“I do have a Ph.D.,” he responded. “I’ve been poor, hungry and determined.”
Love that.
A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
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Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#12Very impressed with the janitor's vision and the CEOs good leadership. A poor leader would have quashed the process when the janitor could not justify his idea. Being a good leader, the CEO came up with a solution to determine the viability of the janitor's idea.
The difference between seniors and juniors is experience, and that experience can partially be defined by your "moveset". A janitor would not know it is possible to run a limited trial, but the CEO would. I have found that managers are often amenable to ideas from their workers. But, if a worker does not have a full moveset, it will be difficult for the worker to pitch an idea in a way that is actionable, and he will be turned down.
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#13The days when someone can start as a janitor or in the mailroom and climb to the top is done. Companies used to hire everyone in the company. Janitors were part of the company. So was mailroom staff. So were secretaries. Everybody was part of the whole. Now, companies contract out everything but their core thing. Janitors come from a low-paid 3rd party service. Mailrooms are no longer a thing (there's no such thing a…
FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new. Crowdfunding and free marketing distribution platforms exist to aid your small venture. Just as this old story may be less likely today, new stories of entrepreneurship continue to be written without the inclusion of PepsiCo. If anything thes…
I don't think any janitor working for an outsourced company is learning about problems. For the most part, people try to ignore that the cleaning staff are there at all. They don't talk to them and they certainly don't engage with them as equals -- for the most part, of course.
How would a janitor working for Aramark, emptying trash cans after everyone's left for the day, "learn about problems and start something new"? Even the "start something new" bit doesn't really make sense. You're going to get an appointment with a funder on the pitch of "I'm a janitor with Aramark, and lately I've been working at the Johnson corp...."?
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#14This is a fantastic story. There are a few ethical problems including Montañez plagiarizing parts of his presentation and having friends and family buy out the products in the test market, but overall he refused to accept imposed limits and accomplished something phenomenal.
One interesting thing is that Frito-Lay had no products targeting Latinos, and no one on the highly paid marketing team did anything about it. The janitor saw the problem immediately, but for some reason the entrenched interests were unable to see it. The CEO by contrast was humble enough to take Montañez’s call, let him give a presentation, and overlook that presentation’s weaknesses to see the good idea at the core.
Also interesting is the backlash he faced from those same executives, jealous that someone less qualified was being successful. As humans we hate to see others doing better than us and try to push them down. No wonder social mobility is so difficult.
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#15The days when someone can start as a janitor or in the mailroom and climb to the top is done. Companies used to hire everyone in the company. Janitors were part of the company. So was mailroom staff. So were secretaries. Everybody was part of the whole. Now, companies contract out everything but their core thing. Janitors come from a low-paid 3rd party service. Mailrooms are no longer a thing (there's no such thing a…
FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new. Crowdfunding and free marketing distribution platforms exist to aid your small venture. Just as this old story may be less likely today, new stories of entrepreneurship continue to be written without the inclusion of PepsiCo. If anything thes…
> FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new.
There's an awfully lot of implied and stated "IFs" in that sentence.
One can only tap the 'entrepreneurial marketplace' if you have or have access to Capital. That marketplace has no room for low paid people, with low to no influence.
And another thing about starting on the ground floor of a company is being part of the culture and changing it from within. Whereas a "contractor" is just some 3rd party interloper that already has the skills and technique to be hired for a specific set of highly qualified skills.
And if you think a CEO would listen to a gig-economy'd janitor or through Manpower, try asking them.
> Crowdfunding and free marketing distribution platforms exist to aid your small venture.
To recommend crowdfunding as some solution is a joke. Again, you need Capital to make the 2 minute catchy video and slick marketing to get people. And those vids usually cost around USD 20k to 50k.
I guess you could go the beggars route and use a gofundme. But usually people are in the similar socioeconomic status as their family, friends and peers.
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#16The days when someone can start as a janitor or in the mailroom and climb to the top is done. Companies used to hire everyone in the company. Janitors were part of the company. So was mailroom staff. So were secretaries. Everybody was part of the whole. Now, companies contract out everything but their core thing. Janitors come from a low-paid 3rd party service. Mailrooms are no longer a thing (there's no such thing a…
I'm not sure that's inherently a bad thing. Yes, loyalty should be rewarded, and employees should not be treated like resources but as people with inherent dignity. And I can see that its unethical to hire external workers to avoid treating them well. But if laws are made to protect and enforce their rights and dignity, then how is this kind of outsourcing system worse than hiring everyone as a full time employee?
it means upward mobility for the non-top 20% is way harder
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#17The real hero of this story is the CEO who decided to take this guy _and_ his idea. He could have easily taken the idea and ran with it on his own, with Montañez spending the rest of his life mopping floors.
I wonder how likely this scenario would be in today's world. I have found personally that many companies are unwilling to take risks on employees who aren't formally qualified, even if they demonstrate the skills to operate at far beyond their current pay grade.
Second real hero of the story is his wife. How important is it to have people around you who will enable you do things you aren't qualified to do because they believe in you unconditionally? All of the importants.
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#18The days when someone can start as a janitor or in the mailroom and climb to the top is done. Companies used to hire everyone in the company. Janitors were part of the company. So was mailroom staff. So were secretaries. Everybody was part of the whole. Now, companies contract out everything but their core thing. Janitors come from a low-paid 3rd party service. Mailrooms are no longer a thing (there's no such thing a…
It may just look different now.
At my company (Mixpanel), the modern equivalent is our support team, which is filled with smart, hungry people who want to get their foot in the door in tech.
Now, we have former support folks all over the company (sales, sales engineering, services, software engineering, product - just to name the departments I can think of offhand), who are often our top performers as ICs or who have grown into leadership roles. Some have left to start their own companies.
It's actually been one of our most effective hiring channels!
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new. Crowdfunding and free marketing distribution platforms exist to aid your small venture. Just as this old story may be less likely today, new stories of entrepreneurship continue to be written without the inclusion of PepsiCo. If anything thes…
> FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new. There's an awfully lot of implied and stated "IFs" in that sentence. One can only tap the 'entrepreneurial marketplace' if you have or have access to Capital. That marketplace has no room for low paid people, with low to no influence. And a…
People get tons attention for stuff without capital.
And the means to do so, (any smartphone and a tiktok account) are closer to the hands of a poor person than a phone call to a CEO ever was.
It may be unlikely, but no more so than the incredible story told in this article.
Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, this is what pushes energy and opportunity into the entrepreneurial marketplace. You work in these companies as a contractor, learn about problems and start something new. Crowdfunding and free marketing distribution platforms exist to aid your small venture. Just as this old story may be less likely today, new stories of entrepreneurship continue to be written without the inclusion of PepsiCo. If anything thes…
I don't think any janitor working for an outsourced company is learning about problems. For the most part, people try to ignore that the cleaning staff are there at all. They don't talk to them and they certainly don't engage with them as equals -- for the most part, of course. How would a janitor working for Aramark, emptying trash cans after everyone's left for the day, "learn about problems and start something new…
Even back then most janitors did not rise through the ranks. Montañez specifically went above and beyond his job responsibilities to network, learn about the business, and be the best janitor on staff. His success still required luck and maybe that kind of luck is hard to find these days, but he was also prepared to take advantage of that luck when it arrived. Most workers, no matter their level, just do the bare minimum to get by.