Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 379 posts

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

#41

Post by tylerhou »

polartx wrote: post #27
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.

My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and running it), to managing scores of plants at HQ in his 40's. Frito-Lay however, is not immune from boneheaded decisions. After 20someodd years of employment, and a trophy case full of awards, he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of crea…

> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender.

Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people.

EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.

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

#42

Post by bnjms »

codesushi42 wrote: post #26
hanniabu wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thank you for being humble. Experience is worth a lot more than credentials on paper. This is a truth that SV turns a blind eye to.

This is the thing that encourages so much adolescent angst. They've a sense that they know as much as most of the adults they interact with. And a realization everyone just makes it up as they go. And somehow we don't share with each other the value of experience and no one shares failure is the currency of experience and young people should be almost failing a lot.

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

#43

Post by Aearnus »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #33
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.

I think you're overthinking it. It's a cute quote.

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

#44

Post by bmmayer1 »

This is one of the best business stories I've ever read. It embodies the core principle of the American dream: that you can really make it if you are dedicated, work hard, and strike out on the right idea. It also highlights the importance of good leadership, to recognize good ideas no matter where they come from, and bottom-up management techniques that emphasize collective ownership of a company's products and success.

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

#45

Post by axiom92 »

WalterBright wrote: post #25

I love this story. It's not about how Montañez "got lucky" - it's about how he, in several key spots, set himself up so luck would find him. It's a great American success story.

Also from the article:

> Six months later, with Montañez’s help, Frito-Lay began testing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in small Latino markets in East Los Angeles.

> If it performed well, the company would move forward with the product; if it didn’t, they’d scratch it — and Montañez would likely return to janitorial duties.

> So Montañez assembled a small team of family members and friends, went to the test markets, and bought every bag of Hot Cheetos he could find.

> “I’d tell the owner, ‘Man, these are great,’” he recalled. “Next week, I’d come back and there’d be a whole rack.”

:-)

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

#47

Post by ts4z »

trefn wrote: post #18
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 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…

At your company, the modern equivalent is the janitor, who cleans your office -- but doesn't work directly for Mixpanel.

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

#48

Post by throwawaycanuck »

tylerhou wrote: post #41
polartx wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and running it), to managing scores of plants at HQ in his 40's. Frito-Lay however, is not immune from boneheaded decisions. After 20someodd years of employment, and a trophy case full of awards, he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of crea…

> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender. Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people. EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.

>Latinx

There is no faster way to discredit your argument than using absurd language like latinx. I've yet to meet a latino person who referred to themselves as anything else.

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

#49

Post by toiletfuneral »

polartx wrote: post #27
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.

My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and running it), to managing scores of plants at HQ in his 40's. Frito-Lay however, is not immune from boneheaded decisions. After 20someodd years of employment, and a trophy case full of awards, he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of crea…

How come you conclude the issue was inexperience & bad management but made sure to frame it as women & poc vs. white men?

Not a super cool way to add to discourse.

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

#50

Post by JimBrimble35 »

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,…

How unethical would it be to take is idea and simply compensate him for it in some small way. A promotion, a bonus, some small percent of the proceeds.

My point here, and it was obviously lost on some, is that the CEO saw the possibilities for the person, instead of simply seeing an interesting idea. I'm sure there are plenty of stories where a similar scenario played out and the protagonist didn't end up in Montañez's position.

Post reply on HN