5 employee-made inventions that created new product categories

From Flaming Hot Cheetos to air conditioners that distill drinkable water, when empowered to think outside of the box, a company’s employees are sometimes the best source of new ideas. Giving employees the freedom to think about the companies they work for critically and creatively not only helps them feel more engaged, but also creates a company culture where they feel heard, appreciated and able to develop within their careers. Here’s a list of some well known innovations that brought in new revenue:

1) Flaming Hot Cheetos

During a period of low sales in the 1980’s the CEO of Frito-Lay asked employees to begin to think like they were owners of the company. This request inspired Richard Montañez to create a snack product that would appeal to a market underserved by his employer. Working as a janitor, he combined the product familiarity gained by working where Frito-Lay makes their snacks with the Mexican corn snack, elotes, and ended up creating the still popular Flaming Hot Cheetos.

“Over a 35-year career, the former janitor rose through the corporate ranks and is now the vice president of multicultural sales for PepsiCo America (the holding company of Frito-Lay). Before Montañez joined the executive team, Frito-Lay had only 3 Cheeto products; since then, the company has launched more than 20, each worth $300m+.”

2) Post-It Notes

Funnily enough, Michele from Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion didn’t actually invent Post It Notes. The adhesive notes were in fact invented by someone who was working at 3M, though they had trouble gaining traction. “Spencer F. Silver was working for 3M in the late 60s when he developed a resilient adhesive that would make a piece of paper stick to a surface, but was still weak enough to let the papers be torn apart again. Silver pitched the product over and over again to people around the company for the next few years, but he never caught any traction. Until, that is, another colleague came along, took Silver’s adhesive, attached it to a bookmark prototype he was working on, and the Post-It was born.”

3) Ford Motors

Legacy companies from the industrial revolution are even starting to tap their internal potential by creating new initiatives to support employee ideas. “The efforts appear to be paying off. As of Tuesday, Ford is poised to have more U.S. utility patents granted this year than any other automaker, according to agency data. These patents include a flying drone that acts as a lookout for your self-driving car. A filter that purifies air conditioner condensation into drinkable water. And, more recently, an electric wheelchair that loads itself into the car.”

4) Adobe Systems

Known for their creative products that are used to create basic graphic design to professional music videos for Lady Gaga’s recent album release, Adobe has programs in place to support employee ideas. In an effort to encourage out of the box thinking from employees, Adobe created “the Adobe Kickstart initiative where any employee within the company can sign up for a two-day innovation workshop during which they are given a pre-paid $1,000 credit card to test out an idea and build a prototype.” Employees are then get the opportunity to pitch Adobe executives on their product or innovation, where if even just one exec gives the idea a ‘yes,’ the employees then get to take the next steps to actualize it.

5) Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods has set up an internal platform called FOODii that helps them garner feedback from employees on new product launches. This enables Kraft to create new products and iterate much faster than hiring external consultants and outsourcing market research. With FOODii, the people who know Kraft Foods the best, their own employees, can offer feedback on the products that they themselves will end up working on in the future.

“For example, our Jell-O marketing team turned to FOODii to help find a name for a new flavor of Jell-O Mousse Temptations. Less than 24 hours after the request, the Jell-O Team had 110 naming options to consider. They selected the 10 best names and sent them on to consumers for further evaluation. The final name, Chocolate Mint Sensation, comes from one of the suggestions provided through FOODii. Our employees have a vested interest in our success — they want to be sure we succeed, so their feedback is particularly valuable.”