Guidelines for Submission Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document using 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. If references are included, they should be cited according to A

Guidelines for Submission Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document using 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. If references are included, they should be cited according to A
1 2013 Joe Tidd, John Bessant, Keith Pavitt 3M: Rethinking Innovation 2 3M 1: Rethinking Innovation Background Large (70K employees, $15bn sales), global operations (200 countries), multi -product (50K range), multi -market business. Innovation ‘Claim to Fame’ This company has been around for just over 100 years and during that period has established a clear reputa tion as a major innovator. Their technical competence has been built up by a long -term commitment to R&D on which they currently spend around $1bn p.a.; this has yielded them a regular position in the top 10 in US patents granted. They have launched a numb er of breakthrough products which have established completely new markets and they have set themselves a consistent stretch target of getting 30% of sales turnover from products launched during the past four years. How Do They Manage Innovation? The company presents a consistent picture in interviews and in publications – innovation success is a consequence of creating the culture in which it can take place – it becomes ‘the way we do things around here’ in a very real sense. This phi losophy is borne out in many anecdotes and case histories – the key to their success has been to create the conditions in which innovation can arise from any one of a number of directions, including lucky accidents, and there is a deliberate attempt to avo id putting too much structure in place since this would constrain innovation. Innovation Strategy and Leadership The company has always valued innovation and this has been a consistent and key theme since their inception; their ‘hero’ figures amongst pr evious CEOs have been strongly associated with enacting and supporting the innovation culture which characterizes the firm. Their overall innovation strategy is focused on two core themes – deep technological competence and strong product development capab ilities. They combine these to enable them to offer a steady stream of breakthrough products and line extensions/product improvements. A great strength is the integrated input from the technical and marketing side which enables ‘creative association’, comi ng up with new and often powerful combinations of needs and means. A number of key strategic enablers are worth flagging: • Setting stretch targets – such as ‘ x% of sales from products introduced during the past y years’ – provides a clear and consistent m essage and a focus for the whole organization 1 For more on this company and the ways in which it manages innovation see Gundling, E. (2000). The 3M way to innovation: Balancing people and profit . New York, Kodansha International 3 • Allocating resources as ‘slack’ – space and time in which staff can explore and play with ideas, build on chance events or combinations, etc. __________ • Encouragement of ‘bootlegging’ employees working on innovation projects in their own time and often accessing resources in a non -formal way – the ‘benevolent blind eye’ effect. • Provision of staged resource support for innovators who want to take an idea forward – effectively different levels of internal venture capital for which people can bid (against increasingly high hurdles) – this encourages ‘intrapreneurship’ (internal entrepreneurial behaviour) rather than people feeling they have to leave the firm to take their good ideas forward. In rec ent years they have seen their momentum falter, in part because of the sheer scale of the operation and the range of competition. Their response has been to identify a series of ‘Pacing Plus’ programmes, which attempt to focus and prioritize around 30 key areas for development across the business – essentially an innovation strategy. Enabling the Process Having been working on innovation for so long, they have developed a set of structures and policies to guide innovative activity from picking up signals through to implementation. Importantly they allow for parallel routes through their system so that innovations can come from close market interactions or from deep technology research in their labs or from various forms of collaboration, or from serendipit ous discovery by their staff. As they put it, ‘we don’t have a skunk -works – round here everyone is a skunk!’ Their skill in enabling association is particularly relevant; many of their breakthrough products have come about because staff with technical kno wledge have worked alongside those with awareness of real or latent market needs and the result has been a creative combination. There is a formal stage -gate system for innovations and extensions based on established products but in addition there is a cl ear progress route for more radical ideas, moving from an incubator stage, where they are encouraged and where development funds are available against loose targets, through to much more rigorous business plan appraisal for projects further down the line. The ‘trial by fire’ approach is well -known but carries with it a strong element of encouraging innovation champions to take non -linear ideas through the system. Effectively they run parallel systems which all involve funnels and clear gateways through whic h ideas pass into narrower parts of the funnel and which also commit more extensive resources – but although the mechanisms differ, the intent is the same. Building an Innovative Organization • Recognition and reward . Throughout the company there are various schemes which acknowledge innovative activity – for example, their Innovator’s Award which recognizes effort rather than achievement • Reinforcement of core values . Innovation is respected – for example, there is a ‘hall of fame’ whose members are el ected on the basis of their innovative achievements. • Sustaining ‘circulation’ . Movement and combination of people from different perspectives to allow for creative combinations – a key issue in such a large and dispersed organization. • Allocating ‘slack’ and permission to play . 4 Allowing employees to spend a proportion of their time in curiosity -driven activities which may lead nowhere but which have sometimes given them breakthrough products. • Patience . Acceptance of the need for ‘stumbling in moti on’ as innovative ideas evolve and take shape. Breakthroughs like Post -it’s and ‘Scotchgard’ were not overnight successes but took 2 -3 years to ‘cook’ before they emerged as viable prospects to put into the formal system. • Acceptance of mistakes and encoura gement of risk -taking . A famous quote from a former CEO is often cited in this connection: ‘Mistakes will be made, but if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious, in the long run, as the mistakes management will make if it’s dictatorial and undertakes to tell those under its authority exactly how they must do their job … Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative, and it is essential that we have many people with initiative i f we are to continue to grow.’ • Encouraging ‘bootlegging’ . Giving employees a sense of empowerment and turning a blind eye to creative ways that staff come up with to get around the system acts as a counter to rigid bureaucratic procedures. • Policy of hiring innovators . Recruitment approach is looking for people with innovator tendencies and characteristics. Linkages and Networking • Recognition of the power of association – deliberate attempts not to separate out different functions but to bring them together in teams and other groupings • Encouraging broad perspectives. For example, in developing their overhead projector business, it was close links with users made by getting technical development staff to make sales calls that made the product so user -friendly and therefore successful. • Strong culture dating back to 1951 of encouraging informal meetings and workshops in a series of groups, committees, etc., under the structural heading of the Technology Forum – established ‘to encourage free and active interchange of information and cross -fertilization of ideas’. This is a voluntary activity, although the company commit support resources, but it enables a company – wide ‘college’ with fluid interchange of perspectives and ideas. • Recruiting volunteers. Particularly in trying to open up new fi elds, the involvement of customers and other outsiders as part of a development team is encouraged since it mixes perspectives. 5 Useful links Company website with extensive detail on their history https://www.3m.com/ Timeline https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company -us/about -3m/history/timeline/ History https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company -us/about -3m/history/
Guidelines for Submission Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document using 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. If references are included, they should be cited according to A
MBA 580 Chief Technology Officer (CTO ) Brief Over the past three decades, sensors have been increasingly integrated into automobiles. Currently, a typical car has 50 –100 sensors (Tyler, 2016) , and this is expected to grow to as many as 200 over the next few years. These sensors measure everything from oil levels to the distance from the car in front . These sensors currently connect (Computers in Your Car , 2018 ). These computer sys tems can warn of a collision or an engine problem and communicate the condition to the driver ( e.g., turn on the check engine light). Increasingly, these computers are connected wirelessly via the internet to other computers , like the user’s phone for things like remote starting, and to the manufacturer to help generate predicti ve maintenance recommendations. The commercial term currently used for this is connected cars . Technically, this is part of the internet of things (IoT) concept —where device s from refrigerators to door locks are connected via the internet for convenient access by the user from phones, computers, and personal automobiles. Currently, and in the immediate future, connected cars will help the driver navigate, find the cheapest ga s station, locate the nearest Starbucks or parking lot with open spaces, and allow friends on social media to know when their friend will arrive . As more semi -autonomous driving features are added over the next few years, these wireless computers will also talk to other cars to help predict their next move and communicate to road se nsors to monitor conditions (Gossett, 2019) . Eventually, enough information will be provided to and from the connected car that autonomous driving will become commonplace. It is estimated that the market for IoT -connected cars will grow from $54 billion in 2019 to over $510 billion by 20 30 at a 25 % compound annual growth rate (CAGR) (Meola, 2020) . This compares w ith an overall industry growth of 4. 1% (The Global Automotive Motors Market Size Is Projected to Grow from USD 20,321 Million in 2020 to USD 25,719 Million by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.8% , 2020) . Our company is marketing some connected car capability —but we are not the leader. We need to innovate so that our products can be competitive in the rapidly growing market. Our cars have sensors and computers, and our technology expertise is competitive. We have some connectivity —driver apps for keyless start and OnStar (The Benefits of OnStar | Keeping You Safe and Secure , n. d.) connectivity to detect accidents and alert first responders . Our growth and ultimate health as an enterprise depends on us taking the leadership or, at least, keeping up with the leaders. Furthermore, there is significant opportunity to improve our cus tomer satisfaction and increase our repair and parts revenue streams by alerting customers to needed maintenance before an expensive breakdown occurs on the road. With our current technology implementation plan, however, we expect to grow at 3.1%, abo ut 1% less than the industry . Our growth projection for connected cars is 10.2% —less than the industry at large . We must speed up our innovation o r risk losing market share. Here is what we estimate our competitors are doing and how fast they are adding technology . The leader among existing auto manufacturers is BMW . BMW cars have significant connectivity to information services now. Some driver -assist functions, such as auto -parking and lane -keeping , have been in BMW models for several years. Market rese arch suggests that BMW will have a full suite of information connectivity in their cars within several years and that the company will begin producing fully autonomous driving machines within 12 years . Toyota has fully integrated social media in Japan and expects to implement it in European and U .S. markets, subject to 5 G wireless availability. Volkswagen is about where we are — but has partnered with Microsoft to jump ahead. Competitors from outside the traditional automobile manufacturers are also indicating that they intend to enter the connected car market with disruptive technologies. Apple, for example, is aiming for a fully autonomous delivery vehicle by the mid -2020s and an autonomous passenger car within a decade . Our goal is to launch an au tonomous vehicle following quickly after BMW, our main luxury competitor . However, we have a long way to go. We are considering two ways to get there : A) Introducing a radical innovative design in several years or B) Introducing incremental improvements faster than we have in the past and improving ou r current models each year . Option A does not prevent us from continuing to introduce incremental improvements in the interim. Our approach will depend on your analysis of our capabilities to innovate . H ow can we get the technology being researched in our lab ready —how can we develop it, produce it, and take it to market ? What technology do we already have , and what will we need to acquire? What are our competitors doing , and are there weak nesses we can exploit ? The two paths we can take are discontinuous or radical innovation , or incremental innovation . What do I mean by this?  Discontinuous or radical innovation. This would be more expensive —a completely new model is expensive —as much as $6 billion (Viswanathan, 2013). A major redesign and recent technology integration are also riskier to develop — we might fail —and it would take longer to get to market. We might require enough of our existing resources that we could fall behind with our current models, but it also might provide insight in incremental changes to current models while we developed a major new product line. It is a lot to think about. That said, we could take the leadership position ourselves in the growing market and better protect ourselves from competitors . If we took this path, we would first introduce a new high -end model and, as we brought costs down, rapidly deploy it across our whole product line, using this innovation process to accelerate our ability to innovate.  Incremental innovation. The automobil e is a mature technology —the modern automobile is over a century old and it has been changing and adapting over that time. Our company does incremental innovation as well as our major competitors and the costs are built into our way of doing business . Give n how we build automobiles today, we can continue to add sensors, computers, and IoT capabilities each model year just by upgrading modules . There are risks, though: 1) Could changes in the market impact what customers demand ? A faster competitor or a new entrant could produce a breakthrough in automobiles that makes everything else obsolete . It has happened in other mature industries —could it happen here ? 2) Are we missing significant new opportunities (e.g., market growth overall or opportunities in integrated maintenance , service revenues and parts , or a high -margin business ) that we do not control now? Reference s: Tyler, N. (2016, December 14). Demand for automotive sensors is booming . Newelectronics.Co.Uk. https://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics -technology/automotive -sensors -market -is- booming/149323/#:%7E:text=Currently%2C%20each%20vehicle%20has%20from,car%20b ased% 20on%20current%20trends Computers in your car. (2018, January 24 ). AAMCO Colorado. https://www.aamcocolorado.com/computers -in-your – car/#:%7E:text=Your%20Car’s%20Computer,controls%20to%20meet%20emissions%20standard s Gossett, S. (2019, August 13). IoT i n vehicles: A brief overview . Built In. https://builtin.com/internet – things/iot -in-vehicles Meola, A. (2020, March 10). How 5G & IoT technologies are driving the connected smart vehicle industry . Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/iot -connected -smart – cars?international=true&r=US&IR=T The global automotive motors market size is projected to grow from USD 20,321 million in 2020 to USD 25,719 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.8% . (2020, August 17). PR News wire. https://www.prnewswire.com/news -releases/the -global -automotive -motors -market -size -is- projected -to-grow -from -usd -20 -321 -million -in-2020 -to-usd -25 -719 -million -by -2025 –at-a-cagr – of-4-8-301113089.html#:%7E:text=%2F%3Futm_source%3DPRN – ,The%20global%20aut omotive%20motors%20market%20size%20is%20projected%20to%20gro w,at%20a%20CAGR%20of%204.8%25.&text=The%20growing%20adoption%20of%20these,dem and%20for%20safety%20and%20convenience The benefits of OnStar | Keeping you safe and secure . (n.d.). OnStar. https://ww w.onstar.com/us/en/why -onstar/ Viswanathan, B. (2013, May 7). Why are cars not getting cheap even with better economies of scale? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/05/07/why -are -cars -not -getting -cheap – even -with -better -economies -of-scale/?sh=3ad2b1045ad9