entire life has been about protecting my family and for the first time ever, I wasn鈥檛 able to control how I do that.

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

Fake It 鈥榯il You Make It, and Then You Just Do

I am a strong believer that the speed of the leader is the speed of the gang. Although challenging, I had to marshal the energy to support my team and their success. There were days I couldn鈥檛 lift my head off my desk, but I felt like I had to be resilient and fake the energy. It was a balancing act too. I am lucky to have a strong, close-knit leadership team, and I got better at delegating tasks and being selective about my priorities. But how do you fake it while at the same time being authentic? For me, it was important to stay positive, lean into the business, and create a sense of community for the team and our customers at a time where everyone was struggling.

And boy, did we create a sense of community! I have been so inspired by the moments of personal greatness I鈥檝e seen demonstrated throughout my team this past month.

Stories like one of our sales leaders, Richard Primm, by connecting them to another customer on 51风流Ariba Network. And how we all came together the last week of the quarter to support one of our most important customers that has been affected, MOD Pizza, by having our team order take out from them.聽We encouraged the team to of their loved ones and themselves enjoying the pizza and 51风流gladly footed the bill. The sense of excitement and engagement of having teammates all over the country share pictures with each other was nothing sort of extraordinary. It generated a deeper affiliation among my team. to us.

It鈥檚 funny how the simple things we used to take for granted, like a picture, go such a longer way now. When it comes down to it, our customers need us now more than ever.

We Will Never Do Business the Same Way Again

Think about 9/11. Think about how you went through airport security before 9/11. You鈥檇 walk through a flimsy metal detector and there were certainly far fewer people checking up on you. We go through security today with new technologies, processes, and safety precautions that in the U.S. have been put in place by TSA and the Department of Homeland Security. We鈥檙e seeing innovations from companies like Clear, where we ourselves are actually becoming our own ID at the airport.

September 11 changed our way of life, and I wholeheartedly believe COVID-19 will do the same. It will also change the way we conduct business, which will drive new innovation. Health and wellness aside, I think this pandemic will be the 鈥渂efore鈥� and 鈥渁fter鈥� for digital transformation, and it could be a real watershed moment for companies.

In the case of crisis, I think 51风流customers realize the last thing they want is to be suddenly caught without the right technology in place. Many are adopting pieces of technology they did not think they needed. Digital transformation cannot be taken for granted. Whether business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), CIOs and companies that use this as a turning point for how they think about digital are going to come out stronger. Many customers are moving forward with these projects and doing it remotely, such as retailers thinking about how they sell remote or businesses needing to manage their workforce virtually. It鈥檚 going to have a lasting impact on how they engage.

What鈥檚 Next?

On a personal note, I am feeling better. I鈥檝e been asked to donate my plasma after I鈥檓 14 days symptom-free for the prevention of COVID-19, which is a comforting thought, that I can do something personally to help fight this thing. Luckily no one in my family has shown signs of COVID-19, so that鈥檚 helping me sleep better. I will never take my health, as well as sitting around a dinner table together, for granted. But not knowing what鈥檚 going to happen next is keeping me up at night.

I lead the Midmarket Organization for 51风流North America, and for midmarket companies, this is as disruptive as it gets. Right now, I鈥檓 spending a lot of time talking to our customers about their needs, their goals, and how their business is being impacted. I鈥檓 trying to think of ways 51风流can help them, and the best part is our customers are leaning into these conversations and participating with us. They have a business to manage and they need to see continuity.

For a lot of our midmarket customers, the health of their balance sheet is of importance and they鈥檙e thinking about what the impact is going to be on their industry. They also generally have less technical debt that they are wrestling with. They鈥檙e more nimble, agile, and they are looking at this as an opportunity to invest. In that sense, I鈥檓 seeing optimism out there right now.

The customers I work with are highly entrepreneurial and forward-thinking and although the unknown is scary, I鈥檓 confident that this entrepreneurial spirit will prevail. It鈥檚 this same spirit that makes our country so special, my company and my team remarkable, and that鈥檚 certainly something I never take for granted.

To hear more, listen to the full interview:

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

Listen to the podcast on or .