Ideas
Explore the world's #1 largest database of ideas and innovations, with 460,592 inspiring examples.
Trend Reports
Discover why 1,240 brands rely on our AI-powered Trend Reports to get better, faster insights.
Newsletter
Join 321,086 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 321,086 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 460,592 cutting edge ideas.

Training for Innovation

Matthew Hully, Head of Brand Innovation at John Lewis
Paul Solimano
August 10th, 2015
As the UK’s leading multi-channel department store that's also hailed as the country’s most-loved department store, John Lewis is quite different from your average organization. Well-known for its innovative marketing campaigns, internal business start-up accelerators and a commitment to itsemployees (Every staff member is a Partner in the business and shares in the profits with an annual bonus every year), John Lewis is dedicated to doing things differently.

Matthew Hully is John Lewis’ Head of Brand Innovation and acts as a central point for fostering a culture of creativity throughout the company. Operating as a team of two for the entire first year of his position, Matt now oversees a small team of innovation and proposition managers as John Lewis’ commitment to innovation continues to expand.

5 Questions with Matt...

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

Attitudes and behaviors are a really big part of the equation, so we try and change attitudes to be more open and creative. The atmosphere you create in the physical office space is so important when trying to create those attitudes and while we still have work to do, it’s something we’re very aware of.

We recognized a few years ago the value in building a relationship with the start-up community. Now we run a business accelerator called JLAB where we invest capital in certain start-up companies and even stock products in our stores that get pitched to us; that gets us access to a lot of new and innovative ideas. And the last piece is really just having some form of governance and structure in place (budgets, resources, timelines, etc.) to allow for innovation.

2. Do you have any specific rituals to encourage the generation of new ideas?

I oversee a training program for Partners that’s essentially a beginner’s guide to innovation, creative thinking, idea generation, etc. At John Lewis we believe everyone can be innovative and think differently, so we’re trying to get as many people as possible through our initial one-day training course. It teaches the fundamentals – how to explore problems, think creatively, pick out the best ideas and execute them, etc. – in an energetic, fun way. After that, certain people are hand-picked to go through our three-day intensive innovation training where we run through things in much more detail, facilitate with interactive workshops and essentially make those individuals our innovation ambassadors. We call these our Innovation 'Black Belts!'

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

When you do the same thing as last time, it's minimal effort and low risk. However, change and innovation is about doing something different and that’s the hard part! You have to be able to rethink, reframe and explore something again from a new angle, which will take more time and effort. Making sure everyone at John Lewis is thinking with that mentality is really tough to accomplish.

4. How do you identify trends and develop new ideas?

One thing we’ve done is build up an internal innovation site that we call our Innovation Wardrobe, which acts as a sort of one-stop-shop for employees to spark innovative ideas. It has web links, a blog, stories, team info and even information on available retail safaris (physical outings) that people can take to spark creativity. It’s also where we provide information on the big customer trends that we think are most appropriate for John Lewis.

5. Looking to the future, how is John Lewis going to be a leader in innovation?

Being a leader is going to be about how we make the best use of all our assets brought together through a comprehensive, Omnichannel approach. That’s going to involve some different ways of thinking, taking some chances and backing the role of our shops, our website and mobile apps and their ability to influence the customers’ experience. Creating that amazing in-store experience is going to continue to get more and more important.
References: ca.johnlewis