Like me, you've probably used many of the sticky, yellow paper squares called Post-it Notes over the years. I've even seen a few cases where they were practically used as wallpaper in offices. It's a simple product, but has a very interesting story. In the late Sixties, a scientist at 3M named Dr. Spencer Silver was developing adhesives to be used in building airplanes. Though the adhesive was meant to be very strong accordingly, an initial pass produced a weak adhesive instead; so weak that it could be peeled off easily without leaving any residue.
Dr. Silver wasn't sure if or how this adhesive could be used, but rather than discarding it, he spread word about the finding within 3M. Several years later, another scientist at 3M, Art Fry, remembered the unusual adhesive as he was looking for ways to bookmark pages in his church choir hymn book. He obtained a sample of the adhesive, which he then applied to the back of small pieces of paper so he could mark pages, removing the markers later without damaging the hymn book.
Around the same time, Silver had shared samples of the adhesive with a products laboratory manager at 3M named Geoff Nicholson. Nicholson thought the adhesive might have a place in the office world, to be used on bulletin boards so notes could be posted and removed easily. While he first planned to market a bulletin board coated with the adhesive, upon meeting Fry, the new team determined that it would make more sense to sell small pieces of paper coated with the adhesive only on part of one side, so they could be used anywhere (far beyond the bulletin board). They spread word that they needed a paper supply to build prototypes, and fatefully enough, it happened that a nearby lab had a surplus of yellow paper.
After an initial product marketing test run produced poor results, the team, now adding other employees and perspectives as well, launched a second marketing trial, this time giving away samples of the product. While the first round of prospective customers didn't see much use for the product from a distance, the second round of customers found countless uses once the product was in their hands and they were able to apply their own ideas. We all know where things went from there (and probably have some around our desk to show for it).
There's much to be learned from the unlikely story of the Post-it Note. Chances are, there are some 'Post-it Note' ideas hidden away somewhere in your organization. Will you find them? And if you do, will you develop them? Will other people, and other perspectives, get involved to see the value in the ideas? Will you find ways to prototype, and get the ideas into the hands of potential users, so they can apply their ideas too? If your company is good at doing these things, you're going to do very well. If not, now's the time to develop an ideation initiative, couple it with good technology (I'm partial to Office 365, and love how Yammer fits here), and start cashing in!