What Snoop Dogg and ice cream tacos can teach us about innovation and partnership

Real progress doesn’t start with disruption; it starts with understanding. Before we rethink a system or question the status quo, we need to understand why it exists, who it serves and what keeps it in place.

This kind of curiosity and honest conversation is the key to answering one of the central questions of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos: How can we unlock new sources of growth?

Growth can come from unexpected places. Stepping outside comfort zones can lead to the formation of partnerships across industries, borders and diverse groups of people. These unlikely partnerships created a spark that allowed new ideas to take shape:

Who would have spoken about these two icons in the same breath 20 years ago? But today, they are friends and business partners. In 2008, US rapper Snoop Dogg stepped far outside his comfort zone to join American TV personality and business owner Martha Stewart on her talk show to make mashed potatoes. That moment marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship and led to business partnerships and other new ventures.

Snoop brought authenticity, cultural reach and creativity to the partnership. Stewart brought structure, credibility and brand discipline. Their differences became their collective advantage and created new audiences, markets and products for both. Crossing lanes, not staying in them, brought growth.

In a fragmented world, “A Spirit of Dialogue” means inviting in voices we don’t naturally encounter and being open to seeing the world and opportunities differently. True innovation requires a willingness to learn from and partner with people and companies who may not look or think like us.

In the US, Portland, Oregon-based artisanal ice cream maker Salt & Straw’s co-founder, Tyler Malek, had a vision for a perfect ice cream taco. Building on the Choco Taco – an ice-cream-truck treat that Malek loved as a child – the Salt & Straw team created the Tacolate, a hand-crafted, upscale version of the original treat.

Scaling production required specialized equipment, however. This led Malek on a global trek to find his eventual partner in this ice cream taco journey: Ice Group co-founder Mariusz Goik. His experience in the complex European treat market helped Goik develop the necessary equipment.

Salt & Straw, Taco Bell and Ice Group launched the Tacolate in October 2025, complete with Taco Bell-branded seasoning packets. This partnership exceeded what any one of them could have created on their own.

So why did it work? Salt & Straw brought vision, a cult-like following and sheer tenacity. Ice Group brought niche engineering expertise and customized manufacturing. Taco Bell brought global brand recognition, mass-market reach and supply chain scale.

Each partner filled a gap the others couldn’t. Their combined strengths turned a small idea into a high-impact innovation. Unlocking new growth requires spanning geographies, sectors and capabilities.

Waste from trees, animals and agriculture can be chemically converted into high-value, renewable fuels and chemicals. And, if you are trying to use it to displace fossil-based products, who better to learn about logistics, storage and distribution from than the oil and gas industry?

The energy transition won’t advance through siloed innovation. It advances when unlikely partners align, as they did in 2020 and 2021 when Oberon upgraded its existing Southern California production facility to process renewable feedstocks. This happened because of public and private funding from the State of California, including investment by midstream oil and gas executive Ruben Martin and fuel distributor Suburban Propane. The facility can now convert tree waste into renewable dimethyl ether (DME) to blend with liquified petroleum gas as fuel or to be used as an environmentally friendly aerosol propellant.

This partnership worked because Oberon brought innovation, resiliency and the ability to connect people and technology from other sectors. The State of California brought a strong policy environment, forward-looking funding sources and environmentally focused leadership. Martin brought long-term vision, investment and decades of midstream oil and gas experience. And Suburban Propane brought nearly a century of expertise in transporting, storing, blending and selling fuels.

New growth came from combining old infrastructure and renewable fuels – not from replacing everything.

Big challenges such as the energy transition, the climate crisis, artificial intelligence development and global instability won’t be solved by any one actor or sector. New sources of growth are unlocked through different combinations of experience, expertise and perspective, along with the essential ingredients of understanding, dialogue, connection, collaboration and vision.

Innovation isn’t just about new ideas, it’s about new connections between people, ideas and industries. And, what better place to initiate that than at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos.

Now, if we could only find a way to get Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart and ice cream tacos to Davos.