Art Fry-Ideas That Stick: 3M Post-it® Notes and Other Innovations.The famous 3M Inventor and Semi-Retired Engineer is our lunch time keynote speaker on Nov. 9th. - a podcast by TimeScape Productions

The Post-it® Note is one of the best known of all 3M products. It is used by loyal customers all over the world, many of whom declare that they can't imagine how they ever got along before Post-it® Notes were invented. It's equally difficult to imagine a time when 3M was struggling to find a use for the repositionable adhesive that makes Post-it® Notes so versatile. But that was precisely the case back in the early 1970s, before a team of tenacious innovators at 3M created the product that permanently changed the way we communicate.



In a classic case of innovative serendipity, 3M research scientist Dr. Spence Silver found something quite remarkably different from what he was originally looking for. But it wasn't until Art Fry, a new product development researcher, discovered the ultimate product niche for this innovation. Hear how Art's intense curiosity and penchant for practical solutions helped lead him to the Post-it® Note concept, the skeptics he faced within 3M, and the market research involved.



In 1981, one year after its introduction, Post-it Notes were named the company's Outstanding New Product. Fry was named a 3M corporate scientist in 1986. Now semi-retired, Fry looks back on the many innovative products-such as the Post-it® Pop-up Note Dispenser and the Post-it® Flag-that have followed upon the original Post-it® Note.



Art holds 3M′s top technical title, corporate scientist. He has a unique perspective born of almost 40 years of experience developing new products for the 3M Company. A Midwesterner with both rural and urban roots, Art began working for 3M part-time in 1953, while still a University of Minnesota Chemical Engineering student. His career was devoted almost entirely to new product development –– using the stream of leading-edge materials and technologies generated by 3M research, to create products to solve real customer problems, and to help build businesses around them.



Art has made several contributions to 3M′ new product world, but the most significant was the invention of the Post-it® Note. The invention of the Post-it® Note, introduced in the United States in 1980 and in Europe in 1981, earned a number of 3M internal honors. Art received the highest form of peer recognition by being elected to 3M′s Carlton Society. He was also on the team for two Golden Step Awards and was elected to 3M's Circle of Technical Excellence. Post-it® Notes and Microreplication Technologies were cited when 3M received the National Medal of Technology in 1996.



Art has also received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota, the Premio Smau Industrial Design Award from the Italian Office Design Association and was recently voted by Esquire Magazine as one of the best 100 people in the world.



Semi-retired, Art still keeps his hand in technology, networking and mentoring. He's become a spokesman both inside and outside of 3M on innovation and the company's unique culture

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