KeyGene

This interview details KeyGene, a plant research company based in the Netherlands. The interview is with Erik Toussaint, Sr. Communication Officer of KeyGene.

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What is the origin story of KeyGene?

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KeyGene was founded in 1989. It started all out with the need of five family businesses in plant breeding that were facing the speed of competition by multinationals in the development of biotechnological techniques for plant breeding. The companies wanted to be able to keep pace, although they were, at that moment, not large enough to do it all by themselves.

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In Dutch business, real collaboration is more or less a standard way of operating, so they decided to found a research company that would be jointly funded and of which the results would benefit all five ‘shareholders’. KeyGene still works in this way, though the group of shareholders has changed. KeyGene is now owned by two Dutch breeding companies (Enza Zaden & Rijk Zwaan), one from France (Limagrain Vegetables) and one from Japan (Takii).

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KeyGene’s focus has also changed in the past decades. The international team, now 150 people on three continents, are developing and applying technology innovation in a wide range of technologies, from DNA & RNA technology via metabolomics, proteomics and data science to cell- and tissue technology.

All of KeyGene’s research in vegetable crops is done for the shareholders only. In other crops, KeyGene works for and with many other partners around the globe.

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing KeyGene in the future?

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We want and need to be among the best in the development and application of technology innovation for crop improvement. This means we need to ‘think ahead of others’. Stimulating our personnel to allow themselves to ‘be creative together’ is thus very important. This includes creativity in project teams, in which experts from our partners always participate. And of course finding and binding talents is the basis for our future.

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What is unique about KeyGene compared to competitors? 

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It is hard to say for ourselves what makes us unique. I am still amazed about and proud of the collaborative spirit of the KeyGene team. This holds for internal and external collaboration. Within KeyGene’s research projects, the most important thing is to include the best specialists at any moment of time in any project.

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‍How do you measure the impact of KeyGene so far? (Revenue, Employees, Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc? 

This is a question we also need to ask ourselves sometimes. Throughout time, our impact has changed, and so has the way we measure our impact. This will continue to change. Internally we define Key Performance Indexes every year. Externally the use of the technology innovation we have developed is an important measure of our impact. Due to confidentiality, our partners of course are not always able to tell us in a concrete way where and how our impact is within their organizations. The fact that our partnerships are long lasting may be a good indicator that KeyGene’s impact is relevant to our partners.

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What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the company? 

When I joined KeyGene, in 2018, I did not know about the width of expertise and activities, nor about the collaborative spirit, even though I had been active in communication about plant breeding research for over thirty years. I wish I knew better, because that may have meant that a lot of other people also knew better!

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How can people connect with you or learn more about KeyGene?

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Of course, there are dozens of ways to connect with KeyGene, and we welcome that. Our website, www.keygene.com is a good starting point. I hope that mail addresses, phone number and the contact form on the website will be helpful. The website can also serve as a starting point for getting to know us. And of course, a visit to us and meeting us at congresses are great opportunities to further interact, and to getting to know each other.

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