BIO
Soon Yu is an international speaker and best selling author on innovation and design who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine and New York Times.
His book, Iconic Advantage®, challenges businesses, from Fortune 500 to venture-backed startups, to refocus their innovation priorities on building greater iconicity, and offers deeper insights on establishing timeless distinction and relevance. He regularly consults business leaders on developing meaningful Iconic Signature Elements, Signature Moments and Signature Communication.
He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation, parent organization to over 30 global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Nautica and Wrangler. While at VF, Soon created a $2 billion innovation pipeline, established 3 global innovation centers, and initiated industry-leading design best practices.
Prior to this he worked at The Clorox Company and Chiquita Brands, where he won company-wide awards for best advertising, best promotion and best new product, and gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award and Dope Award. He has also been a consultant at Bain and Company, and a founder and CEO for numerous venture-backed startups (including Gazoontite, Promeo Technologies and TWRL) and was recognized as a Northern California finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
He is a highly sought after speaker on innovation, design and entrepreneurship, and teaches at Parsons School of Design and often guest lectures at Stanford University (where he received his MBA and is active with the GSB Asian Alumni Association).
What I Enjoy Doing
- Simplifying complexity so it’s easy to understand and act on
- Sharing what I’ve learned with you (successes and failures), both for your benefit and for the reward I feel from helping
- Seeing real impact and developing lasting friendships from our work
What I Can Help You With
- Motivating your organization to take action
- Defining and articulating a winning strategy and story
- Building stronger innovation and design capabilities, including new behaviors, best practices, tools and organizational design
Education
- Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA
- University of California, Davis, MS in Electrical Engineering
- National Taiwan University, Foreign Exchange Student
ARTICLES
- Who Really Owns Your Brand?
- FIRSTPOST. Start-ups take note: Iconic brands bank on compelling story-telling in their quest for glory
- Super Bowl Ads Winners and Losers - Mash-ups Lead the Way
- Keep Your Sole Forever Young - How Vans Creates Iconic Advantage® Even After 50, published on BulldogDrummond.com
- The Making Of An Icon - Manifesto
- 'Don't Chase the New, Innovate The Old': Four Lessons from Nike
PODCASTS + INTERVIEWS
- The Innovation Engine Podcast, Live From DIGSOUTH 2018
- NASDAQ Speed Reads: What Makes A Brand Really Stick? Iconic Advantage
- The Marketing Book Podcast "Iconic Advantage" (featured on FutureCurve.com)
- My Quest For The Best "What's Your Signature"
- Smart People Podcast "Starting a Company and Dealing with Failure"
- School For Startups Radio "Iconic Advantage" Interview
- Barry Moltz Business Insanity Talk Radio "Iconic Advantage: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old"
- WHPC-FM The Secrets of Success "Iconic Advantage"
- Wharton Univ of Pennsylvania Business Radio "Marketing Matters"
- Brainfluence Podcast with Roger Dooley "Create Your Iconic Advantage"
- Six Pixels of Separation Podcast "The Iconic Advantage"
- DisrupTV Featuring Soon Yu, Author of Iconic Advantage - Constellation Executive Network (Video Interview)
Recent Press
- American Marketing Association: How Do Brands Become Iconic?
- Inc.com / Stanford Business: The Secrets of Staying Power
- Hartford Business.com "How To Keep Old Brands Fresh"
- Marketing Insider Group : Weekend Reading "Iconic Advantage"
- Higher Ed Marketing: Friday Five: Building brand equity, the ‘Iconic Advantage’ way
- Chief Executive: Who Really Owns Your Brand?
- Iconic Advantage by Design Create the New by Innovating the Old... - The Manufacturer Magazine
- Bob Morris Blogging on Business : Iconic Advantage Review
- 800CEORead : Business Books to Watch in Feb 2018 - Iconic Advantage
- ChangeThis: The Making of an Icon by Soon Yu
- Unlock Your Elearning Differentiator & Iconic Advantage - WBT Systems
- Bringing the Outside In, by Karen O'Leonard - Willis Towers Watson
- Failing Forward: A Front End of Innovation Webinar - SmartOrg
- Unlock Your E-learning Differentiator & Iconic Advantage - WBT Systems
- Moments that Matter...Make Yours Iconic with Soon Yu - Constellation Research
- It's Not Easy Being Iconic - Knect375
- 6 takeaways from OmniShopper Conference 2017 - Alex Zhu
- The Business Times : WEEKEND INTERVIEW
- Disrupt Wisely; Distinguish Strategically: Learnings from 2017 OmniShopper
- International Enterprise Singapore: 4 Thing's To Know About Asia's Digital Wave
- The Market Research Blog : How Magic Moments Make Distinctive Brands
- Scott Kirsner - Soon Yu on innovation in apparel, retail, and consumer goods
- Innovation Leader - Creating Iconic Advantage: Soon Yu Talks Innovation at VF Corp, Changes in Retail
- Continuum - "Your Role Is to Make Sure That Your Consumers Are All In for Your Products" The Resonance Test
- Soon Yu's Great Confession: Fail to Innovate
- Channel Partners: How To Make Your Business Iconic
- MarTech Advisor: Interview with Soon Yu, Former Global VP, Innovation at VF Corporation
- The Iconic Advantage. An Interview with Soon Yu, former Global VP Innovation VF Corp
- Cut the Platitudes and Chase 'Iconicity'
- How To Make Your Business Iconic
- Creating Iconic Advantage: Soon Yu Talks Innovation at VF Corp, Changes in Retail
- The Creativity Cultivator Podcast with Justin Brady
- How to Sell Your Ideas in the Boardroom
- What I want to be when I grow up
- My most “Epic Failures”
- Art and Science Leads to Iconic Products
- How Fear Can Be Your Innovation Trump Card
- Motivating the Corporate Elephant to Innovate
- How VF Went Outside, Added Billions to its Business
Speaking
- DIGSOUTH Tech Conference 2018
- TIGER BALM Future Ready International Marketing Conference
- SDxE, the Software-Defined Enterprise Conference & Expo 2017
- BrandManage Camp 2017
- Constellation's Connected Enterprise 2017
- The New School Parsons, School of Design, Provocateur Talk Series, Featured Speaker
- Front End of Innovation (FEI), Boston, Chair and Keynote
- PDMA, Atlanta, Keynote
- The Market Research Event (TMRE), Boca Raton, Chair and Keynote
- FUSE, Miami, Keynote
- FUSE, London, Chair and Keynote
- World Class Digital Transformation, Portland, Keynote
- Chief Innovation Officer Summit (CINO), San Francisco, Keynote
- PI Apparel, New York, Keynote
- Emirates Innovation Summit Dubai, Keynote
- Constellations Connected Enterprise, Half Moon Bay, Keynote