What should 3M do

1. WHAT WOULD WE DO?

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Made by:
Minura Maksatbekova
Makhabat Nyshanbaeva

2.

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What should 3M do?
* Should 3M continue to focus on using Six Sigma procedures to reduce
costs and increase efficiencies, or should it strive again to encourage its
scientists and managers to focus on innovation?
* Which will make 3M more competitive in the long run?
* How much should companies like 3M rely on acquisitions for innovation?
Should 3M acquire half, one-third, 10 percent, or 5 percent of its new
products through acquisitions?
* What makes the most sense and why?

3.

3M has been the most innovative company in the world, bringing a
stream of new products and services to market, creating value for
customers, sustainable advantage over competitors, and sizable
returns for investors. But now it is not successful as before. Why? It
continues to focus using Six Sigma procedures to reduce costs
and increase efficiencies but it does not manage innovation
change as well as it used to do. It is better for the company to
develop its innovations rather than working with Six Sigma.
3M can create competitive advantage if it has a distinctive
competence that allows it to make, do, or perform products better
than its competitors. Over the long run, the best way for the
company to do that is to create a stream of its own innovative
ideas and products or innovation streams hat can create sustainable
competitive advantage.

4.

How would we manage innovation in 3M?
Innovation comes from great ideas and begins with
creativity. To improve innovation we would built
creative work environment in which workers perceive
that creative thoughts and ideas are welcomed and
valued, providing organizational, supervisory
encouragement and work group. We would encourage
risk taking and new ideas, support and fairly evaluate
new ideas, reward and recognize creativity, and
encourage the sharing of new ideas throughout different
parts of the company. Our supervisors will provide clear
goals, encourage open interaction with subordinates,
and actively support development teams’ work and
ideas.

5.

For developing of innovations in 3M we are planning to
generate multifunctional teams where people from
different departments are brought together and it speeds
up learning and understanding by mixing and integrating
technical, marketing, and manufacturing activities.
Multifunctional teams accelerate innovation through early
identification of new ideas or problems that would
typically not have been generated or addressed until much
later. They will focus on what customers want to buy from
us. We would not cut costs, on the contrary we focus on
new product development and quality.
We will fire powerful leaders that provide the vision,
discipline, and motivation to keep the innovation process
focused, on time, and on target. Powerful leaders are able
to get resources when they are needed, are typically more
experienced

6.

We would create a dominant design following a
technological discontinuity by quickly building,
testing, improving, and retesting a series of
different product prototypes. Our designers and
engineers will build a number of prototypes
improving the product or technology as much as
they can by testing them. It speeds up and
improves the innovation process.

7.

Some companies innovate from within by successfully
implementing creative ideas in their products or
services. Sometimes, though, innovation is acquired
by purchasing other companies that have made
innovative advances. 3M can develop relying on
acquisitions for innovation but it may be risky. For
example, Cisco, the largest network company in the
world, bought Pure Digital for $590 million. Two years
later, however, sales of Flip cameras dropped sharply,
and Cisco announced it was shutting down the Flip
division. But Google has been innovative by
purchasing YouTube. So 3M might acquire one-third or
less percent of its new products through acquisitions.
It should more focus in innovating its own new
products.