When was the last time 3M did worse than the macro economic environment?
When was the last time this company made a significant game changing innovative product?
More cost cutting, share buybacks, and expensive acquisitions will help only so much.
Meanwhile debt is at all time high. It was almost zero 6, 7 years back
3M has an inverted pyramid org structure; so many managers with so few doers. Small wonder we aren’t delivering anything new. There’s no one to do the leg work.
3M needs to stop with global headcount caps and let the leadership in each division run their business. Having to hit top and bottom line targets, while navigating constantly shifting headcount freezes make it impossible to run a growth business. Underperforming businesses are shielded from failure and growth businesses are frozen out of their success while the markets pass them by. As difficult as the macro environment has been, these particular items are self-inflicted leadership wounds.
More VPs. That's all I see. More money lost on wages that add zero value.
Creating more VP level and Director level positions out of nothing will certainly address all those issues