He began his career in foodservice sales, eventually advancing to vice president of sales and marketing before being named general manager of China in 2016. Since then, he has led the business to record growth and results. As a key member of the company’s International leadership team, he helped shape the team’s vision before taking on the role of president of Asia Pacific.
Q&A
Why is innovation so important in international markets such as China?
Innovation is always important no matter which country we are in. We are always looking at what we can do to make our products more relevant to the local consumers. Innovation plays a critical role in this. We find what a local consumer needs and how we can develop a product that is more relevant to them but still holds us to a high standard in terms of quality and safety.
How does the Hormel Foods culture of innovation extend beyond our company to include our international suppliers, retail customers or new products?
Our culture has always been to innovate. We try to challenge ourselves to step outside of the box, thinking, what can we do differently? One example is, we launched the SPAM® brand in China in 2017, right where we have our local production. But several years ago, we also launched a SPAM® Single, in a pouch. So that became even more successful compared to the iconic SPAM® products in the can, because in China, the number of people in the family household is getting smaller and smaller. And people also want to have a kind of convenient, on-the-go packaging. So SPAM® Singles is a very good fit here. Now, the SPAM® Single line represents 60% of the total SPAM® brand sales in China and continues to grow.
How do you leverage consumer insights to drive innovation in China?
Consumer centric innovations must be meaningful and purposeful to our consumers. So consumer insights have become critical during the process that determines which direction we should go, and what kind of investment to make where we relate to the other innovations. We also leverage U.S. consumer insights to try to understand what is the big trend ongoing in the U.S. This, combined with our insights in China or other markets in Asia helps gives us a unique perspective, because Hormel Foods is a global brand, and we want to still be a global brand. We want to give a good product to consumers.
How important is it for Hormel Foods to keep track of broader cultural trends?
It’s very important. We have a local team and a business partner on the ground helping us to understand more about the local culture, especially in the food areas. Because every country has its own food culture, and that food is so important to their daily life. We are also bringing the good standard of U.S. process to local markets. We respect local cultures very much and pay tremendous attention to what we hear from our local partner, to learn from them, to learn from the local consumers, to develop something that is really meaningful to them. So, again, it’s truly a global and local combination to find the right balance when we launch a new product into the market.
When you look at the next decade, what do you think will be the biggest opportunities to innovate within the international division?
It’s hard to predict what the next decade will bring, but again, we will leverage the consumer insights and include knowledge from the mature markets, like the U.S. and Europe, that give a good indication of what could be a potential future. Several big keywords in my mind are things like a small package, convenience, on-the-go. But when you implement those keywords to your products in different markets, it could be very different. It really depends on which market in which stage. I see us going to more small packaging for more convenience. Another very critical word is indulgence, especially after the pandemic, because you might treat yourself even better than before. So they want something, an indulgence. That’s a very challenging combination we try to achieve.
So that’s what I see for the next decade. But for the company, we just need to keep up the pace, keep learning, challenge ourselves to forget what we learned in the past and go empty the box to learn something new and follow the consumers.
