A struggling company...
A CEO asking for ideas...
A janitor takes his shot...
Sounds like a pretty good story right? Kind of has that Goodwill Hunting vibe. Now let’s add in the fact that the janitor was the son of poor Mexican immigrants, that he dropped out of school due to struggles learning to read and write in English, all while living with his parents and 8 siblings in a one room apartment. Now let’s raise the stakes a bit and point out that the company is a major national brand on the Fortune 100 list.
Now if that was a movie, it’d feel a little piled on. Right? Almost too much of a David v Goliath, Rocky Balboa type story of overcoming adversity. But that my friends is the true story of Richard Montanez.
Richard Montanez was hired as a janitor at a Frito-Lay factory in 1976. His future wife had to fill out the application due to his limited English skills.
One day during his tenure as janitor, the Frito-Lay CEO, Roger Enrico, recorded a video for all employees. The video implored them to feel more like owners of the company and to take more responsibility for its successes and failures. So when Richard Montanez was struck with a brilliant idea, he knew just what to do. He called the CEO. The CEO of Frito-Lay. Because that’s what you do as a janitor when you have an idea. You call the CEO. Or at least that’s what you do when you are a confident and fearless janitor.
The CEO, to his immense credit, took the call and took this humble janitor extremely seriously. He told Richard to take two weeks to prepare a presentation for himself and the other executives. And Richard went off to invent a product that spoke to his Mexican heritage. It was inspired, mainly, by Mexican street corn seasoned with chili and lime.
To make his pitch more serious, (and this is one of those parts of the story that is almost too awesome to be true) he rented a book on marketing from the library and memorized some phrases with the help of his wife, doodled his own product design on some plastic bags, and bought a $3 tie to wear to the meeting.
He then stood in front of a group of executives at Frito-Lay and pitched the product that would go on to become Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The most popular snack in America according to AdWeek, goPuff, and anyone with an Instagram. The snack that Katy Perry dressed up as for Halloween.
Richard Montanez is a truly inspirational figure and deserves all the success that comes his way. This is truly one of my all time favorite business stories. If you’re looking for life lessons on confidence and chasing your dreams, Richard is your guy.
But if you’re looking for lessons on leadership, please don’t lose sight of Roger Enrico. The CEO of a major company who raised his hand and basically said hey employees, I could use some help. And when a janitor called him on the phone, he took the call, took it seriously, got all his execs together, and recognized the great idea he was hearing. These are not small parts to this story.
If you want your company, your staff, your team to be innovative, start by encouraging them, empowering them, and listening to them. Great ideas can truly come from anywhere if you’re open minded enough to listen.
To hear more of Richard’s story, I recommend this one-on-one interview he gave with a local Tennessee radio station- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadWS1JJeEo