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Our last word in business is about a little product that requires concise writing. Thirty years ago this month, it hit stores across the country. Scientists at the office products conglomerate 3M had stumbled upon a new kind of adhesive, one that could stick to many surfaces and be pulled off easily and repositioned.

Since 1980, they have been a top-selling office supply. They're no longer just three-by-three inches and light yellow in color. The little sticky pads come in eight sizes, and dozens of shapes and colors.

heir contribution to human progress has been so great that Post-It note inventers Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver were inducted last month into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Cellophane was invented by Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger while employed by Blanchisserie et Teinturerie de Thaon. Inspired by seeing a wine spill on a restaurant's tablecloth, he decided to create a cloth that could repel liquids rather than absorb them.

His first step was a waterproof spray coating made of viscose. The coated fabric was stiff, but the clear film easily separated from the backing cloth, and he abandoned his original idea in favor of the new filmy material.

It took ten years for Brandenberger to improve the film by adding glycerin

With the advent of the American Civil War, Milton saw the interest in games fade until he created the idea of a small kit of games for the soldiers to play during periods of inactivity. His kit included chess, checkers, backgammon, dominoes, and his Checkered Game of Life. The kits were sold directly to the soldiers as well as charitable organizations who distributed them to the soldiers.

Milton's success with games monetarily carried his interest in supporting the new kindergarten movement. However, with the 1870 recession, his partners were no longer willing to support these extra costs. Milton chose to continue his support of the kindergarten movement and his friend, George Tapley, bought out the partners and became president. This left Milton free to invent new games and educational materials.

This foresight paid off by the early 1900s. Kindergartens were spreading across the United States and the teachers were buying Milton's art supplies, multiplication sticks, toy money, movable clock dials, story books, school furniture, and educational games. Milton Bradley Company's education department went from operating at a loss to being a major source of earnings for the company.1

When people think of the most creative companies of the twenty-first century, they think of revolutionary companies like Apple and the creative giant behind the brand, Steve Jobs. Edwin Binney wasn’t quite the Steve Jobs of his time. But his products have had a far longer shelf life than any Apple product so far. His little company started out making industrial colorants which still doesn’t sound too creative. But from those products, Binney had a vision. He saw a need in the market, specifically among children, and he converted his business to meet that need. He began manufacturing wax crayons, packed in little boxes, for children to use at school in a time when crayons were expensive artists’ tools. Combining two French words, his wife Alice names the little crayons “Crayola.”