Innovation at 3m Corporation

Innovation at 3M Corporation

Over the decades, 3M enjoyed national and global growth as well as a reputation for remaining a hothouse of innovation. The company is gigantic, yet it is as innovative and as full of growth potential as though it were a small venture. The company allowed all staff to spend 15% of their time to explore new ideas outside the assigned responsibilities. 3M also employed a "dual ladder" approach that allowed senior, technically inclined individuals with attractive career opportunities to advance, without having to switch to management. As a result, 3M employees tended not to move to other companies. By late 1990s, over 30 key technologies existed at 3M, and market growth also came form finding new twists to existing product platforms.

Product teams at 3M typically involved "skunkworks" teams primarily comprising technical individuals; teams also involved process engineers to help ensure that the particular product under development could be efficiently made. The entire team faced no risk if an idea flopped- and there was usually celebration if it did. Few market researchers worked at 3M, so instead, the firm hired out for market research reports from smaller research firms. Some disadvantages to these methods was hiring out for market research created too many interfaces between development teams and customers and the information obtained was not necessarily proprietary. As a result, thousands of 3M product concepts and inventions awaited markets and languished on drawing boards and R&D labs.

3M's traditional methods for understanding customer and market needs would not suffice if they wanted to develop a breakthrough product within the existing business strategy. "Lead User Research" was a methodology that certain customers experienced needs ahead of other consumers and that some of the former would seek to innovate on their own. BY tapping