Used to have a tagline: 3M Innovation
Now it is about: 3M Cost cutting
7 replies (most recent on top)
I don’t understand why you have the word “now”. Look what PFAS has done. There has not been a sole or moral code in years. This isn’t new….
Zombie movies are rather popular - has anyone ever made a movie about zombie companies? Lumbering forward, brain dead and ravenous with crazy eyes.
Mcnerney was definitely the wrong turn this company took in 2000 to go outside the company after 98 successful years and hire the GE "legend in the making" guy.
He was so obsessed with beating quarterly earnings estimates that cost cutting, especially research, became a short-term way to goose the numbers and not pay for it until years later when the bushwhacked R&D was no longer pumping out winning products. He was also a fanatic to get more patents, even if the product had no marketable future. Plus, throw in forced performance ranking, which led to age discrimination lawsuits, sick sigma, and other fads of the Day, Jimmie could sure talk a big story until he got an even bigger job and left 3M greatly weakened.
The only chance 3M had to save this ship was if the board had listened to Buckley and reverted to being a technology company, not a beancounter paradise. Sadly, the board had all been approved by Mcnerney and refused to change course.
3M's soul started dying under McNerney. 3M used to effectively own the "Innovation" brand for more than two generations.
Since McNerney's infection, leadership has embraced the failed and cancerous mantra of 'do less with less'. Because of this we have watched the slow decline and impending death of one of the United States' most innovative companies.
The technical people of Generation X (remember us?) have had to watch the decline and fall of many great research and development firms with such sadness. Examples include AT&T/Bell Labs, HP, TI, IBM, and DuPont along with 3M. All of them are hollow shells now.
There's a separate thread for new 3M taglines. For everyone's creative thinking appreciation please consider posting there. Already some good ones!
Agreed. It’s sad. When I was interning they were just starting the 3M Science Applied To Life branding and I was very proud of you I work at 3M. I remember watching this marketing bit (https://youtu.be/rXQLd3EfHOg) and thinking “holy cow I’m working at a cool place.” And I had good first ~4 years, but things have SHARPLY declined since 2019. Far too much risk aversion and cost cutting.
Is “3M technology advancing every company, 3M products enhancing every home, 3M innovation improving every life” even the vision statement anymore?Feels like I haven seen it internally in ages.
At this point change it to “3M “Science:” Applied to Layoffs & Cost Cutting”
Growth requires innovation, hard work, talented people and competent leadership. It's easier for clueless leaders who've driven out a good share of the talent to just keep trying to cut their way to prosperity. Winning?