TASK

"Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company"

The American corporation 3M is known in the world. It employs 83 thousand people, of which 7 thousand are scientists. The range of products manufactured by the corporation is more than 60 thousand items. 3M Corporation is one of the 100 most successful companies in the United States.

The foundation of the corporation is the combination of innovative ideas with their technical implementation, as a result of which a high-quality, well-selling product is created and 3M Corporation occupies a leading position in the field of innovations. Effective management also contributes to this. In the activities of the corporation, five main areas can be distinguished:

1. Manufacturing new products is a financial goal. At least 1/4 of the products sold should be those that entered production within the last five years. The work of the company's managers is assessed by this criterion. Hence their desire to maintain a high level of scientific research and to encourage their employees to do so;
2. Free exchange of information between employees at different stages of project development. This provides, on the one hand, the possibility of using the created modern technologies in new areas; on the other hand, control over the progress of each work;
3. Failure is perceived as a source of innovation. From mistakes, from which no one is immune, management seeks to benefit. For this reason, the corporation continues to work on technologies that were initially unprofitable;
4. Providing employees with the conditions and time so that they can think about and come up with their own ideas. People tend to be especially active in working on their ideas. Therefore, the company's employees are allowed to devote up to 15% of their working time to such developments;
5. Creation and granting of independence to temporary divisions of the corporation. An employee who has put forward the idea of a new product, if approved by the management of the corporation, becomes a general manager and receives the necessary funds and equipment. He selects a group of specialists (production workers, marketers, salespeople, pricing specialists) and creates a temporary unit. The task of such a team: development of a product from a prototype to implementation in mass production with subsequent implementation. All employees in this group receive a promotion and a salary increase if the project is successfully completed.

Answer Questions:

1. Formulate a strategy for the control system of the 3M corporation. What is the main thing in the control system?

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2. What is the role of managers and their methods of control in the success of the firm?

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3. What conditions are required to use the experience of innovative activities of the 3M corporation at the enterprises of Ukraine?