Building Global Capabilities and Delivering Continual Innovation at 3M

Chapter 14

Building Global Capabilities and Delivering Continual Innovation at 3M Downloaded by EMORY UNIV on March 20, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): September 2, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2015-1195.ch014

Peter Koelsch* 3M Company, Building 223-6N-08, 3M Center, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144, U.S.A. *E-mail: [email protected].

3M is a truly global company with a technical community in 85 locations working to innovate, support business growth in more than 70 countries, and apply science to life. Its innovation is driven by a system of principles, practices and infrastructure that harness the chain reaction of new ideas. Specifically, 3M specializes in colloboration between seemingly unrelated markets and technology platforms. Everywhere in the world, 3M strives to have more than 30% of its sales derived from products introduced during the past five years. In order to accomplish this, effective sharing of technology, capabilities, and customer insights around the globe is critical. This article describes some important practices and provides some examples of how a global technical network collaborates and fosters innovation.

Overview of 3M 3M Company strives to be a leader in technology and innovation. Our corporate vision is to have 3M technology advancing every company, 3M products enhancing every home, and 3M innovation improving every life (1). Our five market-leading business groups are: 1) Industrial, which handles industries from purification to aerospace; 2) Safety and Graphics, which protects people and information, and enhances visual and design communication; 3) Electronics and Energy, which enables tomorrow’s lifestyle today with power, communications © 2015 American Chemical Society Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

Downloaded by EMORY UNIV on March 20, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): September 2, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2015-1195.ch014

and electronics; 4) Consumer, for simplifying life at home and keeping you organized at work; and 5) Health Care, which helps prevent infections and makes smiles brighter. Our annual sales are around $31.8 billion, of which $20.1 billion (or 63%) is from international sales in nearly 200 countries, yielding $5 billion in net income. $1.8 billion is invested in research and development. 3M operates more than 200 manufacturing factories across 71 countries and employs around 90,000 employees. Our laboratories are in several locations to keep us close to customers and aim to innovate to produce the best and the most relevant solutions to market needs. 3M developed more than 55,000 products, issued 3,300 patents in 2013 alone, and currently has more than 41,000 issued and pending patents. Simply put, 3M is the innvoation company. We find solutions and develop products that permit customers to succeed and improve lives. Our approach, both internally and with our customers, is collaborative. We can make a big impact and solve tough problems by building on each other’s ideas and uncovering new connections between seemingly unrelated markets across 46 diverse technology platforms. 3M’s culture of intellectual curiosity and creativity is what allows it to continue to push the boundaries for more than a century. Our innovation is focused on helping customers tackle challenges and enable progress in our fast-changing world. Innovation at 3M would not be possible without the contributions of many people, working together to share and reshape ideas on a daily basis. With multiple touch points among people, countries, technologies and businesses, the evolution of ideas and innovation is borderless. We invest significantly in R&D capability year after year to drive opportunity for the most productive collaborations possible. 3M’s continual partnership with its customers yields tangible successes.

3M Global Challenges and Opportunities The scope of 3M’s operations presents many different challenges and opportunities. It can be difficult to disseminate common practices and culture across many countries. It can also be difficult to understand the market and customer needs in many different countries and regions. While 3M is able to share its technology around the world, converting that technology to products targeted to local markets and customs can be a challenge. Another challenge 3M faces is finding, growing, and retaining local talent in many different countries, and creating a global awareness among technical people. Nevertheless, 3M is constantly working to develop the most efficent solutions to these challenges. 3M is cognizant of the many business opportunities across a diverse global product and market enterprise. Everywhere in the world, 3M strives to have over 30% of its sales derived from products introduced during the past five years. In order to accomplish this, effective sharing of technology, capabilities and customer insights around the globe is critical. Presently, 3M has 85 well-connected laboratories scattered throughout the globe. These labs have localized research and development foci, which represent Centers of Excellence (CoE) around the globe. For example, Korea has labs 142 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

specializing in non-wovens, radio-frequency identification, electronics, energy, nano-technology, and tapes and adhesives. It is also home to the Asia Display Tech Center. Germany, France, and the U.K. together have CoEs in automotives, dental, telecom, specialty materials, polymers, consumer, oil and gas, and drug delivery. Brazil is working on expansion to safety/orthodontic products, nano and bio technologies, specialty materials, hooks/loops, molding, non-pvc films, and acrylic foam tape.


3M Innovation 3M innovation is planned, purposeful, and global. We apply science to life to consistently create new ideas. To do this, we maintain labs around the globe, host technical forums, staff customer tech centers, fosterg a culture of collaboration, promote e-connectivity, ensure no IP barriers, leverage capabilities, and share technology. The innovative process at 3M typically begins with someone identifying a market opportunity. This can be an idea to develop a new product for a new market or application, a new product to satisfy an ongoing market need, or an improvement on an existing product for a current market. The scientist or scientific team then brainstorms and screens product concepts to derive the best solution. The next step in the New Product Introduction (NPI) framework is to develop the product and optimize its properties to satisfy the customers’ needs. Once this is accomplished, the product is scaled up and then launched. The key to the success of 3M’s product development system is to understand the customers’ needs. For existing businesses, there needs to be good interactions with the customers. The involved customers often are Spec-In/OEM Businesses, with both sales and R&D bench-to-bench engagement driving the interaction. In this way, there is a buy-in and ownership from the customers, thereby facilitating its product commercialization success. For new opportunities in more-dispersed and/or distribution-based markets, 3M values “Insights To Innovation” (i2i). In such cases, good marketing and exploratory research may be needed, including end user ethnography, insight synthesis and validation. These processes have been documented in an article in Harvard Business Review by von Hipple, et al (2). The yellow sticky note, called Post-it NotesTM, is a good example of the combination of technical innovation and customer insight. In 1968 Spence Silver, a 3M scientist, tried to make a strong adhesive tape, but obtained a semi-sticky material. He suspected that this material might be useful, but did not know what to do with it. A few years later, Arthur Fry, a 3M colleague, needed weak glue that would stick to his hymn book at church, then could be removed without tearing the page. Thus, the Post-it Notes product family was born and became a big commercial success.

143 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

Conclusions Over the years, 3M has had an excellent track record for innovation. 3M specializes in collaboration between seemingly unrelated markets and technology platforms. The company has adapted well to the global trends and operates both its businesses and R&D worldwide. To be successful in the global products and markets enterprise, 3M has emphasized effective sharing of technology, capabilities, and customer insights around the world, and continues to foster the company’s culture of intellectual curiosity and creativity.


References 1. 2.

For more information on 3M, visit http://www.3m.com/. von Hippel, E.; Thomke, S.; Sonnack, M. Creating Breakthroughs at 3M. Harvard Business Rev. September 1999; http://web.mit.edu/people/evhippel/ papers/HBR%2099%20LU%20pub%20version%203M.pdf.

144 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

Building Global Capabilities and Delivering Continual Innovation at 3M

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