Yogendra P39176

3M INDIA: In India for India Section “C”

3M is a global company, which has been recognized for being consistently innovative. The
organization has operations in more than 65 countries, with its product being sold in nearly 200
countries. The company is organized into six businesses: Consumer and Office, Display and
Graphics, Electro and Communications, Health Care, Industrial and Transportation and Safety,
Security and Protection Services. The company has global sales of more than $30 billion, 66% of
which came from outside United States. The company has about 84000 employees, 60% of
which were working outside US.

The company believes in innovation and has more than 40,000 patents registered to its name.
Every year it launched several new products along with it enhanced or modified existing market.
The company being an innovative company was attributed to a culture that encouraged employee
initiative, creativity and freedom to take risks and experiment with new ideas. 3M has kept focus
on three things in its organization structure: small size of each business unit, research and
development laboratories with each business division and organization roles to support
innovation. Company has evolved overtime and is currently following a global matrix structure,
the divisions have a very high level of decentralization of power and authority.

Existence of research and development laboratories with each business unit-There were sector as
well as division laboratories. The division laboratories focussed more on commercialization
objectives i.e. development of new products and processes.
Well-defined organizational roles to support innovation-With the objective to minimise
bureaucracy it was also ensured that the ideas do get proper support of an executive in the
organisationThe company always supports idea generators and provides them all the support to
convert their ideas into products. The idea generator was allowed to form teams, having
members from all disciplines who together worked until the product launch or failure during the
process. 3M framed policies like 15% rule, 25% new products target for each division so as to
facilitate creation of new ideas. Also, monthly meetings and fairs were organized in the company
to promote sharing of ideas.

3M India more or less followed the same guidelines of matrix structure as the parent company
but there are few major differences. The focus of the company is more on creating product or
altering existing product as per market needs rather than on innovation. Most of the changes have
been made to reduce cost so as to gain market of India. Also, the research and development
laboratories are not individually present for each business units. Rather, it is present in few cities
with the main research centre being in Bengaluru. There is less focus on fundamental research.
When it comes to making decision, the company is not as decentralized as the parent branch
when it comes to decision making. When it comes to what is expected from employee, 3M India
has more demands compared to 3M global. Innovation is something which is expected from
employees but the support is not as strong as it is in the global division.