72 / SEEDWORLD.COM INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2026 No One Wins Alone IF YOU’RE READING this while attending one of the international seed sector’s most important events — World Seed Congress in Lisbon, Portugal or the International Seed Testing Association’s annual meet ing this year in Calgary, Alberta — you’re likely there for one reason: connection. The good news is that you’re in a room full of potential partners. The opportunity is real … but so is the risk of getting just far enough aligned to move forward, but not far enough aligned to succeed. The result: progress at the start, friction in the middle and quiet unraveling later. The conversations that matter most over the next few days won’t be the easy, comfortable ones. The ones that will move businesses forward will be the ones where both sides are willing to get specific about expectations, trade-offs and what happens when something misses. The Case for Clarity Being a good collaborative partner in the seed sector in 2026 means something very different than it did even a handful of years ago. The pace of change, the complexity of the challenges, and the level of interde pendence across the value chain have all increased. There is no option to operate in a silo anymore, even if you wanted to. At its foundation, good partnership starts with clarity of intent. In this sector, everyone is navigating competing pressures, from climate variability to regula tory shifts to evolving customer expectations. If you are not explicit about what you are trying to achieve, you create friction without realizing it. We hear it from companies navigating all kinds of partnership: • “We thought we were aligned, but we weren’t.” • “We moved fast and had to unwind things later.” • “It worked… until it didn’t.” The strongest partnerships are unfailingly clear upfront: What are we actually trying to do here? What does success look like in practice, not just on paper? When things get messy (and they will) what do we do to get back on track? Structure Over Speed Rushing at the front end of partnerships is tempting when ‘early bird gets the worm’. However, good part ners that invest early early into partnership structure — clear roles, clear decision paths, clear ways to escalate and solve challenges — can move more quickly and without breaking alignment in the long run. The reality is that no two organizations approach innovation, risk, or execution exactly the same way. Good partners leverage these differences. Instead of viewing disagreement as a barrier, it becomes a signal that there is something worth exploring more deeply. The best collaborations I have seen are the ones where tension is handled with respect and turned into better outcomes. Trust Under Pressure Trust is often described as a feeling. In practice, it’s a pattern. It shows up in how information is shared, risk is communicated, and decisions are made when something doesn’t go to plan. In a long-cycle industry, short-term behavior compounds quickly. Some partnerships look strong on paper but fall apart the first time something slips. Others get stronger because something went wrong, but both sides leaned in instead of pulling back. The strongest partnerships are the ones where people are willing to have hard conversations early and in good faith. Trust is also tested when plans change, conditions shift, and new information emerges. The partners who succeed are the ones who can adjust without losing alignment. That requires both flexibility and discipline: flexibility to reconsider assumptions, and discipline to stay anchored to shared goals even as tactics evolve. Building What Lasts No single company can solve the challenges this sector faces today. Whether it’s sustainability, resilience or food security, outcomes depend on how well efforts connect across breeding, production and distribution. That raises the bar for partnership. It’s no longer enough to ask, “Does this work for us?” The better question — whether in Lisbon, Calgary or beyond — is whether what you’re building together will hold up across the system and over time. As you move through conversations in Lisbon or Calgary this week, don’t just ask if you’re aligned; ask if what you’re building will last. SW BY MADELEINE BAERG, Seed World Group General Manager & EVP, Operations
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