3M is one of the most innovative companies in the world, releasing on average twenty-five new products every week. It’s total product portfolio comprises fifty-five thousand items and has received in all three thousand and seven hundred patents during the course of its time. The total employee strength is over ninety-thousand spread across two-hundred manufacturing plants and eighty-six labs. Major lessons in business innovation may be gleaned from them. The first such is that time must be devoted to interacting with the final customers and deriving valuable business intelligence in the process. Further, in order to develop innovations, specific time must be allotted to the same. They have developed the McKnight Principles, which state that innovations can only be developed when mistakes are allowed. If too much caution creeps in, then newer discoveries will not be made. People at 3M who genuinely strike gold in terms of creating new value, are rewarded and remembered for others to be inspired. Most importantly, a company-wide philosophy of collaboration needs to be fostered so that specific interest areas are ultimately all aligned towards the common goals.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/11/07/five-innovation-lessons-from-3m/

Uploaded Date:16 November 2017