How Play-Doh and Viagra Epitomize Reinvention

When it comes to leadership success, Play-Doh and Viagra have a lot in common.

In reporting my new book NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, I took a deep dive into great corporate comebacks, to understand what lessons they may offer for the rest of us. It’s particularly relevant now, at a time when the average lifespan of a company is only about 10 years, and businesses are still struggling to figure out what will be the “new normal.”

The stories behind both Play-Doh and Viagra provide insight into why some businesses and brands disappear, while others are reimagined in ways that propel them to even greater success. Both offer lessons on how organizations can pivot and take on new relevance. Both are a window into the kind of leadership that encourages innovation.

Consider Play-Doh. It started life as a household cleaner known as Kutol Wallpaper Dough, used to clean coal soot off of wallpaper. It thrived for decades, but by the 1950s, when people shifted to electric and gas stoves, the family-run company was on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s when the owner’s sister-in-law, a New Jersey nursery school teacher, called him with a revelation: the cleaner could be used as modeling clay! The company quickly pivoted, removing the cleaning agent and adding that familiar smell. It used the same factory, the same extruders, even the same can, just with a different label—and voila! One of the most enduring toys of all time was born.

The Viagra story is remarkably similar. The Pfizer medication was initially developed to treat angina, but it proved disappointing in early trials. Under normal circumstances the drug would die. But scientists in the lab, located far from U.S. headquarters in Sandwich, England, noticed an odd side effect: men were reporting erections. The scientists fought skepticism from some inside the company, who didn’t think Pfizer should be in the “sex drug” business. But their small team persevered—and when then-CEO William Steere Jr. learned of their progress, he wholeheartedly championed the drug, which led the way to a multi-billion-dollar new category.

A few lessons are clear from both:

Listen to your employees, customers and vendors

In my book, one reinvention strategy I identify for individuals is to find your “expert companion”—the person who has an objective view of you and can identify talents and opportunities you may not realize yourself. This is true in companies. Both the Play-Doh sister-in-law and the chemists deep in the bowels of Pfizer played the role of “expert companion,” sensing opportunities that leadership did not.

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Employees flourish with autonomy

In most companies, a drug that flopped in trials would simply die. But the Pfizer chemists in far-off Sandwich had the autonomy to make decisions and experiment on their own. It was a similar story in the early days of Netflix, when a low-level employee championed downloading videos at a time when the company was focused on live streaming—and convinced corporate leaders he was right. “Let me be clear, I am nobody in the company,” the employee said. “Yet I was able to push back against a strong and publicly stated opinion from the top leadership to rally.”

Be open to even seemingly extreme pivots

Play-Doh and Viagra are far from the only extreme makeovers. That’s also the case for Procter & Gamble’s Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It originally was developed by chemical giant BASF as insulating and soundproofing foam. But when a salesman visiting a client knocked over a cup of coffee onto a blueprint, he quickly grabbed the sample to wipe up the spill and found it erased the blueprint! He relayed his discovery to leadership, which led directly to a partnership with P&G and the creation of a massive new product category.

Communication is key

Play-Doh and Viagra would have died had leadership not responded to the ideas offered by others. But too often, employees are ignored. One company offered $50 gift certificates to try to motivate employees to submit innovative ideas, yet after an initial burst of enthusiasm, participation dwindled and died. When researchers asked employees why, the answer was clear: a lack of follow-through from the bosses. Not only weren’t their ideas being adopted, but they got no feedback on why. Employees felt “like management is not listening to them,” the researchers found.

The bottom line is, leadership must be the champions of change. Both Play-Doh and Viagra never would have happened if the CEOs of each company hadn’t become fierce advocates.

It makes you wonder how many employees, customers, and sisters-in-law are out there today with transformative ideas of their own. Right now there are almost certainly failing brands and even entire companies that could be revived with a new life and even a wholly different purpose—if only the boss will listen.

Adapted from ‘NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work,’ by Joanne Lipman