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Innovation at 3M Corporation (A) Name: Aditya Shukla

Roll# 6616003

Name: Aditya Shukla Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)

Roll#6616003

3M had a long history of innovation and the company after creating products such as the Post-it,

branched out into health care industry in 1961. Since 3M health care had not produced a successful

product in almost a decade (which was not in-line with companys objectives), Rita Shor and a

hand-picked group tackled this by using an innovative method called Laser User Research. After a

few months of implementation of this technique, Rita and her team provided four

recommendations. Three recommendations were related to introduction of new product lines, andfourth was related to changing the complete Health Care Units strategy. Shor and her team had to

balance between the current incremental approach that 3M was familiar with, and a more radical

change to its core strategy. Finally, she wanted to deliver successful product ideas to help position

3M and medical unit for a healthy and competitive future.

Product development teams generally relied on traditional methods to seek marketing input. The

methods involved collection of data from: sales representatives; focused groups; customer

evaluations; site visits; and data on risk factors related to diseases.

Lead user research followed: i) Project Planning, ii) Trends identification, iii) Preliminary concept

generation, and iv) Final concept generation. Final conclusion from Lead research was: a) theeconomy line, b)Skin Doctor Line, c) Antimicrobial line, d)evolution or revolution. Out of these

first three included incremental innovations. Fourth recommendation was provided as the team felt

the need to bridge the gap that exist in the current health care system that companies had not

started to provide early intervention in the disease process, also known as the upstream

containment of infections.

The fourth recommendation comes with likely characteristics of high risk, cost, and take many

years before tangible results can be seen. On other hand incremental innovation is less risky,

requires less investments in R&D activities, and results become visible a little earlier. It is important

for 3M to continue investing in R&D activities aimed at the radical or breakthrough innovation. This

would allow 3M to break into new markets, and develop new revenue streams. In order to create

best risk-return portfolio, the company will need to balance between incremental and

breakthrough innovation. Embracing fourth recommendation could involve embracing changes in

processes, organizational structure, culture and other complex moves. Studies show that a

staggering 70%-80% of these changes fail, however, such statistics should not curtail organizations

from facing change as it is important to re-invent and succeed.

The economic", skin doctor",and the antimicrobial armor" lines would promote a balanced risk-

based portfolio of incremental changes and breakthrough innovations. These lines would provide

3M with the potential to increase sales, and tap into emerging markets. The antimicrobial armor"

line alone can introduce the company into a new $2billion market. The tea, should not rush withfourth recommendation though she should study and plan more for tackling with infection

prevention.

Company should to continue to encourage management to invest in R&D activities which has a

direct correlation between investment in R&D and intensity of product innovation which falls in

line with companys strategy. I would also recommend hiring researchers in overseas market which

could provide 3M an opportunity to tap region-specific innovations and thus a huge market.