Strategy Analysis : 3m 's Differentiation Strategy

Entrepreneurial spirit is the implantation for creative inspiration. Tomorrow’s innovation and future economy are the key factors of successful entrepreneurship. By working hard you can gain physical capital to create a new idea or product for the market. A successful entrepreneur always improves his or her service to give the customer what they want. An ambitious entrepreneur must have leadership skills and mind set for innovation. Important sign of entrepreneurial spirit are to calculate risk-taking and engage in

Entrepreneurial spirit is taking the approach to seeking change, and having the attitude and or mindset that question innovation. Also thinking of change services that will help the continuous improvement for an organization. Two Must-Haves for Growth: Entrepreneurial Spirit and Focus on Core Competencies is article that was written by Richard chaifetz looks at the most important core competencies to help a company with sustainable growth and profit. He encourages people to clearly define the core competencies and living by them, and having an entrepreneurial value system and maintaining that value system while the company growths. While doing these two things companies will continue to grow and a place in the future. The behavior is practical in the Entrepreneurship spirit section by showing the thinking and or the mindset of change and the attitude.

Hewlett Packard (HP) decided to produce 1.3-inch disk drives to become the market leader in a new market and increase HP’s revenue. Although the market for 1.3-inch disk drives was still unclear and still developing, HP decided to organize a special team to develop this new product. This group was multi-talented, with the best engineers from every department in the company. The group also had many priorities for the company. However, things didn’t develop as the Kittyhawk team expected. They failed to sell the new product to the customer they planned. Even though some new customers were interested in this

Of all the aspects of MTI, innovation strategy is the most challenging. Firms can be very good at the various activities involved in MTI, such as R & D or operations, but this count for little unless it is supported by a well-grounded innovation strategy that guides firms’ choices, prioritizations, and sequences. There is little value in being highly efficient at developing or delivering new products and services if they are the wrong products and services for the firm and its markets. Well-chosen new products and services deliver value, build the technological base of the firm, develop its capabilities, improve its processes, and add to its reputation and brands. An innovation strategy helps firms decide, in a cumulative and

Technology Strategies for New Product Development Rationalist approaches to technology strategy, such as that of Porter,1 view technological innovation as a relatively unproblematic aspect of corporate strategy. This article will attempt to show that the development of new products by a rm is a more complex, dynamic and uncertain activity than this, dependent for success on organizational as well as technological factors. It will be argued that strategies for technological innovation are, by implication, risk management systems. Here we are referring to the introduction of some means of control over the cost and direction of new technologies,

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.

This is the first case study report for the course ED5317: Strategies for Managing Innovation that is based on the Harvard Business School case titled ‘Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple’. The report consists of the following question:

Accordingly, “major new-product development activity was replaced by incremental product line extensions” (p.56) that resulted in a major revenue stall. The premature core abandonment cause is illustrated with the Kmart example. While the company was investing in a range of unrelated businesses searching for growth, Wal-Mart developed effective distribution and inventory systems. Kmart’s management failed to monitor and match these systems and fell far behind its rival. Hitachi’s example illustrates the talent bench shortfall. One of the leading causes of the stall was the company had executive management that lacked capabilities.

However, RLK’s competitors are downsizing and outsourcing R&D and exploiting on the cost advantages. If RLK decides to invest more money into R&D and should the new product stall on launch,

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

A 2011 article from MIT Technology Review, "Four Principles for Crafting Your Innovation Strategy” (by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui),

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?

b. Heterogeneous goals and priorities. Each function’s different goal and subunit orientation causes it toview problems differently. Subunits have become competitive as the attempts of one to achieve goalsthwart the attempts of another.c. Bureaucratic factors. Rondell’s structure has evolved historically and status inconsistencies havedeveloped among different groups and managers—between the heads of R&D and engineering. Althoughthe head of R&D, “Doc” Reeves, formally reports to Frank Forbus, the director of engineering,informally Reeves has more status and power. The manufacturing manager is concerned about his lack of a degree, which he believes lowers his status, so he deliberately causes problems for other managers toincrease his power and status.d. Incompatible performance criteria. Each function is evaluated according to its goals, so when slowengineering design raises manufacturing costs or results in lost customers or penalty clauses in customer contracts, functions come into conflict.e. Competition for scarce resources. Some functions, such as R&D, can command whatever resourcesthey want. Engineering services is running very lean, its engineers stretched thin, and no resources for aneffective preproduction unit. Given that profits have fallen, competition for resources might increase,which will worsen the

Differentiation requires a constantly changing product line and is more successful when the company is able to offer a portfolio of products that complement each other, which enriches the experience for customers and satisfies a variety of consumer needs. And when differentiated products truly satisfy customers’ unique needs, the company is able to charge premium prices. For customers to be willing to pay a premium price, however, Ford's products must truly be perceived as unique in some way. The ability to sell goods or services at prices that substantially exceed the cost of creating the differentiated features will allow Ford to outperform its rivals and earn above-average returns.