Non-stop 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 4 are European. The company spends some 6.5 % of its total sales on research and development, almost twice the American average. It adds $200 million a year to the research budget.

European action

3M sees its future as lying mostly outside the United States. About 30 % of the company’s worldwide sales and one-quarter of its employees are in Europe. 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 centers. 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 centers” (SBCs) – for audio-visual products, etc. – and each center 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 formulated by the business centers in St. Paul. Each business center is headed by a group director. In addition, the European organization has a number of product managers 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 the UK is also the MD of Ireland.

Each of the 40-plus EMATs corresponds to an operating division and has between 8 and 10 members drawn from different functions and different countries. Typically, they meet every four 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 US, the language of the EMATs is English. Team members are being trained to learn English and to learn how to accommodate different cultures.

The future depends on how well the company has learned to adapt to change. One of the greatest changes in its markets is its operations in Europe, and much depends on the ability of the EMATs to come up with products that will meet the fast-shifting demands of 3M’s European customers.

(from “Eurobusiness”)

Task II. A. (Moodle) Read the text once again and fill in the table:

“Company Profile”

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 804