3M Case Study Analysis: Factors Of Innovation, Commercialization Process, And Wi-Charge Essay.

Everything you use at home, at school, or college has its origins in simple, perhaps ingenious, ideas. However, it takes more than creative thinking to make a good idea work. Good ideas have to be turned into realistic, affordable solutions that people want.

This process is known as innovation. It is a mix of ingenuity and enterprise, and has marked every stage of 3M's 100 year history. Today, 3M continues to drive for original and practical customer-focused solutions, to ensure that 3M maintains its growth and profitability.

3M has been in business for 100 years. In 1902, five young entrepreneurs founded the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. However, the mineral deposit they had planned to mine proved to be useless so they had to 'think again'. They turned to buying in the mineral necessary to manufacture sandpaper, and their ingenuity and enterprise saved the company and laid the foundations for an entrepreneurial spirit that has shaped the company to this present day.

From this shaky start, 3M has maintained a flow of groundbreaking inventions ever since. The company now manufactures and markets more than 50,000 different products for industrial, commercial, health care and consumer markets in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Innovative organisations are able to spot and respond to market opportunities. They identify consumer needs, and then develop appropriate products, eg the Post-it® Note. Product development involves a range of processes, from refining an original design idea to the final delivery of a marketable product.

Answer the following questions:

1- Discuss the main factors that make 3M an innovative organization. Which business functions have contributed to these factors?

2- Discuss the importance of the commercialization process for innovative organizations such as 3M.

3- The case describes the multi-layer films as an innovative application at 3M. Pick another innovative application or product of a different organization and discuss the reasons for the product to be innovative.

What makes  3M an innovative organization

In today's world of technology advancement and volatility in a business environment, innovation is crucial to the success, growth, and development of a firm (Ozkaya et al. 2015,p309).3M is one of the firms that has benefited and can attest to the significance of having an innovative culture as it has over the last decades. Therefore this paper will critically analyze the 3M study through an innovative organizational perspective.

It is no secret that consumer taste and preference will change from time to time due to the volatility of the business environment.3M managed to create a focus on their consumers by studying their various patterns as well as interacting with them from time to time concerning the various products 3M offered. Moreover, they also picked in the ideas that consumers had in relations to their need which was prioritized by the firm. This eventually made 3M stay ahead of the coemption and continued to dominate the market. Moreover, since its establishment 3M is known to have an innovative culture that propels the generational of ideas and managed effectively (Yu and Shih 2018).

This has been achieved through the creation of a conducive working environment with effective communication channels among different departments in the firm regardless of the hierarchy. This allows the effective generation and collaboration of ideas within the departments which encourages employee’s innovativeness. Moreover, 3M’s managerial systems do not allow employee micromanagement which promotes independence to pursue ideas they are passionate about and will benefit the firm. Through patenting its innovations, the firm has been able to prevent other rivals from copying and profiting for a period of time contributing to the dominance in the market as an innovative leader.

The firm has also focused on picking up innovative ideas by holding innovative competitions and identifying ideas that have the potential to revolutionize the market. These ideas are put into reality as fast as possible and into the hands of the consumers. The process of hiring and recruitment is crucial to the success of a firm. Through the various innovative competition, 3M has been able to recruit individuals with the right skill set and attitude that will prosper in the firm’s innovative culture in the long run.

The commercialization process is among the best and the fastest way an innovation can impact the world just from a simple idea. A firm’s idea, service or product is effectively introduced to an exponential number of audiences across the globe that otherwise would be difficult to reach with a speed which is hard to replicate with other channels (Witell et al. 2016). firms such as 3M that are able in commercializing their ideas will get have the satisfaction wide adoption of their ideas in the market fast and effectively. This is accompanied by a finical reward that is translated intro profits contributing to the growth and development of the firm while gaining the market share in the long run.

commercialization process allows organizations to conduct a research on the market in order to create a brand identity and position in the market. This allows a product to perform well in the market and dominate over the firm’s rivals. Commercialization also ensures quality product service delivery is achieved by identifying barriers that might hinder an innovation to prosper or affect the sales generation negatively.

Importance of the commercialization process

 This is made possible during the prototype process where its functionalities are tested against the goals and objectives required from the actual product. successful commercialization of a service, product or idea tends to bring recognition and credibility to a firm such as 3M where it is identified as among the lead innovators in the industry (Kinouchi, Soares and Cardoso 2016).

Wi-charge from the Israeli WI-Charge company is an innovative product that solves the most nagging problem in modern devices, battery charging. WI-charge is a wireless charging innovative product that surpasses the normal wireless charging of modern devices where a device is placed on top of a wireless charging unit. However, Wi-charge surpasses this technology through attaching a wireless charging unit to any ceiling where it also serves as a normal light, emitting infrared beams to the receiver units, which the user has attached to their devices. The receiver unit which is actually finger sized captures the light which is converted to electrical power, a similar process in solar panels through a photovoltaic cell which charges the modern device. (Richard 2018)

Another reason that makes the product innovation is that unlike the normal wireless charging where only one device could be charged at a particular moment, the Wi-charge is able to charge multiple devices at the same time when they are in sight of the flared beams adding to the comfort of using your devices while using the device. This product further eliminates that need of consumers using the conventional method of charging their devices using cables. This conventional method had many disadvantages and effectiveness such as dilapidation of the cables, which incurred more cost when replacing or repairing(Richard 2018).

This innovative product will definitely change how we charge our wireless devices through the use of smart energy making consumer lives simpler through its quality product service delivery. The parent firm intends on expanding the product's functionality to a much wider audience than the currently confined rooms such as homes and offices. It intends on expanding to public spaces such as parks and recreational facilities as well as bars, restaurants and coffee shops. This will eradicate the use of cable completely like the way, according to Amankwah-Amoah (2016,p 123), CD-ROM eradicated the use of floppy disk in a whisk due to superseding its technology and having an efficient product service delivery

Conclusion

Innovative organizations pride themselves with impacting the lives of individuals all over the world as 3M has done for more than a hundred years. Having acquired many patents through research,innovation  and analyzing the consumer's needs has been vital in becoming a lead innovator in the market. A new product, the Wi-charge has many characteristics of an innovative product. It has solved the nagging problem of charging modern device batteries which are set to eliminate the use of cables in the near future.

References

.A simple impact index for scientific innovation and recognition. CoRR. 2(3), pp.9-18.

Amankwah-Amoah, J., 2016. Competing technologies, competing forces: The rise and fall of the floppy disk, 1971–2010. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 107, pp.121-129.

Ozkaya, H.E., Droge, C., Hult, G.T.M., Calantone, R. and Ozkaya, E., 2015. Market orientation, knowledge competence, and innovation. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32(3), pp.309-318.

Richard, B. 2018. 4 innovative products that impressed the CES 2018 awards judges. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.neowin.net/news/4-innovative-products-that-impressed-the-ces-2018-awards-judges/.

Witell, L., Snyder, H., Gustafsson, A., Fombelle, P. and Kristensson, P., 2016. Defining service innovation: A review and synthesis. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp.2863-2872.

Yu, O. and 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.