3MS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

3M (MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTURING)

In 1902, five businessmen founded 3M in two harbors, US. The main business was mining corundum, a mineral best suited for making sandpaper and grinding wheels. In 1911, 3M brought out its first breakthrough product, Three-M-ite cloth. This became companies first profitable product. After this 3M became debt free and announced its first dividend of 6% per share in 1916.

In 1920 it introduced 2 breakthrough products, water proof sand paper, and scotch masking tape, invented by Francis Okie and Dick Drew respectively. In 1922 in order to consolidate its presence in global markets, 3M established research laboratories and a sales and marketing network across Europe. In 1930s recession period 3M continued to expand its operations and they also launched some breakthrough products._Scotch cellophane tape, reflective tape coated with glass beads, and scotchlite reflective sheeting in 1938.
In 1946, 3M got listed on the New York stock exchange.In 1947, it launched Scotch magnetic audotape.

In the 1970s and 1980s 3M diversified into various areas such as medical products, pharmaceuticals, radiology, energy control, the office market etc. in 1980, 3M introduced one of its most successful products, Post it Notes. In 1994 3M implemented the Pacing Plus program to speed up product development. In 1995, 3M introduced the first metered dose asthma inhaler. In 1999,3M was organized into six business segmentsIndustrial, Transportation, Graphics and Safety, Health care, Consumer and Office, Electro and Communications, and Specialty Material- to increase the pace of growth

Continent Asia

Countries China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, SriLanka, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam

Africa

Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Europe

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK Canada, Mexico

North America

South America

Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela

100 years of successful innovation

3M represent house of innovation For 100 years 3M formula for growth -recruit the right people -provide them with right environment to work -let them do their things

These resulted in around 55,000 products and over thousands of patents for the company

Fostering Innovation
3Ms culture of innovation got a new direction when three young men- carlton, Okie, and Drew- joined the company in the early 1920. (Scotch masking tape in 1925) 15 percent rule at 3M: according to 15% rule, 3M employees were allowed to spend 15% of their working hours on independent projects.

Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it might sound at first Encourage: dont nitpick. Let people run with an idea

Hire good people, and leave them alone

If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need Encourage experimental doodling Give it a try- and quick

Recruiting and retaining talent

To make it easy for recruiters, 3M codified the six traits of innovative people in its recruiting brochure: Creativity Broad interests Self motivated Resourceful Hard working Problem solvers 3M not only recruited people with the above traits, it also tried to retain them.

Creating a challenging environment

To increase the pace of new product launches, they introduced the philosophy of divide and grow. In line with this philosophy, new businesses were spun off and new management teams were devoted to the spun off units. This mechanism, which analysts called Renewal resulted in increased diversification at 3M. 3M also encouraged employees to work on problems that challenge their intellect. (e.g. Tartan Track-Ted Buchholtz)

 In 1977, 3M launched Challenge 81 a program that aimed at achieving 25% of the companies annual sales from products that had been in the market for less than 5 years. In 1980s, 3M formed a 16 member innovation task force to examine spirit in the organization. The main objective of the task force is to encourage the spirit of innovation in technical as well as non technical employees at all level. The task force study reaffirmed 3M belief that freedom, support, and encouragement are the factors that motivated innovative people.

 In 1984, 3M launched a new program to support innovation at 3M-The Genesis program. The program was initiated by Joe Abere, 3Ms corporate scientist. Genesis is all about optimizing the innovative spirit at 3M. Under this program 3M provided financial support to employees to encourage entrepreneurship for projects in the research stage. (Genesis grants were only for technical people) In 1986 3M came up with Alpha grants for nontechnical people; who wanted to bring in some innovative process in administrative, marketing and other non technical areas.

Knowledge sharing
3M also took steps to encourage knowledge sharing among employees . Employees were free to communicate across departments and share ideas. In 3M the tradition of story telling was encouraged. In 1951, the Technical Forum was set up to encourage 3Ms technical staff to share ideas. In order to introduce its employees to new technologies, 3M invited Nobel Prize winners to forum meetings to discuss their research findings They also conducted problem solving sessions and annual exhibitions.

Rewarding innovation
The Dual ladder career path adopted by 3M, created two career ladders- technical and management. This approach allowed a technical person to get promoted to the vice president level without taking on managerial and administrative responsibilities. In 1930s 3M set up a pension plan for its employees and in 1949 it offered its employees stock options. In 1963, 3M formed the Carlton society to honor technical employee for their contributions. In addition to the Carlton society it also formed The technical circle of excellence and innovation to honor employees .

 Its pathfinder program honored sales, marketing, logistics, finance and production teams for developing innovative methods for launching new products in the market.

Culture Overhaul
By late 1990s 3Ms growth rate started slowing down. In December 2000, 3M announced the appointment of James McNerney Jr. of general electric as its CEO. He introduced- 1).cost cutting measures 2).leadership development institute 3).changes in pay structure 4).3M acceleration program 5). Six sigma initiative

Leadership attributes recognized by 3M management

Charting the course of business Raising the targets Energizing subordinates and colleagues Innovating resourcefully Following 3M values Delivering results

Conclusion
Many 3M employees felt mc nerrney has found the right balance between efficiency and innovation.