...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 to improve new product development (Gerybadze n.d.). In addition, there are various R&D centers established such as central research function in 1937, Technical Forum in 1951 and so on based on the 3M case study. Furthermore, another strength of 3M Company is that it has strong innovation and made 3M included in the list of 50 most innovative...
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...3M in 2006 Prior to reading the 3M case, I was unaware of this historic corporation that dominates a wide range of markets today. I have heard and purchased products such as Post-it Note, Scotch Tape, and Scotch-Brite; however, I did not know all these products and many more belong to 3M Company. 3M was initiated in 1902 by five businessmen in Minnesota and its first product was the development of sandpaper. William McKnight was the leading figure and CEO of 3M who revolutionized the company and led it to its initial success. He and other prominent figures at that time evolved the company culture into a unique innovative organization. 3M was the first company to utilize various strategies that differentiated them from other organizations at the time. For instance, they applied product diversification, which was done by creating brand extensions, production modifications, or creating brand new products. A large number of ground-breaking products were created by, “leveraging existing technology and applying it to new areas”. (p. C437) This strategy was not common in other industries during that time period. This unique culture assisted 3M by allowing the company to reach out to markets their competitors could not have access too. This advantage gave 3M the opportunity to acquire a wide range of new consumers across different market sectors. It placed them as the top dog in supplying daily essentials for individuals, families, manufacturers, and suppliers. Another strategy...
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...Innovation Organisations: The 3M Way Damian Gordon Recommended Reading 3M formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company Founded on the North Shore of Lake Superior at Two Harbors, Minnesota in 1902 With over 76,000 employees they produce over 55,000 products, including: adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, dental products, electrical materials, electronic circuits and optical films Richard Drew June 22, 1899 – December 14, 1980 American inventor who worked for 3M in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he invented; – – – Masking tape, Cellophane tape, and Duct tape. Masking Tape In 1923 3M employee Richard Drew visited an autorepair shop in St. Paul, Minnesota. 3M produced and sold sandpaper and Drew was in the shop to test out a new batch. Masking Tape When he entered the shop employees were expressing disappointment at a failed attempt to paint a car in the two-tone style that was becoming popular at the time. Masking Tape Typically how the effect was achieved was by painting part of the car in one colour while covering the other parts with butcher paper The butcher paper was usually held in place with a heavy adhesive tape. Unfortunately, removing the adhesive tape peeled away part of the paint job. THE IMPORTANT BIT: Rather than just sympathise with his customers and move on, Drew decided to do something about it. Masking Tape His company 3M had a lot of know-how in creating adhesives...
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...is a product so conceptually simple, that in the technologically advanced time we live in, we have been almost desensitised to its brilliant innovation. The innovation of the Post It Note went through a number of distinct stages and processes. In this assignment I will attempt to give a clear and cohesive analysis starting from the earliest ideas of the Post It right through to the products available today. 3M The physical invention of the post it spanned over a period of 10 years, however, I believe the earliest derivation of the modern day Post It Note can be traced back to the very establishment of the 3M Company itself. In 1902 the business got off to a rather bad start when a group of investors by mistake bought a mountain containing worthless mineral to start a business to mine corundum to manufacture sand paper). Unsurprisingly the company did not generate profit for 14 years. Seemingly spurred on by their less than successful origins, 3m have since always strived to create a working environment in which innovation can flourish. Brand (1998) on the topic of 3m states that “to guarantee such conditions are in place and sustained over time, requires a long term commitment from top management, the recruitment and retention of the right people and a strong support and recognition programme.” Brand (1998) insists however that innovation cannot be allocated to one or two individuals in an organisation, that “it must permeate the entire fabric of an organisation and every department...
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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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...arriving in Minnesota from Milan last year, Mauro and his wife, Elisa, can't help but stand out. | Photo by David Bowman The Nine Passions Of 3M's Mauro Porcini By Chuck Salter 1. Mauro loves his pink lion. One Saturday afternoon last spring, he and his wife, Elisa, front-runners for the title of Minnesota's most glamorous Italian transplants, stumbled onto an eclectic sale in a parking lot on the outskirts of St. Paul. As soon as he saw the white stone statue of a regal lion, Mauro didn't hesitate forking over a few hundred bucks. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with it. "I painted it fluo [as in fluorescent] pink myself," he says. And he put it in his front yard for all to see. Mauro Porcini is the resident design guru at 3M, the materials-science conglomerate based in St. Paul. Throughout the company, he's simply known as Mauro--a renaissance man who's transcended his last name. Although most of his Midwestern colleagues pronounce it MORE-oh, it actually rhymes with WOW-whoa, which is also the typical reaction to the flamingo-colored sculpture that now resides across the street from the Oak Ridge Country Club. The club had been lion-free for 90 years until Mauro moved from Milan in 2010 to Hopkins, a Minneapolis suburb dotted with low-pitch ranch homes like his. "The neighbors stop and take pictures," he says, smiling as he gazes at his yard one night in June. In his mind, Mauro says, the beast roars, "This house is owned by a designer, someone who likes to think...
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...The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society. Any review particularly on new product development and innovation management will uncover numerous references to 3M. 3M is quite possibly the most innovative company of our times that even CEOs of other visionary companies admire. 3M is best known for its household brands such as Post-it Note, Scotchgard, Scotch tape, and many more. 3M initially failed in its mining business, and eventually stumbled onto most of the successful innovations that we know 3M for, including Post-It, Masking and Scotch tape. There are some key activities and principles that contribute to 3M’s performance which reflected in its approach to innovation namely the variety of management techniques, such as good communications and the setting of clear objectives with a company culture built on more than 90 years of nurturing idea and fostering creativity. Being an “innovating machine”, 3M institutionalized the mechanisms to drive innovation as the "15 percent rule" - technical people spend up to 15 percent of their time on projects of their own choosing or initiative, "25 percent rule" - each division should produce 25 percent of annual sales from new products and services introduced in the previous four years (which later increased to 30 percent). More growth mechanisms were created to stimulate internal entrepreneurship, test new ideas, create unplanned...
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...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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...“3M: A Culture Made For Innovation” Introduction 3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. It was founded by five businessmen in 1902 at the town of Two Harbors, Minn (3M, 2012). They originally financed the company to mine the mineral cornundum for grinding wheel abrasives but the investment became a failure because it turned out that the mineral was actually low-grade anorthosite (Goetz, 2011). After being done with mining, the founders bought a sand paper company but struggled on how to run it. Eventually, Lucius Ordway moved the company to St. Paul where 3M created some successful new inventions such as masking tape and cellophane tape (Goetz, 2011). 3M is known to have one of the most innovative work cultures. Over the years it has developed values and norms that are geared toward innovation. 3M believes its innovative work culture is a huge factor in its success. 3M Values To promote creativity and innovation, 3M has developed cultural values and norms that allow for employees to feel empowered, to experiment, and to take risks in order to come up with new products. Values are standards or guidelines that people use to figure out which types of behaviors, events, situations and outcomes are desirable or undesirable (George & Jones, 2012). Values can be divided into two categories: terminal and instrumental (George & Jones, 2012). A terminal value is defined as a desired end state or outcome that people seek to achieve (George & Jones...
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...What actions, policies, strategy are used by the selected organization to motivate innovations among its employees? 3M Company, previously known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company is an US MNC. They focus on two core themes – Deep technological competence and Strong product development capabilitie. * Setting stretch targets – such as demarcation of profit generated from X product in Y year sets benchmark for others. * Allocating resources as “Slack” – Ample of space, time and opportunity to grow. * Encouragement of “bootlegging” employees working on innovative projects. * Access to resources in a non-formal manner. * Different levels of Venture capitalist and provision to stag resource for innovators. * Intra-Entrepreneurship – Letting people take their idea forward within the organization and without having them leave. Are innovations are introduced by individuals or teams? 3M has department demarcation at various levels. For instance, they not only address the one who has done a great innovation but also the ones who have put in a lot of effort for the product; therefore having an award for effort rather than achievement. At 3M, the strategy is to reward the one who is actually involved in the process hence enabling everyone to come forward. If it is group effort, it will be introduced by the group leader having all the members recognized and if it’s in an individual effort; he/ she will also reckon the people who have...
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...For the exclusive use of Q. WEI2015. 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.” ...
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...3M's POST-IT NOTEPADS "NEVER MIND. I'LL DO IT MYSELF." Near the end of 1978, bleak reports came back to the headquarters of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) Corporation in St. Paul from a four-city test market: This Post-itTM notepads idea was a real stinker. This came as no surprise, of course, to many of 3M's most astute observers of new product ideas; this one had smelled funny to them from the beginning. The company had ignored Post-it before it was a notepad, when the product-to-be was just an adhesive that didn't adhere very well. The first related product to reach the market was a sticky bulletin board whose sales were less than exciting. So why was it still around? For five years this odd material kept turning up like a bad penny in the pocket of Spencer Silver, the chemist who had mixed it up in the first place. Even after the adhesive had evolved into a stickum-covered bulletin board, and then into notepad glue, the manufacturing department said they couldn't mass-produce the pads. The 3M marketing crew also said you could only sell these things if you gave them away, because who would pay a dollar for scratch paper? So when the test market reports arrived, it seemed everyone who'd disparaged the Post-it notepad was right after all: 3M was finally going to do the merciful thing and bury the remains. Only one last try by two executives, Geoffrey Nicholson and Joseph Ramey, saved those little yellow self-stick notes from oblivion. Nicholson and Ramey knew 3M's marketing...
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...Internship Report Summer 2002 By: Danielle Cauthen Company: 3M Internship Dates: May 2002 - July 2002 Table of Contents 1. Biographical Sketch 2. Company Background 3. Internship Program pg. 3 pg. 3 pg. 3 4. Internship Project 4.1 Project Overview 4.2 Project Relevance 4.3 Project Timeline 4.4 In-House Training 4.5 Project Tasks and Results 4.6 Project Evaluation 5. Technical Products 5.1 Design Description 5.2 Code 5.3 Sample Outputs 6. Professional Growth 6.1 Challenges 6.2 Technical Skills Acquired 6.3 Business/Management Skills Acquired 6.4 Lessons I Would Apply to Next Internship 7. Summary/Conclusions pg. 3 pg. 4 pg. 4 pg. 4 pg. 5 pg. 5 pg. 5 pg. 5 pg. 5 pg. 6 pg. 6 pg. 6 pg. 6 pg. 7 pg. 7 pg. 7 pg. 7 2 1. Biographical Sketch I am originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and am currently a graduating senior at Florida A&M University, majoring in Computer & Information Sciences. After graduation, I will be attending graduate school, in the Fall 2003, to pursue my master’s degree in Computer Science, at, hopefully, New York University. As far as previous internships, I have had three summer internships with 3M, starting the summer after my freshman year, and, in this report, I will be discussing my third and last internship with 3M this previous summer. 2. Company Background 3M, which stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, is headquartered in St. Paul, MN, and is a diversified manufacturer of...
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...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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...Harvard Business School 9-395-016 January 3, 1995 3M: Profile of an Innovating Company As a perennial winner in Fortune magazine’s annual poll of American CEOs to determine “The Ten Most Admired Corporations,” 3M was almost universally recognized as one of the world’s most consistently innovative companies. Indeed, Fortune described it as “a kind of corporate petri dish that fosters a culture of innovation.” In an era when large companies were struggling to reignite employees’ entrepreneurial spark, 3M was the benchmarking standard. Yet, in November 1991, as “Desi” DeSimone assumed the job of CEO in the midst of a worldwide recession, he was more focused on 3M’s uncertain future than on its glorious past. Beyond the stagnating sales and declining margins he knew would be reflected in his first annual report (see Exhibit 1), DeSimone was aware that the company faced some longer term challenges. With a portfolio of over 100 core technologies being leveraged into some 60,000 products which it sold in 200 countries, some observers were beginning to ask whether this $14 billion giant with over 88,000 employees could continue its extraordinary innovation-powered growth and expansion. It was a question that the new CEO knew he would have to confront honestly. A lot more than the continued admiration of his Fortune 500 peers depended on it. The Beginning: Foundations of 3M’s Values In 1902, on the basis of a report that deposits of corundum, an abrasive mineral, had been found...
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