3M Case Study (4) “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
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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successful companies. To what extent is 3M justifiably highlighted as the ‘innovating machine’? Answer: This case study has highlighted some of the key activities and principles that contribute to 3M’s performance. Many of these are not new and are indeed used by other companies. In 3M’s case they may be summarized as an effective company culture that nurtures innovation and a range of management techniques and strategies that together have delivered long-term success. Many companies pay lip service
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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
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How has 3M’s innovation process evolved since the foundation of the company? Why, if at all, does 3M known as a “hothouse” of innovation, need to regain its historic closeness to the customer? The hard start of 3M’s in 1902 with digging for corundum then discovering it is low-grade and worthless, moving to sandpaper business and discovering that the abrasives they import to use refuse to stick to the paper pushed the company early to the research road trying to fix the problems they are facing
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professor at Harvard Business School in Boston. Mary Sonnack is a Division Scientist at 3M Corporation. Sonnack and von Hippel and Joan Churchill are coauthors of a handbook on the lead user process to be published in 2000 by Oxford University Press. When senior managers think of product development, they all dream of the same thing: a steady stream of breakthrough products—the kind that will allow their companies to grow rapidly and maintain high margins. And they set ambitious goals to that end
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