Lina Yang Email & Phone Number

Hershey, Pa

Lina Yang is the Founder and Futurist of Inxy Studio, formed to think, innovate, and problem solve with future forces in mind.

Hershey, Pa/Palo Alto, Ca

Lina combined strategic foresight and emerging technologies to proactively develop opportunities and prototypes to help create a preferred future for The Hershey Company. Lina led the partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s new Pennovation Works where The Hershey Company is the founding corporate partner. Lina also has vast experience with the global startup ecosystem and disruptive communities, including Singularity University and the X Prize.

The Big AHA: 1) Employing foresight and futures work may be the key to gaining competitive advantage in today’s volatile and uncertain marketplace. 2) Creating and sustaining a new function within an organization is a bit like raising a child – the highs are higher, the lows are lower, particularly when the function isn’t perceived to keep the lights on on an everyday basis. 3) Wow, do I have the crazy ability to synthesize a tremendous amount of complex information and then communicate it in a very simple and understandable way.

The Big AHA: Any gains in inexpensive research globally is offset by the time and patience required. Led $1.1M in global research to develop innovation pipelines in India, China, and Mexico that exceeded 2010 and 2011 strategy plans. Subsequent launch of Smooth Bubbles product in Mexico also exceeded plan significantly.

The Big AHA: 1) Collaborative strategic partnership is key to growing a brand so large that the growth alone would have been HERSHEY’S® 5th largest brand. This was achieved because the entire team had an unrelenting passion for uncovering consumer needs and trusted my ability to develop a comprehensive research plan that would creatively get critical insights. REESE’S® Minis was born out of that passion, and it exceeded plan significantly. It still remains one of the most successful launches in recent history. Ask what daring ethnography was done to get to this insight! And then repeat. Also a strategic partner for the KIT KAT® Brand, the team identified unique positioning and translated into tactical elements of the brand’s strategic plans that resulted in tremendous growth. 2) Teach and develop those around you and everyone benefits. Wrote whitepapers on Media Guidelines and Concept Writing, which evolved into training sessions for marketers and new researchers.

Lancaster, Pa

"No Reservations" was a bi-weekly food critiquing column in the Lancaster Sunday Newspaper. Ah, for the love of food and culture!!

Liquid Band-Aid BrandBand-Aid BrandJohnson's Kids

Education record

Bs, Accounting