Jazel Castillo
2 min readJul 16, 2020

My Personal Take on Thriving, Earning, and Giving Value

Photo by Ola Mishchenko on Unsplash

…and my key takeaway: “Marketing and Innovation go together.”

My background is Marketing and Events.

A year ago, I left my corporate job to pursue an Innovation Management master’s degree. I got curious how Lazada, Grab, Spotify, etc. execute things. Build products. Grow a business from ground up. They all used technology to solve customer’s pain points and they’ve redefined business value in logistics, e-commerce, retail and entertainment.

Fast forward to July 2020.

I learned to innovate as a marketer. I launched my capstone project that addresses health literacy through creating healthy food communities. I built a plan for a U.S. convenience store chain to explore agri-tech hubs. I started food allergy conversations to over 300+ delegates at FoodTech Live in Las Vegas. Being out there, staying on field, documenting my foodventure and capturing “share of voice” from business owners, food enthusiasts and brands were my best “market research” tools I’ve used to innovate.

Here’s my personal food for thought for you:

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

You thrive when you lend your ears and listen to the market. List and ask for ingredients. Reach out to the people you aim to serve. Identify your value points. Consider your market’s point of view.

You earn when you know the fields of play your business is getting into. Look what else is cookin’ in the industry. Keep your eyes wide open. Identify the relevant trends and adjacent industries. Start looking which ideas already exist. Turn your ideas to business concepts. Create a case. Execute it well.

You give value when you ask and challenge your assumptions. Curate your ideas, cluster and define them to create a value map. Don’t forget to taste test your concepts. Visualize the impact. Match your business value with the market value.

Truly, innovation is creating impactful stories to society. In my case, I envision healthy, good food stories shared and cultivated in communities.

Jazel Castillo

I love to design and solve things. I write about my random musings about food, tech and podcasting. A marketer, storyteller and wellness advocate. Let’s connect