3m Case Analysis Solution

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- What are the challenges that 3M India has faced or is likely to face in entrenching the 3M innovation culture in India? How should it address them?

3M India has adopted many of the 3M practices which were proven to be central role in supporting for innovation. First adoption was 15% rule which allocates 15% of the time in developing new ideas. Also dual-ladder career progression system was also chosen as a way of promoting innovation in 3M India. However, there are so many concerns about the effectiveness and practical ways of using the system. According to the article, first concern is ‘Would the scientists in India become inventive if they had the 15% time to themselves? In order to maximize the effective outcome of 15% rule, good use of international knowledge sharing network should be implemented first so that those two systems can have synergy effects. Second concern is ‘Would they be able to exploit the intrapreneurial opportunities that 3M India offered? Considering local organizational culture and adjusting strategy play an important role here. Last concern is ‘How many of them would prefer a technical ladder to a managerial ladder?’ I personally questioned this when I first read the dual ladder part. Now I had read the article over and over, I can come up with solution that sometimes technicians just want to stay in their jobs rather than moving towards completely new position. Aside from every concerns ahead, there is a difficulty that 3Ms open culture conflicts with Indian culture. India has hierarchical culture, bureaucratic organization. It is very sensitive to failure and has a tendency of collectivism which has low acceptance level of individual behavior. To deal with these difficulties I believe we should focus on 3M company’s core values where the company was founded. This core values can be delivered across the whole international corporations irrespective of country culture. But 3M company makes sure that incremental strategy is more helpful rather than adopting fully new corporate culture which could increase employees’ awareness problem. Mentoring system and support from senior employees could be one way of helping. Small and various culture-learning sessions can make a difference in localized brance of 3M company. Changing 6-gate process to peer evaluated process could also be one good way. All the strategies they’re taking such as 15% rule, overcoming fear of failure are enough ways of becoming innovative company. The only challenge is how every local companies internalizes the systems they are offered to do and use it effectively given market environment in its specific country. Actually after implementing the new strategy in India market, revenues have grown tremendously.