Once the company entered the 1990s, 3M started to face a lot of challenges. 3M started to revamp its perspective on worldwide business in the 1990s. International markets were impacted by political and social developments, which made it simpler for 3M to set up one organization to handle its European and international business (Dally, 2002). Additionally, the organization’s new administration started to reform how it ran, which met with strong opposition from the workforce. In 1991, DeSimone took over as 3M’s new CEO, and during his tenure, the company’s internal and external growth slowed. The management approach of DeSimone was very different from that of his predecessors. He created a strategy to save expenditures, but high management disapproved of it. DeSimone also had a unique organizational culture experience at 3M compared to other CEOs. Coming from the organization’s business and international wing, it is obvious that he was unable to address the demands and issues of the R&D department, which claimed that DeSimone inhibited creativity and was not dedicated to discovering new goods (Dally, 2002). This was how the culture of entrepreneurship was maintained with the come of DeSimone.
The entrepreneurial mentality of 3M has preserved its innovative culture throughout its existence. A team of scientists was hired by William McKnight as one of his first acts as president of 3M, launching the company’s research and development division (Ghicajanu & Dolea, 2018). Early on, McKnight was aware that R&D would play a crucial role in the expansion and development of 3M. It wouldn’t take long for the innovation culture to become entrenched across the 3M Corporation. But neither McKnight nor the original business plan included this institutionalization; it was only prompted by events.
The success in creating the 3M brands during the McKnight and DeSimone eras at 3M was significantly different. The company was very successful in growing its products and creating an empire while McKnight served as CEO. The company experienced a period of limited innovation and a paucity of R&D during DeSimone’s tenure as CEO. 3M’s success during McKnight’s tenure can be attributed to their inventive approach to developing new goods as well as their ingenuity. With the help of these discoveries, 3M was able to establish an organizational culture where research and development were done on an individual basis (Dally, 2002). The first area of strength during the McKnight era was his selection of employees who were the best fit for the business. The key discoveries and products that helped 3M grow into a significant business and were the first instance of product diversification for the corporation were created by scientists Carlton, Okie, and Drew.
McKnight noted that his staff had a significant role in ongoing research and development as a result of the higher level of creativity. After that, McKnight established the standard that technical personnel would devote 15% of their workday to their own ideas (Yu & Shih, 2018). By allowing workers to work on their own projects, companies were able to continue developing new goods like post-it notes, Scotch cellophane tape, and Scotch Guard.
DeSimone was held accountable for the company’s high operational expenditures and the lack of fresh, creative items. During this time, the organizational culture suffered greatly. The board of directors received anonymous letters from employees criticizing DeSimone’s leadership, including his failure to support upcoming research projects and reduce operating expenses. The organizational culture was clearly not the same effective inventive culture that had functioned so well during the McKnight era, as seen by the absence of leadership and clear direction of the company.
References
Ghicajanu, M., & Dolea, G. (2018). The role of innovation in increasing business quality and the added value for the customer. Annals of the University of Petroşani. Economics, 18, 45-52.
Dally, S. (2002). A century of innovation and creativity. Manager, (33), 30.
Yu, O., & Shih, R. (2018). Developing an innovative organizational culture: A people-centered and value-focused approach with case studies. In 2018 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. DOI:10.23919/PICMET.2018.8481945