Assignment#3 Muhammed Mughni, Shamila Safdar, Waleed Sohail, Saira Taj

3M: PROFILE OF AN INNOVATING COMPANYQ1. How Does 3m Develop Resources?

3M STRATEGIES FOR RESOURCES REDUCTION IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COST

3m should reduce its annual budget of research and development and increase of $1 billion should not be incurred in this venture. 3m should allocate 6% to 6.6% of sales on research and development only. As the company is already too much diverse and research and development have enough annual budget to sustain itself. This strategy will help the company to sustain growth and this cost cut will then be used to achieve 25% sale increase of products introduced in past five years.

REDUCTION IS MANUFACTURING COST

3m should back up Desimone unit manufacturing cost by 10% in real terms and 35% reduction in cycle time. This cost cut will allocate resources for 3m to refocus on quality initiatives to produce products that are high in quality and will meet the expectations of its customers.

REDCUTION IN OVERSEAS SALES INITIATIVE PROGRAMS

3m should reduce its target of 50% sales of overseas ventures as Jake Jacobsons proposed to 25% sales target in overseas. This will ensure the company to refocus its strategy of 25% sale increase of products developed in last 5 years and will help ensure the target of 30% sales of products produced in past 4 years. The marketing initiative overseas should focus only on products developed in past 5 years.

Q3. At 3m why innovation is a mindful replication?

INNOVATION AT 3M

At 3m innovation is the key to success in this competitive market. To 3m innovation is about how you shape things to meet the demands of customers. 3ms innovative culture leds it to invest heavily on research and development to find new customers and understand their existing needs and new development opportunities. As an example of 3ms simple tape business led by their customer pulled them to research and development which resulted in reflective tape used of traffic control and safety systems and magnetic tape users led the company into new applications in audio and video recording. In 3m its all about how to utilize existing resources in a more mindful and diverse way by exploring new opportunities in the market of existing customers. See (exhibit 1) for how 3m uses its research and development process in mindful replication of products.

Exhibit 1

3M INITIATIVESMarket research.Using existing resources to manufacture new diverse products.Mindful Replication of Products at 3M.

SCOTCH TAPE

Research & Development(Existing market research)ELECTRICAL TAPE (Used by traffic control and safety systems)SCOTCH MAGNETIC TAPES(Used for applications in audio and video recording)