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Tim Hindle |
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3M is
the
epitome of all that
is best in corporate America.
To stay on top the
company
must export its virtues to Europe. |
Whenever lists of
America's brightest and best are compiled 3M is guaranteed to feature. 3M
was born early this century as Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing.
The mining soon ceased when the company's founders failed to dig up the
corundum they needed. So they turned
to
trading in
sandpaper, a product
that uses the abrasive corundum. From the beginning the company was
forced
to innovate
or die.
Today 3M’s headquarters and many of its laboratories are in St Paul,
Minnesota. Most of its customers are other industrial
concerns. Its 60,000
products range from medical-imaging equipment to Scotch tape to abrasives
for the car industry. With that unpromising background, how has the
company been so successful?
Perpetual innovation
When asked to explain its own success, 3M begins with technological
innovation. 3M is among the 25 companies with
the most
patents in the
world: 11 of the 25 are Japanese, 10 are American and only four are
European. The company spends some 6.5% of its total sales on
research and
development, almost twice the American average. And that
has
increased from about
4.5% at the beginning of the 1980s. The increase, part of the response to
the less sparkling
performance
in the mid-1980s, adds a not-insignificant $200 million a year to the
research
budget.
European action
3M sees its future as lying increasingly outside the United
States. Europe accounts for some 30% of the company's worldwide sales and
one‑quarter of its employees. That puts 3M among the 300 largest companies
in Europe.
The company has had subsidiaries in the region for almost 40 years and now
has 17 different companies on the continent and 14 major R&D centres.
Since 1984 a number of European Management Action Teams (EMATs) have been
set up under the direction of Joe Warren, 3M’s
Brussels-based
vice-president in charge of Europe.
Briefly, 3M worldwide is divided into four sectors: industrial and
electronics (36% of sales); information and imaging technologies (28%);
life sciences (22%); and commercial and consumer (14%). These four sectors
are divided into 15 “strategic business centres" (SBCs) -for audio-visual
products, abrasives, etc.- and each centre is responsible for three or
four of the company's 50 operating divisions. The operating divisions are
run like
small businesses and 3M staff say that each has its own culture.
Global strategy is determined by the business centres in St Paul. European
input comes via group directors (one for each business centre)
based at
3M’s European headquarters in Brussels.
In addition,
the European organisation has a number of product managers (most of them
in Brussels) plus managing directors
in charge of
each of the 17 European
Subsidiaries.
These subsidiaries are run nationally, with a few exceptions; for example,
the MD of Spain is also the MD of Portugal, and the MD of the UK is also
MD of Ireland.
Each of the 40-plus EMATs corresponds
roughly
to an operating division and has between eight and ten members drawn from
different functions and different countries. Typically they meet every
four to six weeks. In theory they have collective responsibility
for achieving
the company's European
goals;
in practice they spend much of their time discussing the
launch of
new products.
Although 3M has only 150 Americans working for the company outside the
United States (even in the UK there are only six American employees), the
language of the EMATs is English. Since these were the first
formal means
for more junior employees of different nationalities
to get together,
the early discussions
tended to be
dominated by the fluent English-speakers: the British, the Dutch
and the Irish. Now the company insists that a certain level of proficiency
in English is a prerequisite for joining an EMAT, and team members are
being trained to learn how to accommodate different cultures.
The future depends on how well the company has learnt to adapt to change.
One of the greatest changes in its markets is occurring in Europe, and
much hangs on the ability of the EMATs to come up with products
that will meet the
fastshifting
demands of 3M’s European customers. |
How 3M developed its famous
Post-it notes. |
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Spencer Silver was a 3M research
chemist whose objective was to produce the strongest adhesive on the
market. Although
he did not succeed in his mission, he did develop another type of
adhesive that had two interesting properties: it could be
re-used
and it left no residue on the material to which it was applied. However,
no one at 3M could find a use for this product and it was put aside
temporarily. |
Ten years later, one of Silver's
colleagues, Art Fry, discovered a new use for the abandoned adhesive. Fry
sang in a
choir and used
strips of paper to mark the pages of his
hymn book, which
fell out
every time he opened the book. He therefore decided to apply Silver's
adhesive to the strips and found that they marked the pages and did not
fall out when the book was opened. This was the first step in the
discovery of the future Post-it note, a product that has become really
popular
all over
the world. |
Source: Eurobusiness Magazine |
GLOSSARY |
epitome: a standard or typical example
(ejemplo más representativo)
corundum: very hard mineral used as an abrasive (corindón,
metal usado como abrasivo)
to trading: to doing
business; to buying and selling (a negociar, a hacer negocios)
sandpaper: emery paper, stiff paper coated with powdered emery or sand
(papel de lija)
to innovate: to make changes and introduce new ideas (a innovar, a
realizar cambios)
concerns: companies or businesses (negocios, emprendimientos)
the most patents: the most legal documents giving a company the
exclusive right to make or sell an invention (la mayor cantidad de
patentes)
research: work done in order to make new discoveries (investigación)
has increased: has gone up; has risen (se ha incrementado)
performance: results obtained over a period of time (comportamiento,
desenvolvimiento)
budget: amount of money used for a specific purpose (presupuesto)
Brussels-based: based or located in Brussels (con base en Bruselas)
run like: administrated like (administradas como)
based at: located at (ubicados en)
in addition: furthermore, besides (además) |
in charge of: responsible for (a cargo de)
subsidiaries: branches (sucursales)
roughly:
approximately (aproximadamente)
for achieving: for getting (por alcanzar, por lograr)
goals: objectives (objetivos)
launch: set up (lanzamiento)
formal means: formal way (medio formal)
to get together: to stay in a group (de agruparse, de estar juntos)
tended to be: had a tendency to be (tendían a ser)
fast-shifting demands: requirements or needs continuously moving or
changing from position or direction (necesidades altamente cambiantes)
he did not succeed: he was not successful (no tuvo éxito)
re-used: used again and again (utilizado una y otra vez)
sang: produced musical tones (cantaba) - to sing /
sang / sung / singing
choir: a chorus, a choral group (coro, grupo coral)
hymn book: book of religious tunes (libro de himnos religiosos)
fell out: came out (se caían) - to fall out / fell out /
fallen out / falling out
all over the world: worldwide (en todo el mundo) |
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