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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)

#31

Post by bredren »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #20
Frondo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 min…

Yes, the key is this person looked at their entire job differently. They never were looking to only be an average janitor.

Jan Koum went from welfare to WhatsApp with his key job as a contractor to yahoo via Ernst & Young.

This is about the person and how they use resources at hand. The loss of corporate identity in low levels positions may have fallen away but other opportunities now exist.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#32

Post by WalterBright »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #14

This 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. T…

> plagiarizing parts of his presentation

I don't agree. He copied parts of it from examples in a book on marketing strategy. One writing a book with samples in it would expect someone to use those samples. It's the whole point.

Otherwise, it's a useless book describing things you can't use.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#33

Post by pbhjpbhj »

irrational wrote: post #11

“I do have a Ph.D.,” he responded. “I’ve been poor, hungry and determined.” Love that.

I hate it. I think it belittles Ph.D's and denigrates the people who don't have them suggesting that you need to deflect the question because you [sarcasm] couldn't possibly have a skill set that's of high worth unless you actually had done a Ph.D [/sarcasm].

Bleurgh.

FWIW my highest level of qualification is a bachelor's degree and I work in a position that doesn't require any formal training at all.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#35

Post by danso »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #3

The 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 might be that it's harder on average for the lower/lower-middle-income worker to work their way to the top in, but it may be also the case that the Internet and social networks (even amid the saturation of professional influencers and their ilk) provide opportunities for the lower-rung to get sudden and prominent recognition, albeit not from their own workplaces.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#36

Post by danso »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #30
JimBrimble35 wrote: post #17

The 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…

> The 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. A practical question, and a moral one: Would it be have worked out had the CEO tried to steal Montañez's idea, given Montañez came up with the spices himself? Does someone merely not doing something unethical,…

"real hero" is definitely overstating it – I'd hope we as a society haven't reached the point where doing the decent thing is seen as going above and beyond. Hopefully the CEO saw it not only as just the right thing to do, but also the smart (and legal) thing to do – Montañez's story could in the long-run inspire more innovative ideas and culture at the company.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#37

Post by mrmonkeyman »

hanniabu wrote: post #23
rootedbox wrote: post #9

Frito Lay was a great place to work at because they did promote up, and they also hired the best. I would often be in meetings where one logistics manager went to MIT and the other logistics manager would be someone who started at a plant boxing chips.

That's the way to work in my opinion. I worked at a place where just because I had an engineering degree I was around 25 years old managing a manufacturing plant full of 40+ year olds that have been working the lines since they graduated high school. It makes absolutely no sense. The best I could do was just make sure they had all the supplies and everything they needed because they knew every machines and issue insi…

Manager != production drone. You don't need production expertise to be an excellent manager. You said it right, just make sure the guys have everything they need and get out of their way. That is the manager's job. Promoting these guys will backfire.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#38

Post by Frost1x »

ripvanwinkle wrote: post #4

Inspirational. I'd love to hear names of companies today where folks feel their work place culture might allow something like this to happen.

For some reason, this story reminds me of Hamdi Ulukay and the story behind Chobani from his TED talk: The anti-CEO Playbook: https://www.ted.com/talks/hamdi_ulukaya_the_anti_ceo_playboo...

It gave me respect for a company I wouldn't think twice about. Both cases show solid longterm leadership strategy in a world chasing quarterly growth.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#39

Post by MisterBastahrd »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #30
JimBrimble35 wrote: post #17

The 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…

> The 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. A practical question, and a moral one: Would it be have worked out had the CEO tried to steal Montañez's idea, given Montañez came up with the spices himself? Does someone merely not doing something unethical,…

Ah yes, the whole "people in power are heroic when they don't take advantage of the poor" logic.
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