3m Case Study
Question 1
There are many examples of successful companies. To what extent is 3M justifiably highlighted as the ‘innovating machine’?
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 to the management principles and practice set out in this case study. There is evidence that 3M supports these fine words with actions. 3M hire good people and trust them; this will bring about
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It is an effective method of providing room for creativity and another way of showing that the organization encourages innovative effort. Allocating 15 percent of individual’s work week time is costly to the organization, especially when there strict deadline to meet, which means that company may need to employ more manpower in order to meet deadlines, personally, it is mere rhetoric
Question 4
Encouraging product and brand managers to achieve 25 per cent of sales from recently introduced products would be welcomed by shareholders, but what happens if a successful business delivers profits without 25 per cent of sales from recently introduced products?
The success of the approach is due to the continual reinforcement of the objective. Indeed, the performance of individual business managers is partly judged on whether they are able to achieve the objective. What this means is that these business managers are not under pressure and to ensure that they develop new products but that these new products will eventually represent higher per cent of the business’s sales.
Question 5
Some people may argue that 3M’s success is largely due to the significance given to science and technology and this is the main lesson for other firms. Discuss the merits of such a view and the extent to which this is the case.
This technological intensity
Product Innovation – Innovation of new products had failed many times and MTI has lost reputation with Wall Street. This process had been placed on the backburner and when the CEO came on board there were only six products in the pipeline. Therefore, to be successful in the future, MTI needs to invest more in R&D and focus on delivering new products.
Cassie is the person I chose to relate to and explain what I think she could have done to adjust her learning pattern. Cassie should have intensified more in Confluent, by tuning more in her Confluent level, she would be more relaxed about taking risk on writing her paper. relaying strictly on Precision as a use first, she is driving herself crazy by worrying about being wrong and not focusing on the assignment as a whole. I feel that Cassie is over processing the task that is asked of her to complete the assignment that she is asked to do.
firms It has been suggested that the disappointing performance of U.S. firms during the 1980s in technology-intensive, global markets was from failure to improve upon products and processes. It has been cited that "the U.S. makes the breakthroughs, while other countries, especially Japan, provide the follow-through." Revolutionary innovation has been contrasted with less dramatic advancements. Incremental improvement can turn products over and get more, newer models out. This may all sound dull, but the achievements can be exhilarating. American firms may have failed to follow up on their breakthroughs with such continuous improvements. Where there were successes, they were built upon a combination of breakthroughs and incremental improvements. It is the subject of yet another discourse as to what constitutes an innovation: a breakthrough or an incremental improvement, or both, and/or everything in between. 4. To take advantage of opportunity It is no surprise that surprises, often disappointing surprises, are the seeds of innovation. Take the oil companies. It is no surprise that some oil companies are becoming oil-andgas companies. Why? Because gas is found more often and in greater abundance than oil
Today’s market demands organizations to have a strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan describes where the organization wants their organization to go. A strategic plan is a document used to communicate goals, and the actions needed to achieve those goals. In order to remain competitive every organization needs to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. They need to develop new products and services with increasing frequency. The design of these new products and services must meet, or exceed, customer expectations and at the same time, they must generate an acceptable financial return for the organization. However, any business that does not realize the importance of developing new products will not last very long as a consequence
T.C. is a 30-year-old woman who 3 weeks ago underwent a vaginal hysterectomy and right salpingooophorectomy for abdominal pain and endometriosis. Postoperatively she experienced an intraabdominal hemorrhage, and her hematocrit (Hct) dropped from 40.5% to 21%. She was transfused with 3 units of packed RBCs (PRBCs). After discharge she continued to have abdominal pain, chills, and fever and was subsequently readmitted twice: once for treatment of postoperative infection and the second time for evacuation of a pelvic hematoma. Despite treatment, T.C. continued to have abdominal pain, chills, fever, and nausea and vomiting (N/V).
Strategy formulation has been acknowledged as one of the most crucial factors of ensuring the long-term growth of the business. However, the manner in which strategy is formulated, and most importantly, the nature of the strategy chosen for the company determines its future position in the marketplace (Grant, 2005).
Tesco will need to be eager to develop as a business by trying new methods, by constantly purifying Tesco’s strategies this would lead to the business identifying greater paths of accomplishing its goals and also adapting innovation. This will allow Tesco to become competent leading to advanced profits and lower costs. The disadvantages of this would be that developing new methods may be time consuming, the time that it takes for Tesco to familiarize new strategies could be more efficiently towards the high demanded products that would lead to more sales.
The case study detailing the dilemma faced by the organization known as Box, Inc., is one concerned with the challenge of maintaining organizational culture in the face of rapid growth. The organization began as a classic start-up company that evolved out of a garage by a few friends. Beginning as a simple organization with few team members paved the way for the successful culture that would permeate the company for years to come. The challenge facing Box, Inc. in the study is not one of loss, but, rather, one of gain. The organization has rapidly expanded in the last few years, now hosting multiple sites around the globe and over a thousand employees. This rapid change presents the top executives, such as CEO Aaron Levie with the difficult task of preserving their start-up culture that breeds ingenuity and success. One managerial solution the top executives implemented was their institution of a rigorous and highly selective hiring process. This solution was highly effective in maintaining the organizational culture within Box, Inc., in light of the multiple organizational behavior theories that describe the strong correlation between selective hiring and cultural sustainability within a company.
Jim Collins and his research team of 20 compared and contrasted how many companies made the leap to greatness and how other companies didn’t. Based on bundles of evidence and a large quantity of data, he and his team uncovered how
3M heavily based its business on innovation and while doing this it always supported its employees in terms of being innovative. 3M also always followed the alternative ways in order to increase their profit and market share, and they found that one of the best ways is through organizational innovation. Therefore, in order to improve their business 3M developed 6 different strategies over its history. These strategies helped 3M to promote entrepreneurship and increase customer satisfaction within the market.
3M promoted intrapreneurship This is a very good control. 3M was the leader in intrapreneurship and encouraged its employees to practice entrepreneurship within the established corporation. This is a very big financial and non financial motivation for employees as it allows them to proceed with their plans and contribute towards the growth of the company. It also gives them a chance to take risks without the fear of reprisals. This often fosters new business developments which benefit the employees as well as the company. This control ties up with the "15% option" in which employees have the option of spending up to 15% of their workweek pursuing individual projects of their choice. They don't have to disclose or justify the project to a manager. This control definitely supports the strategy of 3M by giving the employees the freedom and motivation to innovate regularly. 3M Corporation should continue with this
Q1. How has 3M’s innovation process evolved since the company was founded? Why, if at all, does 3M, known as the “hothouse” of innovation, need to regain historic closeness to the customer?
The company 3M is a diverse company that was incorporated on June 25, 1929 with presence in more than 10 industries alone. “3M products are sold through a number of distribution channels, including directly to users and through wholesalers, retailers, jobbers, distributors and dealers in a range of trades in a number of countries worldwide” ("3M Co," n.d., para. 1) The company head quarters is located in St. Paul Minnesota, however 3M has locations all over the United States. 3M is best known within the consumer industry with brands such as Post-it, Scotch, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, O-Cel-O, Nexcare, and Command. “3M is one of 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and also is a component of the Standard & Poor's 500
technology without moving away from the company's core values. Whilst there are many other competitors in the
According to Daly et al, (2009a) ‘ Managers must be able to cope with the concept of continual growth and change. This may generate excitement, but can also bring added pressure for managers as