How serendipity led to sticky success for 3M’s Ramesh Ramadurai

Discover the story of Ramesh Ramadurai, the Managing Director of 3M in India, and his journey to success.

Venkatesha Babu & Isha Rautela

If there is one product that 3M – a global conglomerate with nearly $35 billion in annual sales and 60,000 plus products - is universally known for, it is its post-it notes. Who doesn’t use the ubiquitous sticky yellow notes that now have started appearing in a multitude of colours. The story of post-it’s accidental invention, by a 3M scientist Dr Spencer Silver, is now part of corporate lore.

While trying to develop new strong adhesives, Dr Silver instead created the opposite - an adhesive that stuck only lightly to surfaces. Initially, he was disappointed till serendipitously a fellow scientist Art Fry used the adhesive for a bookmark which would stick to the paper without damaging the pages and could be reused.

Serendipity and stress on scientific innovation has played a big part in not just 3M’s global fortunes but also that of its leader in India. Ramesh Ramadurai the Managing Director of 3M in India, a 33-year veteran of the company, is the first to admit it. It was sheer serendipity which made the son of a public sector banker, who grew up as an itinerant student across small towns in Tamil Nadu, follow a then unconventional path of IIT and IIM.

Growing up across Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore, Trichy and other towns in Tamil Nadu, Ramadurai confesses that there were no big ambitions early on. ‘As a banker, my father would get transferred every 2-3 years. So we would all be up-ended and I would have to start afresh to develop a new set of friends at school,’ says Ramadurai.

This kind of temporary adhesiveness to a place and having to reattach oneself in a new city – just like a sticky post-it note – is a trait that has made him supremely adaptable. This ability to adapt, learn and win, is also the reason why he has succeeded while working in some of the most intensely competitive markets like China, America, the Philippines and now India - which is the only market where 3M is listed outside of the US.

Taking chances