Open innovation brings John Deere closer to its customers

John Deere is committed to implementing partnerships to enable the concept of open innovation in the company's business model. Working together with other companies to seek practical solutions is the basis of open innovation. The practice accelerates project development, adding value and prominence in the market and, most importantly, helps customers to obtain ideal solutions for their operations in an increasingly agile manner.

John Deere's actions have been to establish this concept of business management in its business model in an increasingly organic way, proposing a corporate cultural break in favor of technological development. “There are numerous advantages in opening up a company's innovation process, such as reduction in project time, cost and risk, access to technologies under development and incorporation of solutions in the form of products, patents, research and prototypes that would not otherwise be generated usually by the company, whether due to lack of time, knowledge or resources”, comments Débora Rodrigues, Value Generation manager & Open Innovation leader at John Deere for Latin America.

Access to alternative markets, generating new commercial opportunities through Research & Development, is also an attraction of open innovation for companies. “Currently, John Deere invests US$6,7 million globally every day in R&D. We believe that producers must have the latest technology so that they can obtain maximum productivity from their crops, with cost reduction and sustainability”, adds the manager.

A great example of open innovation at John Deere is the company's partnership with AgTech Garage, the largest agribusiness innovation hub in Latin America. In January of this year, the company expanded its collaboration with the hub, becoming an Innovation Partner. As a result, it began promoting new open innovation projects with the AgTech Garage and actively participating in the hub's main startup development program, Intensive Connection.

Alongside six other large agricultural companies, John Deere used the program to seek solutions that were capable of impacting the profitability of agricultural properties by optimizing logistics, production impact or cost management. The company selected two of the 14 participating startups: Cromai, which develops frontier technology and computer vision; and Scicrop, a specialist in big data analytics, digital transformation and solutions for the agricultural chain.

“John Deere’s participation in Intensive Connection enhanced the company’s open innovation strategy and allowed the generation of shared value alongside other large companies, startups, investors and, mainly, producers”, concludes Rodrigues.

Another partnership recently signed by the company that further highlights the importance of open innovation is with Inovabra, Bradesco's entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. The collaboration with Banco John Deere, the company's financial arm, allows for closer contact with startups and accelerates digital transformation in the sector.

Open innovation will also help John Deere meet some goals, called Leap Ambitions, which were recently set and aim to leverage the economic value and sustainability of operations for customers. Among the objectives for 2026 are to connect 1,5 million machines, demonstrate viable low/no carbon alternative energy solutions and deliver more than 20 electric or hybrid models in the Construction division, in addition to a battery-powered electric tractor for agriculture and fully autonomous. By 2030, John Deere aims to have 10% of the company's recurring revenue come from technological services offered to customers, in addition to reducing CO50 emissions by 2% and ensuring that 65% of product content is sustainable.