Innovation doesn’t just happen—it thrives in the right culture. At IIEX APAC 2025, Marilyne Chew, Regional Lead at Mastercard, will discuss the critical role of cultivating an innovative environment both internally and externally.
Drawing from her extensive experience in product development and agency-client collaboration, she will highlight how organizations can showcase the true value of innovation and optimize its impact on future customer experiences.
Question #1: Give us a brief peek into your talk. What are the key insights and take aways?
My topic is on the significance of developing an innovative culture in favor of an environment for innovation, both internally and externally, to thrive. And to give the audience a glimpse of why we feature and highlight innovation the way we do.
Question #2: You have a great topic. What led you to choose it?
I’ve had the privilege of being in the room where innovation concepts and product development is discussed, both from the agency side as well as on the client. It is often challenging to demonstrate how innovation can impact the future of customers’ experiences, and the value attached to bringing this vision to life in an optimized manner.
Question #3: We are glad to have you with us. What would you like to learn from other speakers and attendees?
I’d like to hear how other organizations from different industries are tackling the same topic, especially in the current economic environment that we are all experiencing now. Already, there are many brands cutting back on innovation in a way that it can impact them in the long term. I look forward to seeing the creative ways entrepreneurs and other companies are doing to keep the spirit of innovation alive.
Question #4: Our industry is buzzing with the word innovation. What is research innovation to you?
With my present role, research innovation is about developing a deeper understanding of a given topic. This helps inform future implications and inspire potential applications, both for my company but also, for our customers and partners. Technology accelerates experiences even more so. Research innovation, in its various formats, is paramount to be able to stay ahead and frankly, to veer away from having just one standard vision of the future.
Question #5: Research technology and automation are helping to streamline our cost and time. What else is at work to help insights professionals?
This might be in a different stream of innovation insights that I am now in. Having said that, the analytical tools/ platforms available are certainly making it more conducive for large data analyses to occur at a much faster speed and accuracy than ever before. With the necessary research expertise (seasoned researchers) in place to oversee the workings of these platforms, these tools can certainly accelerate analyses in a positive manner.
Question #6: Greenbook works to move the insights industry and profession forward into the future. What is the biggest thing you would like to see change to improve for our industry?
Finding the right balance in ‘educating’ researchers with automation and analytical tools, AI in place, is probably key. AI insights is still centered mostly on past behavior. But it can and will evolve certainly, and very rapidly too. Like every industry, the insights industry will need to learn how best to leverage new tools and platforms more efficiently
Question #7: Speaking of the future, the IIEX conference series is a leader in leading discussion of insights future prediction. What do you see on the horizon that (hopefully) attendees can discuss at this event?
Well, this will be my first IIEX conference, so I’d be happy to hear from industry professionals in general to see how others are tackling this topic in general. Actually, I’d like to see how Creative professionals tackle the notion of imagination and innovation together. Maybe that’s something that IIEX can explore in 2025?
