Ideas
Explore the world's #1 largest database of ideas and innovations, with 460,503 inspiring examples.
Trend Reports
Discover why 1,240 brands rely on our AI-powered Trend Reports to get better, faster insights.
Newsletter
Join 321,097 subscribers who rely on our weekly newsletter to keep up with need-to-know trends and insights.
How to Hunt
Learn more about how to hunt megatrends, ideas, patterns and opportunity.
Consumer Insights
Uncover major shifts and emerging opportunities with our exclusive PRO research.
Trend Reports
Discover why 1,240 brands rely on our AI-powered Trend Reports to get better, faster insights.
Newsletter
Join 321,097 subscribers who rely on our weekly newsletter to keep up with need-to-know trends and insights.
How to Hunt
Learn more about how to hunt megatrends, ideas, patterns and opportunity.
Advisory & Services
Accelerate innovation and ignite disruptive thinking with our award-winning programs and research.
Trend Reports
Get fast, customized trend reports, presentations and deep dives 20x faster than traditional research.
Plans
Get started today with a free consultation, our self-serve tools, or a dedicated program.
Articles & Magazine
Get inspired with our 4,210 innovation strategy articles, keynote, videos and innovation tools.
Innovation Awards
Trend Hunter’s Innovation Strategy Awards recognize the best innovation tactics gathered from our interviews with some of the world's most notable business leaders, authors and change makers.
Advisory & Services
Accelerate innovation and ignite disruptive thinking with our award-winning programs and research.
Innovation Assessment
Enhance your innovation potential with a deeper understanding of your unique innovation archetype and how your organization benchmarks.
FuturistU
Prepare for the years ahead with 100+ lessons, tactics, tools and frameworks with our full learning database.
Innovation Books
Join 20,000,000 people getting better and faster with our New York Times Bestselling books and keynote videos.
Jeremy Gutsche
Ignite your event or virtual event with our CEO, a NY Times Bestselling Author and one of the top innovation keynote speakers.
Our Team of Speakers & Virtual Presenters
Inspire your group with our most popular speakers on innovation, trends, change and futurism.
Custom Training & Events
Bring the Future Festival experience directly to your team or co-hosted custom event.
Custom Masterclasses
Join the world's leading brands who leverage our custom programs to accelerate innovation.
FuturistU 5-Day Program
Become a Futurist with our immersive 5-Day program at Future Festival World Summit.
Online eLearning
Learn the fundamentals of futurism and trends with 100+ online courses about innovation.
How to Hunt
Learn more about how to hunt megatrends, ideas, patterns and opportunity.
Contact
Get in touch to learn more, ask a question or submit a tip.
About Us
Learn more about Trend Hunter and how we accelerate innovation.
Follow-Us
Join our 3,500,000 social media followers, on the cutting edge.
How to Hunt
Learn more about how to hunt megatrends, ideas, patterns and opportunity.
FAQ
Get answers to common questions about Trend Hunter.
Community
Stay on the cutting-edge with the help of the Trend Hunter community.
Team
Meet the team trusted by hundreds of leading businesses worldwide.
Jobs
Find opportunities to accelerate your career with the #1 Trend Firm.
News
Catch up on noteworthy Trend Hunter news and media mentions.
Join
Build a portfolio and put your trend-spotting abilities to the test.
Advertising
Supercharge your marketing by partnering with Trend Hunter.
Portfolio
Visit your public portfolio and browse your past articles.
Add a Trend
Write up an article and showcase your trend-spotting skills.
My Trends
Edit your articles and see how they stack up on the leaderboards.
Settings
Edit your profile, connect your social media accounts, and more.
Add a trend, customize your dashboard, or track topics.
Future Festival
Innovation Events
Join the world's top innovators at our in person events.
Free Webinars
Learn to innovate through chaos, navigate the new normal and maintain work culture from home.
Custom Training & Events
Bring the Future Festival experience directly to your team or co-hosted custom event.
Search our database of 460,503 cutting edge ideas.

Feeding Growth

Ian Jankelowitz, Sales Strategy Leader, Lion Co
Dylan Morton
September 1st, 2015
Lion acts as the largest CPG Company in the Australian and New Zealand regions and only continues to expand. It holds a massive variety of brands that range from alcohol, all the way to milk products. The iconic company looks to continue its success down under by staying ahead of the competition through innovation and the ability to stay agile, considering its size.

Ian Jankelowitz has been with Lion for two years now and has hosted a variety of roles, starting off as a brand manager for the iced coffee division of Lion. Ian has now transitioned into a leadership role on the sales and business development side of the company. Although Ian comes from a non-traditional background, that being music, he eventually went back and achieved his MBA. After being away from Australia for 12 years in the USA, he decided to go back home where he would demonstrate his efforts and hard work to get him to where he is today.

4 Questions with Ian:

1. What makes an innovative culture? How do you create a culture of innovation?

I think one of the keys to creating this culture of innovation is establishing trust amongst the people working there. If people feel safe to share and explore ideas together without a fear of being rejected, then innovation can thrive. Another important factor is if these ideas can be trialed and tested, with the understanding that not all of them will be successful. Not all innovations are designed to work, given the nature of the business. That being said, again, you must have an environment where people don’t fear to speak up and understand that failure may ensue prior to a product reaching the market.

2. What is the biggest challenge you face when innovating?

From a business perspective, it is understanding that innovation alone is not going to fuel your growth. It certainly has a role to play with regards to attracting consumers, but it is not critical for the core of the business. Another thing is trying to understand the difference between innovation and renovation -- is the brand in need of a new product all together, or just a renewed look on an existing package? It’s key to remember that innovation isn’t the silver bullet. Often innovation doesn’t go as planned, and you need to have time and flexibility. This is to make sure you don’t set your business up for failure. The last thing to note here is the nature of working with innovation. Again, not everything is going to work… when you come up against internal/external barriers, you must have the resilience to work through those challenges.

3. How do you find inspiration or ideas from adjacent industries? Or do you focus only on your category?

Trust and the ability to be curious in what is happening in other parts of the world will certainly drive innovation. So yes, 100% we look at adjacent industries and demographics. Having insights into these other industries and having the creativity to apply it to your own world is crucial for long-term success.

4. Looking to the future, how is Lion going to be a leader in innovation?

I think that Lion is on a journey when it comes to innovation. Recently innovation has joined the brand teams, rather than just a standalone department. I think rejoining the brand teams is fairly important as it ensures alignment on the combination of NPD and a focus on the core to achieve brand and category growth.

Lion will continue being a leader by leveraging innovation to drive category growth via addressing key barriers to consumption. As the levels of penetration vary so significantly across the categories, we need to be agile enough in our approach while remaining single-minded that the role of innovation is to drive category growth. Having a really clear understanding of what is feeding this growth and how innovation address this will keep us at the forefront.
References: lionco, linkedin