IFF Partners with Sensory Odyssey

 A political science graduate of Columbia University, Ben Chevlin serves as a senior consultant with Ernst & Young, where he specializes in organizational workforce transformation. In this role, Ben Chevlin has successfully led transformation engagements, including a major organizational design effort for International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF).

IFF announced its partnership with Sensory Odyssey, an international multi-sensory exhibition that focuses on facilitating immersive guest experiences of nature and its diversity. Sensory Odyssey goes beyond visual displays to engage other senses through sound and scent. As an industry leader, IFF has a reputation for delivering innovative scent products to markets and has partnered with Sensory Odyssey to handle all the scent-related affairs of the exhibition.

IFF Scent Asia regional general manager Ramon Brentan spoke to the press, acknowledging IFF’s eagerness to work with Sensory Odyssey with the prime aim of leveraging scents to reveal the beauty of nature. These scents play a vital role in creating a vivid and comprehensive experience, ranging from the animalic scents of the savannah to the floral notes of the prairies, according to IFF.com.

The New York Giants’ Three Most Recently Retired Jerseys

 A professional experienced in political science, Ben Chevlin worked as a people advisory services consultant at Ernst & Young in New York, New York, from September 2019 to April 2023. He joined Deloitte in February 2023 and works as a senior product strategy and technology transformation consultant. A sports enthusiast, Ben Chevlin is an avid fan of the New York Giants, a professional football team that competes in the National Football League (NFL).

Established in 1925, the Giants won four NFL championship titles and four Super Bowl titles. The franchise has produced some of the finest and most dominant players in the history of the league. The Giants have honored some of their best players, retired their jerseys, and hoisted them on the rafters of the MetLife Stadium, the Giants’ home arena. The following are the three most recently retired Giants jerseys.

1. Michael Strahan, No. 92, retired on November 28, 2021

Strahan was one of the Giants’ most dependable players. He holds the franchise’s record for the most regular seasons played at 216. He was selected in the Pro Bowl seven times, in the first-team All-Pro four times, NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2001, and the captain of the Giants’ championship run in 2007. He belonged to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, class of 2014.

2. Lawrence Taylor, No. 56, retired on October 10, 1994

The Giants selected Taylor second overall in the 1981 NFL draft, and played his entire 13-year career with the Giants. He was the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1981 and the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1986. He appeared 10 consecutive times in Pro Bowls and was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

3. Ken Strong, No. 50, retired in 1968

One of the more versatile players to ever don the Giants uniform. Strong excelled in running, passing, blocking, defense, punting, and placekicking, By the time he retired from the game, Strong holds the Giants’ leader in points at 324. He was named an All-NFL in 1934 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.

AIPAC Extends Congratulations to Israel for Forming New Government

 A graduate of Columbia University, Ben Chevlin worked in sales, marketing, and as a consultant for various companies. Outside of his current role as a consultant for Ernst & Young, Ben Chevlin is a member of community organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The organization relies on bipartisan relationships in Congress to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.

A December 2022 AIPAC press release reported that the organization congratulated Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu on the formation of the country’s new government. In the official statement released in the December 2022 press release, the organization spoke about looking forward to working with both governments to advance the US-Israel relationship.

In America, many who supported the installment of the new government talked about working with it to promote peace, prosperity, and security throughout the region. President Biden stated that the US is willing to work with Israel to deal with the challenges both countries face in the Middle East.

The Israeli Knesset, the country’s legislature, ratified the new government on December 29, 2022. The new government's first order of business is to advance into and develop settlements in the West Bank, with Mr. Netanyahu agreeing to legalize 100 outposts in the West Bank that formerly had been built without the government’s authority.

3 Steps to Implementing an Innovation Mindset and Driving Growth in 2023

As the holidays slow to a close, organizations are beginning to look inside and set their goals and agendas for the upcoming year. These decisions and conversations are being had in times of increasing economic uncertainty, calls for more sustainable processes, and more competitive markets. While these times may be financially daunting for organizations, these are also times of opportunity where the right investment in change and innovation can be the differentiator between growth and decline. Below I explain three key steps that organizations can take in 2023 to build a more resilient and innovative organization. I have come to these three behaviors through assessing various organizations across industry over the last 4 years.

1. Assess and understand the innovation mindset and resiliency across your organization

Understanding how your organization thinks about innovation and incorporates into daily activities and strategy is the first step to building an innovation muscle. There are a variety of tools that can be used to gather this all-important information, ranging from interactive surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.. Questions should center around “openness to change and thinking outside of the box” to “what type of innovation is used in day-to-day processes” and even “how are brainstorming sessions held”. Asking these questions to the right leaders/stakeholders across the organization will not only highlight strengths/gaps in innovative thinking, but also help identify change champions that believe in the power of innovation and its deepened need within the organization. 

2. Ready your leadership and change champion network

To change the way an organization thinks about innovation and adopts innovation, a group of fearless leaders with strong networks and pull must be engaged and activated as change champions. Without the right leadership sponsorship, any organization-wide change becomes extremely difficult. This group of leaders or change champions will be strong advocates for innovation, involved with creating strategy, and must be equipped with strong talking points on why now? why this? and how do we do this? Leaders will share this messaging with those who report up to them and have such messaging cascaded through the organization. 

3. Build an innovation strategy that incentivizes and invests in innovative thinking and learning opportunities 

Once the right leaders are onboard and there is a clear picture of innovation readiness/openness across the organization, an innovation strategy must be designed. Such a strategy will include town halls, learning requirements, and rewards for raising innovative ideas. Some activities will be tailored to specific groups of the organization, seeing that some may need to more support as they adopt innovative thinking into day-to-day practice. 

In any case, the sooner an organization assesses their innovative muscle and prioritizes building innovative capabilities the more effective they will be in adopting to market change, responding to customer needs, and moving with technology.