Failure Turn Success Stories

 

 

Arthur Fry, a 3M employee, attended a Technical Council where Spencer Silver spoke about trying to develop a super-strong adhesive for use in building planes; instead, Silver accidentally created a weak adhesive that was a “solution without a problem.” Fry, who sang in a church choir, had the niggling problem of losing the bookmark in his hymnbook. Fry noticed two important features of Silver’s adhesive that made it suitable for bookmarks: the note was reusable, and it peeled away without leaving any residue. Fry applied for and received funding to develop a product based on Silver’s accidental discovery. Thus was born the Post-it note.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is failure. As a company culture, it's accepted, if not entirely embraced. In Beinlich's department, engineers designed a heat-repelling cover to protect car finishes from welding sparks. But there just wasn't a market for it: Automotive workers didn't want to shell out for another product when they could keep layering blankets to protect finishes like they always had. "When we found that out, we celebrated that we had found something that was innovative and had its place. But we said OK, let's move on."