Three Roads to Innovation

Presented by Dibyendu Roy (MBA-006)

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It's easy to come up with new ideas;

the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.
- Roger von Oech

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Case Background and Brief Description

Synopsis :
Case Depicts the ways in which 3M, a company whose lifeblood is innovation, seeks to promote and maintain a culture of innovation among its employees. It describes the various programs and techniques that 3M has developed to support entrepreneurship, including cross-functional teams and recognition and reward of employees.

Case Objectives :
To show how a company maintains a culture of innovation. To show how interactions among people structure, and ethics produce organizational culture. To Show how this entrepreneurial company maintains its ability to innovate new products.

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Discussing The 3M Culture :

Q. What are the main ways in which 3M tries to create a culture that supports innovation?
- Providing employees with freedom and resources for risk-taking.

- Management sponsorship, whereby senior managers encourage and support innovation, and recognize and reward failure.
- Creation of cross-functional teams to speed the development process. - Rewarding and honoring cross-functional teams who introduced successful new products.

- Rewarding innovators with promotions, in research or management, using its dual-ladder system of promotion and the practice of promoting from within the organization.
- Using product champions to head each team and providing entrepreneurial leadership needed for product development.

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Discussing The 3M Culture : (Continued)

Q. What are the terminal and instrumental values of 3Ms culture?
3Ms main terminal value seems to be innovationpushing its employees to excel at inventing new and improved products and processes that benefit customers. To achieve this ideal end state, it promotes the instrumental values of entrepreneurship, risktaking, and autonomy to encourage experimentation. 3M develops norms and practices to encourage these values which includes : Encouraging employees to use 15 percent of their time on projects they choose with resources provided for these projects. 3M Golden Step Program, which provides tangible rewards, and the Carleton Society, a hall of fame for 3M scientists.

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Discussing The 3M Culture : (Continued)

Q. What are the various factor that influence 3Ms organizational culture?

Values contribute to culture as product champions and management sponsors provide leadership and support to teams for experimentation.
Cross-functional teams and the product team structure provide an organic structure, so people from different functions can cooperate and develop the shared norms and values that enhance innovation. Reward & Recognition system in place can be seen as a factor too. 3M tangibly rewards employees through promotion into management in 3Ms dual promotion system, bonuses for successful new product development, and intangible rewards like its scientists hall of fame.

Ethics can be seen through 3Ms concern for customers and in extensively testing and developing products to meet customer needs.

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SWOT Analysis : 3M

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Conclusion Drawn:

3M should maintain its product line in such a manner that it can enhance its innovative streak and production levels in the ever competitive market scenario.
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