Inside Koch Industries Inc. is a capability the company calls Koch Labs, a kind of internal entrepreneurial accelerator helping the largest privately held corporation in the country put new ideas to the test.
That includes potential innovations and technologies from companies that Koch invests in, as well as ideas from throughout its existing businesses.
In this exclusive interview, Byron Knight, managing director of Koch Disruptive Technologies, says that Koch Labs, which you can read much more about here, is itself an idea evolving alongside those it helps put through the paces:
How quickly are new KDT portfolio companies put through Koch Labs? Is that one of the first steps after an investment? KDT begins leveraging its Koch Labs capability with portfolio companies often before an investment is even finalized. Throughout our process of evaluating investments, KDT consults Koch Industries’ knowledge networks across the global enterprise to determine the many ways a new technology could create value within Koch, and what capabilities Koch brings that could support our portfolio companies.
Ultimately, the scope of the Koch Labs engagements is determined by the portfolio company’s goals and priorities. We strive to support each company in its unique growth mission and overall strategy, so we work closely to ensure they have the resources they need, when they need them as best we can.
What’s been the response to the Koch Labs capability of those outside companies that get plugged in? We have had tremendously successful partnerships with our portfolio companies in applying our Koch Labs capability. We have several impressive examples of Koch Labs in action, such as our work with Percepto to experiment with their autonomous inspections and monitoring tech at Koch’s fertilizer facility in Enid, Okla.; leveraging Desktop Metal's 3D printing technology at Koch companies John Zink Hamworthy Combustion and Georgia-Pacific; or Alkira, which is working with Koch to transform our cloud networking infrastructure. We’ve also engaged over 20 distinct Koch capabilities with portfolio companies to share knowledge and help with their development.
What are the most significant ways in which Koch Labs has evolved since it was set up? From my perspective, it’s very rewarding to see Koch Labs grow into a leverageable capability that activates knowledge sharing, experimentation, and transformation, which are some of the core building blocks of Koch Industries. These mental models are foundational to our work as Koch employees, but I appreciate that Koch Labs gives us the ability to create mutual benefit with our investment partners.
The evolution of Koch Labs has really been global in scope, beginning as a unique idea and evolving into a full-fledged capability powered by Koch’s truly diverse capabilities and businesses – all to create something greater than what either party alone could bring to the table. We’re extremely proud of how far we’ve come in maturing the Koch Labs capability and we’re excited to continue growing it as we constantly learn from ongoing experimentations with our partners.
