3m Company

3M Company is an American multinational conglomerate corporation which has operations in more than 70 countries and sell its products in nearly 200 countries. About 89,800 employees work in this company globally . This huge company operates in a variety of segments. The 5 segments include Industrial, Health Care, Safety & Graphics, Consumer and Electronics & Energy . As a global leader, the 3M has a lot of strengths. However, it has several weaknesses as well.

The biggest strength of 3M is that it has a variety of segments so it can make more profits from many segments than other small companies. But this strength causes a lot of problems at the same time. Diversity of operations forces the 3M to compete in multiple industries and markets, which makes it difficult for 3M to focus on one industry and market. Operating in various market increases 3M’s competitiveness in total markets, but decreases the competitiveness in one market. Many of their direct competitors would have the advantage over 3M of being industry specialists . For example, the Display and Graphics segment is the representative of 3M’s poor performance. In FY2008, the Display and Graphics segment revenues are $3,255 million. Compared with $3,904 million in FY2007, revenues decreased by 16.6%. A weak performance of this segment, which contributed about 13% of the company’s revenues in FY2008,would have an unfavorable impact on the company’s financial performance. Third quarter 2009 sales in this segment were pretty flat with that of 3rd quarter 2008, but about a third of what they were in 2007. - <2009> 다운로드 3M