...Case Question 1: With reference to the case study, provide one example with a paragraph of not more than 5 lines, which clearly illustrate a link between topics or theory/ concepts drawn from at least 2 modules you have studied. SWOT Analysis concept is a structured planning method used to identify strengths and weaknesses and also broader opportunities and threats to assist 3M in making business strategic plans and decisions (Renault 2015). Whereas, opportunity-based theory is used to support the behavior of 3M’s leaders in discovering and taking advantages of possibilities in the business without regarding to resources currently controlled (Pramanik 2015). SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats existing in the business of 3M. In term of strengths, 3M has a diversified business because of their broad range of products and 6 different types of business segments provided. For example, the various products include Post-It Notes, Scotch Tape, high-tech LCD films and so on while the business segments include Healthcare, Industrial & Transportation, Consumer & Office, Display & Graphics (D&G) and so on to figure 1 in appendix list. Besides, 3M has also a strong Research and Development (R&D) where they spend more than a billion dollars on R&D in a year, around 20% of this budget supports its 32 technology centers. At the same time, 3M also employed approximately 1000 researchers that work in each of the technology centers...
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...Case study An analysis of 3M, the innovation company Introduction Any review of the literature on new product development and innovation management will uncover numerous references to 3M. The organisation is synonymous with innovation and has been described as ‘a smooth running innovation machine’ (Mitchell, 1989). Year after year 3M is celebrated in the Fortune 500 rankings as the ‘most respected company’ and the ‘most innovative company’. Management gurus from Peter Drucker to Tom Peters continually refer to the company as a shining example of an innovative company. This case study takes a look at the company behind some of the most famous brands in the marketplace, including Post-it® Notes. It examines the company’s heritage and shows how it has arrived at this enviable position. Furthermore, the case study attempts to clarify what it is that makes 3M stand out from other organisations. Background Originally known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, with its headquarters in St Paul, Minnesota, 3M was established in 1902 to mine abrasive minerals for the production of a single product, sandpaper. From these inauspicious beginnings, the company has grown organically, concentrating on the internal development of new products in a variety of different industries. The latest review of the company’s position reveals that it manufactures over 60,000 products, has operations in 61 countries, employs 75,000 people and has achieved an average year-on-year growth...
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...CASE STUDY #1 PAUL’S FOUR SHORTCOMINGS Paul Enden has always been very reliable and a hard worker. For the past eight years Paul has been working in a large auto service garage. During this time he has made a number of recommendations to the owner regarding new services that could be provided to customers. One of these is called the “fast lubes”. With this service people who want to have their oil changed and their car lubricated do not have to leave the auto and come back later in the day. Three service racks handle this job. It generally takes less than 10 minutes to take care of a car, and most people can have the job completed within 25 minutes of the time they arrive. The service, which has become extremely popular with customers, resulted in an increase in overall profits of 5 percent last year. Paul’s wife believes he has a large number of ideas that could prove profitable. “You ought to break away and open your own shop,” she has told him. Paul would like to do so, but he believes for things help account for entrepreneurial success and he has none of them. Here is how he explained it to his wife: “To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be a thinker, not a doer. I’m a doer. Thinking bores me. I wouldn’t like being an entrepreneur. Second, those guys who do best as entrepreneurs tend to be inventors. I’m not an inventor. If anything, I think of new approaches to old ways of doing business. I’m more a thnkerer than an inventor. Third, you’ve got to be lucky to...
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... For instance, the revolutionary invention of wheels completely altered the life of people in late Neolithic. It also gave rise to the technological advances. Human beings are progressing significantly into the modernization. Thus, each great innovation has brought a drastic change to humans. In modern society, corporations, especially technology corporations, are much concerned to the innovation, for the reason of the amazing benefits innovations bring to corporations and society as well. How do countries and corporations foster innovation? There are consistently questions what the ingredient is that brought 3M and Apple from the brink of failure to achieve such amazing record of success. While there are several factors, the one that both companies clearly had in common is innovation. Nowadays companies are all pursuing innovations to help companies profit. At 3M, employees are paid for spending 15% of their time creating whatever they want....
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...Innovation, ideas and solutions for a modern world 1 Introduction – A Century of Innovation 3M is a global diversified materials science company and a powerful, diverse and integrated enterprise. Although 3M identifies its core competency simply as “applying coatings to backings”, the company’s operations extend far beyond this. 3M, famous for its consumer brands such as Scotch® Tape and Post-it ® Notes, also creates thousands of industrial products used by manufacturers and service providers to create their own products. From its beginnings in 1902 as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, 3M has grown to achieve sales revenue of $US25.3 billion and an operating income of $US3.5 billion in 2008. The company has over 79,000 employees with approximately 13 percent employed directly as technical staff. As a truly global presence, 3M services almost 200 national markets, and operates subsidiary companies, such as 3M Australia, in more than 60 countries. Almost 64 percent of 3M’s entire sales revenue originates from international operations. With a vision “to be the most innovative enterprise and preferred supplier in the markets we serve”, 3M prides itself on its history of innovation – reinforced through its brand promise, “practical and ingenious solutions that help customers succeed”. Key values underpinning 3M’s continual success include its commitment to: • Satisfy our customers with superior quality and value • Provide investors with an attractive...
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...Problems This case describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology titled Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs. A team from 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division applies the Lead User Methodology to the field of surgical infection control and discovers that there exist new product concepts together with a new business strategy. The problem here is 3M should decide whether this new strategy will be a tool for 3M 's strategy towards corporate expansion and innovation. In the mid 90s, 3M realized the symptoms in its innovation approach that only incremental development is involved in its current product range instead of breakthrough ones. This approach limited the company’s competitiveness and financial performance and growing the business required to prepare the environment capable of delivering “breakthrough innovations“. Therefore, 3M’s management set a new goal: 30% of sales should be driven by new products. The new strategy focuses on understanding the real market needs to create possible developments and enhancements for a particular product which can eventually lead to a breakthrough in product offering that ultimately results in a competitive advantage. In this case, the suggested approach, Lead User Method, enables 3M to satisfy an important need (not spreading infections during surgery) by developing a specific new product or service. If there is not a new approach, the innovations that 3M makes will only...
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...Case Studies in Entrepreneurship 3M 3M has been known for decades as an entrepreneurial company that pursues growth through innovation. It generates a quarter of its annual revenues from products less than five years old. 3M started life as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company back in 1902. Its most successful product - flexible sandpaper - still forms an important part of its product line but this now comprises of over 60000 products that range from adhesive tapes to office supplies, medical supplies and equipment to traffic and safety signs, magnetic tapes and CDs to electrical equipment. Originally innovation was encouraged informally by the founders, but over more than a century some of these rules have been formalised. But most important of all there has built up a culture which encourages innovation. And because this culture has built up a history of success, it perpetuates itself. 3M started life selling a somewhat inferior quality of sandpaper. The only way they could do this was by getting close to the customer - demonstrating it to the workmen that used it and persuading them to specify the product - an early form of relationship selling. This was the first strategic thrust of the fledgling business - get close to the customer and understand their needs. However, the company was desperate to move away from selling a commodity product and competing primarily on price and its closeness to the customer led it to discover market opportunities that it had the...
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... 9-699-012 REV: JULY 23, 2002 STEFAN THOMKE Innovation at 3M Corporation (A) On the evening of October 23, 1997, Rita Shor, senior product specialist at 3M, looked across the conference room at her team from the Medical-Surgical Markets Division. She wondered when to draw to close the intense ongoing debate on the nature of the team’s recommendations to the Health Care Unit’s senior management. A hand-picked group of talented individuals, the team had embarked on a new method for understanding customer needs called “Lead User Research.” But this initiative to introduce leading-edge market research methods into 3M’s legendary innovation process had now grown into a revolutionary series of recommendations that threatened to rip apart the division. While senior management wanted the “Lead User” team to execute a manageable project involving surgical draping material to protect surgery patients from infections, the team now wanted to rewrite the entire business unit’s strategy statement to also include more pro-active products or services that would permit the upstream containment of infectious agents such as germs. This went against the incrementalist approach that for so long had pervaded 3M. After all, as Mary Sonnack, division scientist and an internal 3M consultant on the new Lead User methodology, noted “3M gets so much revenue from incremental products . . . like a blue Post-it note instead of just a yellow one.” Outside the window, the late autumn...
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...[pic] CASE ASSIGNMENT As the end of his first year comes to a close, George Buckley (CEO) is evaluating his strategic approach and its ability to drive desired results for 3M during the upcoming year. He has asked you to prepare a report assessing strategic performance during 2006 and to make recommendations for enhancing strategic competitiveness in 2007. You will have a 10 minute meeting with Buckley to highlight your findings, so you should prepare 3-5 Power Point slides to provide an overview of your written report and to summarize the results of your analysis and supporting exhibits. Your report and overview should address the following key strategic issues: 1. Establish criteria for judging strategic performance by comparing past successes and strategies. Use a Balanced Scorecard framework to make sure that both financial and strategic controls are used to assess performance. 2. Define the company's core competency. 3. Determine if the company has a sustainable competitive advantage. If you determine that a sustainable advantage exists, support your claim. If you find it lacking, recommend actions that would secure a sustainable competitive advantage. 4. Identify any external environmental forces that have strategic implications in the future. 5. Evaluate the success of 3M's strategy in 2006 based on the criteria identified for judging strategic performance. 6. Evaluate 3M's Acquisition strategy. 7. Recommend an integrated and coordinated...
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...Indian G-Sec Market: How the Term Structure Reacts to Monetary Polic Introduction Behavior of term structure is a major source of interest rate risk and influences the decision making process of the participants in money market and government securities (G-Sec) market regarding holding and trading. Monetary policy is a major determining factor of term structure. The first quarter of the current financial year found hikes in monetary policy rates in India to be followed by upward shifts in the domestic term structure, which adversely affected the G-Sec portfolios of the market participants. This paper wants to find out how term structure responds to monetary policy actions in India. Literature Review There are a number of studies in USA on how term structure responds to the expectations about the central bank’s monetary policy actions. Cook et al (1989) found that changes in the federal funds target rate (FFTR) in the 1970s caused large movements in short term interest rates, moderate movements in medium term rates, and small movements in long term rates. Kuttner (2001) estimated that the bond rate’s response to expected changes in monetary policy is negligible, while their response to unexpected changes is significant. Faust et al (2002), as reported by Goukasian et al (2006), using prices from federal funds futures contracts derived the unexpected component of Federal Reserve policy decisions and assessed their impact on the future trajectory of interest rates. 1 ...
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...colleagues for their wonderful efforts in 2011 and to their entire nation for the dignified and orderly way in which they dealt with the tsunami and related challenges. They have my profound personal admiration. Through all of this, while dealing in many cases with enormous personal challenges presented by these disasters, 3M’s people also met the business challenges and once again delivered strong results. George W. Buckley Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer Despite all this turbulence, full-year sales increased 11 percent to $29.6 billion, with double-digit growth in Industrial and Transportation; Safety, Security and Protection Services; and Health Care. Operating margins were 20.9 percent for the company, and all businesses delivered margins of 20 percent or higher, which is an amazing feat of consistency. Inge G. Thulin named President and Chief Executive Officer, 3M Company, Feb. 24, 2012 Inge G. Thulin, 58, was named president and chief executive officer of 3M Company effective Feb. 24, 2012. A 32-year veteran of 3M, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of 3M since May of 2011, after having served as executive vice president, 3M International Operations since 2003. Mr. Thulin joined 3M Sweden in 1979, working in sales and marketing, and subsequently assumed levels of...
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...for their wonderful efforts in 2011 and to their entire nation for the dignified and orderly way in which they dealt with the tsunami and related challenges. They have my profound personal admiration. Through all of this, while dealing in many cases with enormous personal challenges presented by these disasters, 3M’s people also met the business challenges and once again delivered strong results. George W. Buckley Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer Despite all this turbulence, full-year sales increased 11 percent to $29.6 billion, with double-digit growth in Industrial and Transportation; Safety, Security and Protection Services; and Health Care. Operating margins were 20.9 percent for the company, and all businesses delivered margins of 20 percent or higher, which is an amazing feat of consistency. Inge G. Thulin named President and Chief Executive Officer, 3M Company, Feb. 24, 2012 Inge G. Thulin, 58, was named president and chief executive officer of 3M Company effective Feb. 24, 2012. A 32-year veteran of 3M, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of 3M since May of 2011, after having served as executive vice president, 3M International Operations since 2003. Mr. Thulin joined 3M Sweden in 1979, working in sales and marketing, and subsequently assumed...
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...Lottery applications). • The Unit works with a wide range of organisations in order to achieve the above. Kent Sports Development Unit's Advice Regarding the National Lottery includes: • Helping organisations in Kent, including those in the public, private, voluntary or education sector, to ensure the aims and objectives of their projects are matched to the criteria laid down by the Lottery Sports Board, Big Lottery Fund and other funding organisations. • Helping to identify other areas of funding to contribute towards the partnership funds required. • Advice on the additional relevant information, which will help to show that the project is both feasible and viable, through supplying guidance documents on the production of feasibility studies and development plans etc. • Provide documents,...
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...Case study notes This case has been updated to include the Apple iPad. Principally this is case explores the issue of licensing and how successful firms can become unsuccessful. It is not a case about Apple and why it has become successful. This case study explores the rise of the Apple Corporation. The Apple iPod is one of the most successful new product launches in recent years, transforming the way the public listens to music, with huge ramifications for major record labels. More than 50 million MP3 players are expected to be sold in 2005; over a third more than last year. Mobile phones have long been regarded as the most credible challengers to MP3 players and iPods. The launch of digital download services via mobile phones illustrates the dramatic speed of convergence between the telecom and media industries, which many observers expect to usher in a new era of growth for mobile phones. Users are willing to pay more for additional services and many analysts predict that mobile phone handsets will eventually emerge as the dominant technology of the age, combining personal organisers, digital music players and games consoles in a single device. Indeed, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has predicted that mobile phones will supersede the iPod as the favoured way of listening to digital music. The launch of the Apple ipad in 2010 makes this case even more topical. This should form the basis of supplementary questions at the end of the case: How will the iPhone succeed? What about...
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...Review SKIN FUNCTION AND WOUND HEALING PHYSIOLOGY John Timmons is Clinical Manager, Wounds UK and Tissue Viabiliy Nurse, Aberdeen Regular evaluation and the setting of goals is essential to monitor the progress of the patient and their wound.To do this, is important to understand the physiology of the skin and the way normal wound healing progresses in order to plan and provide effective wound management. This article describes the structure and function of the skin and outlines the four normal phases of healing. Wound healing is an exciting and continually developing field, with new technologies and research playing a large part in improving the quality of patient care. The role of the nurse in wound care is all encompassing, stretching from the initial assessment of the wound and the patient, to making the correct decisions about treatment and beyond. Regular evaluation, and the setting of goals is essential to monitor the progress of the patient and the wound. To do this, a baseline knowledge of the functions and anatomy of the skin and wound healing physiology is required. Figure 1. When the skin is breached, it is important to close the defect as quickly as possible, thereby preventing infection from occurring. vital substances (Graham-Brown and Burns, 1998). the nerve endings present in the skin allow the body to detect pain, and changes in temperature, touch and pressure. 8Sensation: Functions of the skin The skin, often referred to as the largest body...
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