In this episode, we’re talking with Simon Allison. Simon began in the food industry as a retail food technologist in 1996 and has worked for Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Innocent drinks, Pret A Manger and Waitrose & Partners. Throughout those 25 years the common thread has been food, new product development & innovation, and people. Simon combines his food technical knowledge & experience, with NLP and his understanding of the 6 i’s of innovation to his new venture “food4innov8ions” - his consultancy which aims to enable small and medium sized businesses to be innovative and to thrive. Lucy’s path has crossed with Simon’s a few times over the years and this conversation is a real treat following last week’s episode on growth mindset. We talk to Simon about the technical innovation work he’s been involved in over the years and what he plans to do with his new innovation consultancy. We also talk about how it’s important to make use of your network and knowing the difference between having a network and “networking” and knowing that it’s important to get the perspective of those with a contradicting opinion to your own as sometimes we need information that’s not from our own mind or inner circle.
10. Innovation Mindset With Simon Allison
Every fortnight, Lucy and I talk through the trials and tribulations of working in the food industry. This is to help you find new ways of coping through the daily stresses and potentially avoid some of the mistakes that we have both made along the way.
In this episode, we’re talking with Simon Allison. Simon began in the food industry as a retail food technologist in 1996 and has worked for Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Innocent drinks, Pret A Manger and Waitrose & Partners. Throughout those 25 years the common thread has been food, new product development & innovation, and people.
Simon combines his food technical knowledge & experience, with NLP and his understanding of the 6 i’s of innovation to his new venture “food4innov8ions” - his consultancy which aims to enable small and medium sized businesses to be innovative and to thrive.
Lucy’s path has crossed with Simon’s a few times over the years and this conversation is a real treat following last week’s episode on growth mindset.
We talk to Simon about the technical innovation work he’s been involved in over the years and what he plans to do with his new innovation consultancy. We also talk about how it’s important to make use of your network and knowing the difference between having a network and “networking” and knowing that it’s important to get the perspective of those with a contradicting opinion to your own as sometimes we need information that’s not from our own mind or inner circle.
If you enjoyed the interview with Simon and want to get in touch with you you can reach out to him on LinkedIn
Also he can be reached through his business website - food4innov8ions.com
And here’s a link to the Six i's innovation website, which we discuss throughout the episode.
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