Case 2 3M – Opdracht International Business: Case 2 about the company 3M – 3M CASE Identify 3M’s – StudeerSnel

The

3M CASE

1.

Identify

3M’

s

core

competencies,

co

re

products

and

end

products.

How

are

these

three

sources

of

competitive

advantage

linked

with

each other?

3M’s

core

competences

are

innovating,

engineering

and

its

tolerance

for

experimentation.

T

his

helped

the

company

to

create

its

core

products:

the

technology

leading

to

production

of

new

products.

With

help

of

the

BEF

3M

was

able

to

make

end

p

roducts

like

special

LCD

screens

with

brightness enhancement.

These

three

so

urces

o

f

competitive

advantage

are

linked

with

each

other

by

all

being

a

part

in

the

process

of

creating

a

un

ique

product

for

the

company of 3M.

2.

How does 3M mobilize resources at th

e SBU level?

3M

mobilized

its

resources

at

the

SBU

level

in

stages.

It

began

by

exporting products

to

the

places of

the

strategic business

units. Then

it

set

up

sales

subsidiaries

in

these

areas

and

this

process

of

increased

integration

in

the

market

of

the

host

country

would

continue

even

so

far

that

the

host

country

of

the

strategic

bu

siness

unit

would

p

roduce

and

innovate new products themselves.

3.

How does 3M address the probl

em of bounded innovation?

3M tries to break through the problem of

bounded innovation by supporting

all kinds of ways of innovations. Firstly 3M

makes sure that its employees

have a suf

ficient amount of time and money f

or research projects.

This is

done for example by setting up gr

ants for research projects that would

otherwise not be able to go thro

ugh regular funding channels. 3M also

assures a suf

ficient amount of sharing technolo

gy and ideas by providing

opportunities through both formal an

d informal channels.

And, l

astly

, to

help unexperienced innovators there’

s also guidance by more experienced

co-workers

4.

What

is

the

strategic

architecture

a

t

3M?

How

did

top

management

build it?

strategic

archi

tecture

at

3M

is

to

support

creativity

and

innovation

at