Business

The Leadership Skill That Takes Breakthrough Technology Further

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Published 10/9/2026 12:00:00 PM

The Leadership Skill That Takes Innovation Further

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Key Takeaways

You can be deeply confident in what your company has built while recognizing that the right partnerships can help take it further.
To successfully collaborate, you need to know what must remain yours and where partnership adds value. Where do you create unique value, and where could another organization’s expertise multiply it?
Choose partners for what you can unlock together. Don’t evaluate partnerships by the name on the other side.
Understand that the best partners make each other smarter and that you need to set clear boundaries before you collaborate.

Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of General Motors, once said, “Of course we’re going to compete, but in a lot of spaces now, in many industries, you compete and you partner.”

This captures an important shift in leadership. From automotive and AI to healthcare, energy, food and biotech, companies are developing technologies that can transform established industries. But creating the breakthrough is only one part of the challenge. The next is bringing it into a world where decades of expertise, infrastructure and relationships already exist.

At Celleste Bio, we are living that journey. We have developed a new way to produce REAL cocoa ingredients using cell-culture technology, including chocolate-grade cocoa butter that we have already used to create milk chocolate. We are bringing a new capability into an industry with tremendous expertise and knowledge of its own.

I’ve learned that breakthrough technology and collaboration are not opposites. You can be deeply confident in what your company has built while recognizing that the right partnerships can help take it further. For me, knowing how and when to collaborate has become an important part of leadership.

1. Know what must be yours and where partnership adds value

A good partnership starts with clarity about what makes your company exceptional. Your core technology, intellectual property and competitive advantage need to remain clearly yours. You need to know where your company must lead and continue investing in those capabilities. But being exceptional at your core doesn’t mean every capability around your innovation needs to be built inside your organization.

When new technology enters an established industry, it meets knowledge and experience that may have been built over decades. There can be enormous value in bringing those worlds together.

The question I ask is simple: Where do we create unique value, and where could another organization’s expertise multiply it? The strongest collaborations begin with clarity about what each side uniquely brings. You are not looking for someone else to complete your innovation. You are looking at how different strengths can create greater value together.

For me, the strongest partnerships don’t compensate for what a company lacks. They multiply what it already does exceptionally well.

2. Choose partners for what you can unlock together

There is a temptation in business to evaluate partnerships by the name on the other side. A major corporation, respected institution or recognizable logo can create credibility, but credibility alone isn’t a strategy.

A better starting point is the problem or opportunity itself. What are we trying to accomplish? What could move us faster? What could become possible if we bring the right capabilities together?

This is one of the things I value about Celleste’s participation in COCO-AI, a €6.3 million Horizon Europe consortium bringing together companies and research institutions around AI-powered plant cell culture technologies. Different participants bring different areas of expertise and approaches to a shared challenge, while each continues developing its own capabilities and objectives.

Instead of asking, “Who would be a great partner for us?” I believe leaders should ask, “What could we make possible together?” That small change in perspective can lead to very different partnerships.

And this isn’t unique to cocoa. Whether you lead a company in AI, healthcare, energy, biotech or manufacturing, there will be moments when your innovation intersects with expertise that already exists elsewhere. The opportunity is not simply to gain access to that expertise. It is to discover what the combination of capabilities can unlock.

3. The best partners make each other smarter

One of the things I have learned to appreciate most is a difficult question. When you have spent years developing a technology, you naturally know it deeply. Your team has challenged assumptions, solved problems and accumulated knowledge that very few people outside the company possess. That expertise is part of your advantage.

But a partner can look at the same innovation from a completely different position. They may understand manufacturing realities, customers, applications or technical challenges through years of experience in their own field. In return, a breakthrough technology can introduce possibilities they have never had available before.

That is where collaboration gets interesting. I don’t think the best partnerships are relationships in which one side teaches and the other learns. Both should leave the conversation smarter.

A partner should challenge assumptions, bring a perspective you don’t have inside your organization and sometimes ask the question you weren’t expecting. At the same time, you should be doing the same for them. The value is in the exchange.

As a CEO, I have learned to value partners who improve the questions we are asking, not only those who validate the answers we already have. In complex innovation, the right question at the right moment can change the direction of what comes next.

4. Set clear boundaries before you collaborate

Collaboration works best when both sides know where the boundaries are. What are we sharing? What are we building together? What remains proprietary? What does success look like for each side?

Companies need intellectual property, differentiation and competitive advantage. Partnership shouldn’t blur those things. In fact, I believe the clearer you are about what remains uniquely yours, the more confidently you can explore what makes sense to do together. This is also why I don’t see competition and partnership as opposites. Organizations can have different commercial objectives and still find specific areas where their interests align. The important thing is to enter those relationships with clarity rather than ambiguity.

I don’t believe clarity limits collaboration. It creates the trust that allows both sides to be more ambitious about what they can achieve together.

Entrepreneurs are trained to think about differentiation, and rightly so. What have we built that is unique? What can we do better? What is difficult to replicate? Those questions are essential when you’re creating breakthrough technology.

But once something genuinely new exists, I believe another question deserves equal attention: How far can we take it?

For companies creating breakthrough technology, that means understanding where the right relationships can extend the value and impact of what they have built. For leaders in established industries, there is another question worth asking: What could become possible if we combine what we already know with a capability that didn’t exist before?

I believe some of the most interesting opportunities begin when both sides ask that question.

Breakthrough innovation may begin inside one organization, but its full potential is often shaped by the expertise it meets along the way. And working with an established industry doesn’t make a breakthrough company less ambitious about what it has created.

As Barra’s words remind us: We can compete, and we can partner. The leadership skill is knowing when collaboration can create something more valuable for both sides and help move an entire industry forward.

Effective product pages help online shoppers decide whether an item fits their needs and what buying it involves. A beautiful photograph gets attention. Product details such as dimensions, available sizes, delivery details, and a clear price help turn that attention into a purchase.

Even established retailers miss these basics. In its benchmark of leading U.S. and European retailers, updated in March 2026, Baymard Institute rated 52% of desktop sites and 62% of mobile sites “mediocre or worse” for product-page usability¹.

Product-page changes can affect revenue, too. In a 27-day test for Life Pro Fitness, agency Media Contour made product images, key details, and buying buttons visible without needing to scroll. Testing vendor Wingify reported that the revised page generated $0.67 more revenue per visitor than the original².

If you are building a new store, follow the five tips below as you create your product pages. Have those pages ready before running ads that send shoppers to them.

If you already have an online store, choose one product page to improve. Reference these steps to check whether it answers shoppers’ questions and lets them add the right item to their cart.

1. Answer shoppers’ questions in the product description

Identify the main question a shopper needs answered before buying. Look for questions customers ask repeatedly or misunderstandings behind returns. For a new product, start with fit, compatibility, or what is included. Confirm the answer against your product specifications, then put it near the start of the description.

For example, consider a pet-supply retailer selling a dog harness. Someone choosing their first harness needs measurements and adjustment details to judge the fit. Someone replacing a harness they already own needs to recognize the same model and size. The page should make both tasks straightforward.

Also, use consistent labels and units across similar products to make comparisons easier. Include limitations, such as incompatible models or items sold separately, so shoppers can rule out an unsuitable purchase.

In e-commerce platform BigCommerce, for instance, online sellers can use the product description and custom fields—additional facts such as material or compatibility—to present these details. Preview the product page to check that shoppers can find the information they need.

Then, use those same facts to help shoppers recognize the item in search results. In BigCommerce’s page title field, use the product name and a relevant detail, such as its model or material. Avoid repeating keywords or giving every product the same title.

2. Give every product image a question to answer

Plan your gallery around what someone needs to inspect. Show the whole product, a useful detail, and the product in use. For example, a lighting retailer could photograph a lamp beside a chair to show its scale and how it lights a reading space. A close-up of the switch shows how someone would operate it. Together, these images help shoppers picture using the lamp at home. Keep written dimensions available as well.

The same Baymard overview describes how shoppers use images to judge size and can struggle when photographs lack a familiar reference.

If you sell a bundle, make clear which pictured items are included. For products that need assembly or demonstration, you might even consider creating a short video. Add alt text: a short description of the useful information in an image. Screen-reader software can read that description aloud or present it in braille. Keep essential instructions available as text as well.

BigCommerce supports product images, images for variants such as different colors, and YouTube-hosted product videos. Check that your gallery presents the right item as shoppers change their selection.

3. Make choices, prices, and recurring charges clear

Keep size, color, quantity, and purchase options close to the buying button. Label them plainly, show the current selection, and make unavailable choices recognizable. If the size options fit on the screen, show them as labeled buttons, such as S, M, and L. This lets shoppers see which sizes are available without opening a menu, as the Baymard overview explains.

Place helpful links beside the choice it explains. For the dog harness, for example, consider putting a measurement guide beside the size selector so shoppers can check the fit before choosing. Keep it visible or provide a clearly labeled link that works by touch and keyboard.

In BigCommerce, online sellers can configure choices such as size and color through product variants and options. Then check that the displayed price and availability match the shopper’s selection. For multipacks, show both the pack total and the unit price. Make the full pack price easy to find so shoppers know what they will be charged.

If you offer subscriptions, let shoppers explicitly choose between a one-time purchase and a recurring order. Put the recurring charge, delivery frequency, and change or cancellation terms beside that choice so shoppers can compare the commitments before selecting. Confirm that these terms match how your subscription service works. Select a subscription yourself and verify that checkout shows the plan, price, and frequency you chose.

4. Make sure delivery, returns, and reviews are easy to find

A shopper who needs an item by a particular date wants to know whether it will arrive in time. Show a delivery estimate for their destination. Put a short explanation of shipping and returns near add to cart, with links to the full policies.

Show shipping fees or explain how they will be calculated. Clearly describe return windows, fees, and exclusions that matter for the item. If pickup is offered, distinguish stock at the selected location from stock elsewhere. Avoid presenting an estimate as a confirmed promise.

Also consider making reassurances that are specific to the purchase. Using the dog harness as an example again, you’d want to explain whether a shopper can exchange it if the fit is wrong and which conditions apply. That answers the practical concerns that a badge saying “Shop with Confidence” leaves unresolved. Use only promises your business can honor.

Customer reviews provide another way to assess the product. Show the review rating, text, reviewer’s display name, and date on the relevant product page. If reviews come from another service, name that service. These details help shoppers understand whose experience they are reading and how recent it is.

5. Test the path from product page to cart

Shoppers need to know that the page has registered their choices and whether adding an item succeeded. Open your chosen product page on your phone. If a required option starts unselected, try adding the item before choosing it. The page should tell you what to select or explain why “Add to cart” is unavailable.

If the product has options, choose them, then change one selection. Check that the price, availability, and any option-specific images match. Add the item. While the request is processing, the page should make that clear. Once it succeeds, a confirmation or the cart itself should show what was added. If an error occurs, it should explain how to continue without losing other selections.

From there, make sure to check the item’s quantity, options, and price in the cart. If you chose a size or color, return to the product page and check whether it still shows that selection. These checks help catch a wrong selection or an uncertain result before a shopper encounters it.

Shoppers who cannot use a mouse need to select options and add products using a keyboard. To check that they can, repeat the steps above on a computer without the mouse. Use Tab to move forward between controls and Shift+Tab to move back. A visible outline or other marker should show which control you are about to use. Press Enter to activate links and Enter or Space for buttons. In a drop-down list, such as a size selector, use the arrow keys to move through the options.

Shoppers who need larger text must still be able to read product details and reach Add to cart. Use the browser’s Zoom control to enlarge the page to 200% and try the same steps again. Check for overlapping text or controls that disappear. Across all these checks, record anything that prevents choosing the product, adding it, or correcting a mistake.

Keep improving one page at a time

Clear facts and images help shoppers judge the product; clear choices, terms, and working controls help them act on that decision. Choose one issue from your review to fix first. Give priority to a problem that prevents adding the correct item to the cart. If shoppers can add the correct item, address an unanswered question that could lead someone to buy the wrong product.

Record what you changed and when. If you have sales reports, compare purchases and revenue for the product over equal periods before and after the change. Note any promotions or changes in visitor numbers that could also explain the results. Customer questions, order corrections, and return reasons can help you check whether the same misunderstanding persists.

For more examples, explore BigCommerce’s product-page guide, then apply the same review to the next product page.

¹^{Product Page UX 2026: 10 Pitfalls and Best Practices}^{(Baymard Institute)
2}^{Media Contour uses split URL testing to improve the revenue from product pages}^(Wingify)