47 THE GLUE THAT
WOULDN’T STICK

Dr. Spencer Silver was a 3M research scientist charged with developing super-strong glue for use on one of its range of adhesive tapes. He successfully developed a new adhesive, but rather than being super-strong, it was super-weak!

His new adhesive formed itself into small spheres, each with a diameter of just a paper’s width. While each sphere was individually sticky, they only made intermittent contact, so when coated on to tape backing they didn’t stick strongly. In fact, they could be peeled off easily.

While it was clear that Silver had discovered a most unusual new adhesive, it wasn’t until four years later that a practical use was found for it, and another six years before it came to market.

The man credited with finding the killer application for the glue was a 3M new product development researcher named Arthur Fry. Fry regularly sang in his church choir and used scraps of paper as markers to keep his place in his hymnal, but was frustrated that they kept falling out.

Fry had heard about Dr. Silver’s discovery while attending an internal 3M seminar, in which the scientist had espoused the virtue of the discovery in which he’d never lost faith. It was Fry who came up with the concept that the glue could be used to create a novel sort of bookmark: one that would keep its place and not fall out, but which could be removed without marking or damaging the paper to which it had been stuck. The 3M Post-it Note was born.

Its path to market still wasn’t smooth: sceptics within the organization had to be persuaded and a new and complex production system had to be devised. But as Fry himself said, this difficulty was a blessing in disguise; “If it was easy then anyone could do it”.

The Post-it Note was finally launched in 1980 and in 1981 was named 3M’s Outstanding New Product. Fry’s contribution to the business was honoured in 1986 when he was made a 3M corporate scientist. His and Dr. Silver’s concept is still one of the most popular office products available.

And the moral is that not all innovations start with a consumer insight. What technologies do you have that could offer new benefits for your customers?