There is a funny story about the New Products Division’s first product under Sam’s leadership – the aerosol insecticide that ultimately became Raid®. Taking the product to his father, H.F. Johnson, Jr., for approval, Sam said that this was a business we surely ought to enter.
As the story goes, H.F. looked at the can and said, “Don’t you realise we don’t make any products without wax in them?” Sam answered: “We could put a little wax in it, but I don’t think it would kill bugs any better.”
He may have been joking, but Sam’s response reflected an important insight: After nearly 70 years in business, more wax products would not be enough to help the company keep growing in the second half of the twentieth century.
Rather, we needed an infusion of expansive new ideas and products to continue winning in the increasingly competitive marketplace. As Sam later noted, “Quite simply, you have to have new products – good products – or you die as a company.”