Page 21 - Toy & Hobby Magazine Feb-Apr 2021

ATA RISING STAR FINALISTS
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY TOY & HOBBY RETAILER
Young guns
Toy & Hobby Retailer in partnership with the Australian Toy Association present the finalists of the Rising Star Award for 2021.
SIMON PHINITH
Demand Planning Manager at Lego Australia
Culture/colleague empathy
Simon has worked at Lego ANZ for nine years in the demand planning space as part of our operations team. Simon is a big driver of the Lego ANZ company culture and is
often described by colleagues as a cultural pillar for the Lego ANZ organisation. Simon has a genuine interest in every single colleague of his, whether in the office, the field sales team across the country or our international colleagues.
Teamwork
“Everyone across Lego ANZ would love to have Simon as part of their project team,” is probably the best way to show Simon’s level of teamwork. Simon is held in high regards by his colleagues for his functional knowledge, insights to the market dynamics/trends, and especially his way of making a team gel by being present, listening, offering his opinion and sparking positivity in people around him.
Financial performance
Simon has been an integral part of the Lego ANZ success over the past nine years during which
the size of the business has tripled. Within Lego ANZ demand planning he is constantly ensuring product availability to optimise sales opportunities and upkeep customer shelves with healthy levels of inventory. Specifically, Simon is leading our end-of- life inventory process and for the past three years, scrapped goods have been kept at zero which is a key achievement for the ANZ organisation, both from a financial and environmental standpoint.
Ambition
The passion from Simon is found within The Lego Foundation and Lego Community Engagement (LCE) to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. His ambition is to continue to reach as many children as possible through community engagement and connect the Lego ANZ organisation with charities and external partners to create pride and joy in not just our financial
performance, but also how we can bring building experiences and play to people around us who might not have otherwise had the chance.
Leadership
As a clear sign of Simon’s leadership across the organisation, he is heading up the Lego ANZ LCE where he is driving initiatives internally within The Lego Group and externally with charity partners, to provide building experiences to less fortunate children across Australia and New Zealand. Partnering with the likes of Save the Children, Camp Quality, Starlight Foundation, Eat My Lunch, World Vision, Autism NZ, Good360 plus many more we managed to reach 54,000 children in 2019 with the aim to double the number in 2021.
Standing in industry
Simon’s engagement with the local community and superb drive of supporting Australian and New Zealand charities is, in our eyes, industry- leading here in our market but is also recognised across the Lego Group with the LCE global teams. In a year like 2020, Simon was the cornerstone in Lego Australia and New Zealand’s efforts to support kids impacted by bushfires, floods, the pandemic, poverty and illness.
Innovation/initiative
Simon has been part of many initiatives within demand planning and inventory optimisation departments, however, he will always be most known for the efforts within LCE and his constant initiatives in this space that bring Lego employees together to help Australian and New Zealand charity partners.
Culture/colleague empathy
Leanne consistently brings the best out in herself and her team by displaying a passion for the mission of inspiring creativity in children. She is determined in ensuring the wellbeing
of her team is first and foremost and manages to motivate everyone, even at the hardest of times.
She ensures everyone feels part of the My Creative Box family.
Teamwork
The teamwork Leanne displays is what makes My Creative Box a great place to work. Although she is super busy as the founder, she always makes time to support her team with the smallest and biggest things we may need a hand on. She is never afraid to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty when the going gets tough for the team and she always puts the team first before anything else she has on.
Financial performance
Leanne has continued to build a commercially sustainable business and has just approached seven figures of revenue and doubled her subscriber base from last year. She continues to offer incredible learning and educational value to her customer base and has had multiple opportunities to expand faster into different channels. However, she has first ensured the sustainability of the core business is fortified before expanding into different channels such as wholesale. Leanne’s agility to innovate, execute and deliver a product to market in less than eight weeks, maintain strong margins and a product that customers are wowed by is a competitive advantage for the business that has helped drive financial performance.
Ambition
Leanne has big ambitions to continue to showcase how important the early years of child development are and how big a role the toy industry has to play in that. With the onset of COVID in 2020, she was quick to recognise how big a role her products and that of many other toy industry players were. The pandemic strengthened her ambitions to continue to push and help children develop through play.
Leadership
Leanne is kind, open, decisive and trusting
and will always mentor and support all levels
of her team. She exudes confidence and is an inspiration to other 'mumpreneurs' out there and is always willing to give her time to discuss and help other mums in business.
Standing in industry
Leanne has spoken at various women in business events and is always putting herself out there to support the business community.
LEANNE PAPADOPOULOS
Owner at My Creative Box
FEBRUARY / MARCH / APRIL 2021 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER 21