Soon served as the global VP of innovation and as a corporate officer for VF Corporation from 2010 to 2016.[9][10][11] Prior to working at VF Corporation, he has also worked at The Clorox Company[12] He left his management position at
Clorox to pursue a sales associate position at Crate & Barrel, taking an 85% pay cut and earning $5/hour to gain retail experience.[13] He has also held positions as an engineer with Advanced Micro Devices, an associate consultant with Bain & Company,[14] general manager at Chiquita Brands International,[15] and chief marketing officer at SafeWeb.[16]
In 1998, Yu founded Gazoontite, a retailer of allergy and asthma related products.[17][18][19] It was one of the first retail/eCommerce companies to promote and build its business model around the multi-channel shopping environment.[18][20] Two years after its launch, The Wall Street Journal identified Gazoontite as the “poster child of Web-era excess and stupidity”, however, in the process Yu set the tone for what is now referred to as
omni-channel retailing.[16]
His book, Friction: Adding Value By Making People Work For It won the 2022 NYC Big Book Award in Sales & Marketing.[21] His book, Iconic Advantage, won the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award in Advertising / Marketing / PR / Event Planning. [22]
Writings
Books
Soon Yu, Dave Birss (May 24, 2022). Friction: Adding Value By Making People Work for It. ZenKarma Media. ISBN 979-8985967210
Soon Yu, Dave Birss (February 6, 2018). Iconic Advantage: Don't chase the new, innovate the old. Savio Republic.
ISBN978-1682615409