INNOVATION AT 3M CORPORATION: CASE STUDY There are two major issues highlighted in this case study: 1. Is the ‘lead-user’ process‚ an effective method for research and subsequent product innovation? 2. Should the Medical-Surgical Markets Division (MSMD) lead-user research team present its revolutionary new approach to treating infection to senior management despite the fact that it challenged the existing business strategy? QUESTION 1 The answer to the first question is ‘yes’. By the
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Innovation at 3M 3M attributed much of its growth to its innovative products and incremental/extensions of existing products. However‚ of late they hadn’t come up with anything significant and they were stagnating. At this point‚ Ms. Rita Shor implemented the “Lead User Research” methodology to come up with four recommendations on new innovative products and strategy. In my opinion‚ Ms. Shor should put forward their first three recommendations to Mr. Dunlop. They consisted of development of three
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Case Studies 3M1: Rethinking Innovation Background Large (70K employees‚ $15bn sales)‚ global operations (200 countries)‚ multi-product (50K range)‚ multi-market business. Innovation ‘Claim to Fame’ This company has been around for just over 100 years and during that period has established a clear reputation as a major innovator. Their technical competence has been built up by a long-term commitment to R&D on which they currently spend around $1bn p.a.; this has yielded them a regular position
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3 M innovation process evolved from the time the company was found? Answer: The innovation process at 3M has typically been a focus area for the upper management. The company had taken a getoutoftheway attitude towards the product developers who in turn have worked accordingly towards innovation. Along with technicians each team had a process engineer to ensure that the product was efficiently made. The entire team did not face any risk if the product failed. The product developers
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Case: Innovation at 3M Corporation What had been 3M’s traditional approach to innovation? Product developers at 3M generally relied on more traditional methods of seeking marketing input. They collect data from sales representatives‚ focus groups‚ customer evaluations‚ site visits‚ and data on risk factors for diseases. Product developers mainly focused on finding new angel or twist on early trends and basically didn’t have direct access to customers. In 3M‚ Sales representatives contacted with
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Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 1.1 Background of 3M Company 2 2.0 Contents 3 2.1 Issues of 3M 3 2.1.1 Structure in Relation to Innovation 3 2.1.2 Leadership Relation to Innovation 3 2.1.3 Linkages and Networking to Innovation 4 3.0 Analyze difficulties in using 3M in different cultural situation 6 4.0 Evidence of reflection on how insights relate to student own situation and how learning might applied in current situation 7 5.0 Discussion of challenges in transforming their learnings into
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Elevator Pitch: 3M Corporation have a history of succeeding through a culture of innovation along with leveraging existing core technologies. 3M management demonstrates existence of different divisions as independent businesses with their individual units of operations. In addition‚ the cross divisional support between various units like sharing personnel resources‚ distribution channels‚ 3M provided multiple possibilities for innovation. In such an encouraging corporate culture‚ should Optical Systems
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50‚000 Products but 3M Still Searching for Growth According to Mr. Thulin‚ 3M’s CEO‚ “.‚ is trying to maintain 3M’s reliable profitablitly while giving sales growth a bit more zip.” 3M has a vast product line already so in order for Thulin to increase profit even more he is going to have to be innovative and come up with several strategic plans. On the business side‚ he is going to have to see what products are not reaching the target sales growth and maybe sell them off to another company and
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Innovation Best Practices - 3M Case Study Introduction We have been working with a number of global organizations on innovation practices for New Product Introduction (NPI) and have found in companies like: SAP‚ Microsoft‚ Bell Canada‚ Siemens etc‚ - that operationalizing innovation from its early creative stages is a stocatto like tango. Balancing creative tension to ensure innovation downstream execution traction requires tremendous leadership navigation and skill. It is so difficult for
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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
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