Frito-Lay’s Flamin’ Hot success is testament to the fact that innovation can come from the most unexpected places.
The only condition?
You open ways for your employees and create a culture that makes innovation easy and accessible.
Let’s go back to the story of Flamin hot Cheetos 1992.
What Spiced Up Frito-Lay’s Success? A Brief History of Frito Lay Cheetos!
Have you ever thought about where groundbreaking ideas come from?
A boardroom? A brainstorming session? A team discussion?
All of the above, yes.
But did you know it can be from the janitor’s closet?
Frito-Lay, home to snack icons like Lays, Doritos, and Tostitos, was already a snack giant. Since snacks market is a red ocean with thousands of competitors arriving on the scene worldwide, Frito Lay stressed on a proactive innovation strategy. The agenda clearly was to enter a blue ocean.
This is when Frito Lay CEO, Roger Enrico, had a radical idea! He threw a bold innovation challenge “Act like an owner” and encouraged all 300,000 of his employees to participate and contribute.
Enter Richard Montañez: Janitor / Innovator
When CEO of Frito Lay started his innovation initiative or program, Montañez was working as a janitor and already taking initiatives to learn beyond his job’s role.
Curious about the company’s processes, he asked if he could shadow a salesman to learn more.
What he noticed was simple but important. Generally, stores were missing snacks that resonated with the Latino community and stores in the middle of Latino neighborhoods stocked rows of vibrant Mexican spices next to plain chips like Lay’s and Fritos.
Since the Frito Lay owner had already given a go ahead, Montañez decided to take action.
With his observation, Montañez took a bag of plain Cheetos home, coated them in his homemade spicy seasoning mix, sealed them in makeshift baggies. He literally sealed them with a clothing iron and hand-drew a logo.
Source: Ankit Harathi
Imagine walking into a boardroom with homemade chips, it’s gutsy. But it worked and how!
In 1992, Frito-Lay launched Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, a product inspired by Montañez’s ingenuity.
The spicy snack didn’t just become a hit; it created an entirely new market segment. Today, Flamin’ Hot is more than a snack; it’s a cultural phenomenon, inspiring everything from viral challenges to entire product lines. And, let’s now forget is a billion-dollar brand, inspiring countless spin-offs.
What’s the Takeaway?
Richard’s story seems about snacks from a high level, but it is an inspiring story stemming from employee engagement. It is a blueprint for fostering innovation across all levels of an organization.
Imagine what your team could do if given the tools and encouragement to share their ideas.
- Make Idea Sharing Easy: Set up an idea pipeline. Just like Montañez had a clear path to pitch his idea, your team needs a streamlined way to share their insights. That’s where professional tools like InspireIP help—offering platforms to capture and nurture ideas efficiently.
- Stay Open to Fresh Perspectives: Sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come from those furthest from the boardroom.
- Run Innovation Challenges: Ask your team to solve specific problems, just like Enrico’s “act like an owner” initiative. Not only does it drive engagement, but it also provides actionable ideas tailored to your business goals.
- Celebrate Bold Ideas: Encourage employees to take risks and pitch unconventional solutions. Recognizing their efforts, capturing ideas, regardless of outcome, fosters a culture of innovation.
- Track and Measure Impact: Use analytics to see how employee-driven ideas are influencing growth. Tools that offer real-time dashboards (like InspireIP) can help you stay on top of progress.
Simply put, encouraging employee ideas delivers results, thus, the ripple effect.
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