Last I saw there were three leadership development opportunities at 3M recognized. They were:
International assignments are very few. LSS is dead and BT is close behind.
Are there any recognized leadership development opportunities anymore?
Forget any internal training.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you bl*w.
You need to be on a succession plan before the age of 32.
If you’re not, you’ll never get the leadership experience required to advance.
No succession plan means working yourself to death, missing out knowing your kids, divorce, and elder care.
A succession plan is a way to curtail infighting. For instance, I was a tech aide when Jeff Lavers was a low level salesman in the old dental products. Never made an impression on anyone. If I rose up the ranks and got to a level I could hire executives, I would never have hired Jeff Lavers.
Same for Roman. He had to surround himself with external hires. If he hired internally, he would have been exposed and cancelled long ago.
Please use the 3M Learn tracks we have so graciously provided to you. What more could you ask for. You asked for more development opportunities, and we provided them. Why the lack of thankfulness??
Best path…get out of Dodge!
At 3M, it is not what you know, it is who you know.
I know of someone who climb up the ranks very fast due to good relationship with VP or SVP levels. That's the truth.
Now BT roles and MBB/BB roles are shunned like plague. They are no longer considered development programs for the Hi Po. Don't waste time there.
Probably the last good exec developed under the old 3M program was Monahan who sadly got exiled to the helpless imation spin.
All traditional paths have been blocked.
Since Desi, executives have been hired from the outside.
It’s too expensive and resource intensive to maintain a succession plan. Such skills are readily available on the open market.
Far cheaper and easier to acquire than internal development. Far cheaper to fire as well in the future when the executive becomes expandable based on prevailing business conditions.
Most employees have been getting extra heapings of Mike's special playbook recipe. Namely, Special High Intensity Training.
Graduate in the top quarter of your college chemistry or engineering class, hire into 3M bursting withenthusiasm, get indoctrinated into social agendas and this special HIT training, and find yourself parroting corporate speak until the grim reaper shows up to tell you that tireman and Kearney have determined you are now a redundancy. Get packaged out with 1 week of pay per year. Then use those everyday win points to buy a 3M coffee mug to remember a stunted career.
Where do I sign up?
My cousin Eddie was offered a job filling pails for a living, but I told him he is managerial material in 3M and wait for a better offer.
I don’t think LSS or BT have been a leadership career path for a while now. Useful parking lots yes but not a career path. Here of late all the newly created A3M jobs were the career path but those seem to be gone now.
Leadership development is gained through playing golf or knowing someone to give you a chance. Basically you have to kiss you know what.
Work at GE -> apply for job at 3M -> blindly make decisions to not botch quarterly results targets that weren’t achievable -> keep following plan with no attempt for long term growth