Copied from the published Q1 2023 Earnings Call transcript:
Mike R: "We are reducing rooftops worldwide, including exiting our conference center in Northern Minnesota."
I've personally been there 2-3 times for customer events and rewards trips. Maybe it's time to let this property go (sadly), but the great people who work there won't have much of a future based on how remote this area of N MN is. Not good.
Receptum sales deus: you are 100% correct. Last summer I was visiting a friend who had moved to FL and we went to one of his new FL friends house on the intercoastal. When he found out I worked at 3M, he went in his living room and brought me a picture of him fishing at Wonewok. Said it was the best long weekend work retreat he ever went on. He owned a dental supply company, went 3 times and said the collaboration and deep dives into product needs/wants/improvements were incredible. Worked hard and played hard with 3M at thise meetings.
Clearly most of you had never interacted with customers after Wonewok. It was our best home field advantage. We only took customers who moved the needle for the business and they would become very loyal to 3M. Our division found massive value in the meetings held there. Customers were asking us what they could do to get invited back. It made it much easier for salesforce to push new products into these important accounts. I think this is a huge mistake. It was a world-class resort, run by world-class people. Money didn’t get you invited, value/ potential for 3m did. Truly special place. Another poor decision by Mike Roman.
Finally! Good riddance!
Hopefully 3M does the right thing for the area and works with the state of MN to designate large portions of the property as state park. It would be a very bad look to sell off the pristine land to a developer looking to build homes or cabins.
If Wonewok's purpose included customer service, I can see why 3M needs to sell it off. This company decided a year or two ago to ground its Salesforce. Absolutely the d-mbest decision possible. 3M has always been able to sell its products at higher prices and margins because it convinced customers of the enhanced value. Now, the customers have learned to accept perhaps slightly lower quality at a much more affordable price from mini me competitors who do have people on the road.
Sorry to see something so special go away, but Inge started the process when he foolishly sold off Tartan, which was a valued employee perk. The financial impact of these divestures is a drop in the bucket to long-term planning.
3M is becoming a tragic hero story that only Shakespeare could encapsulate in a play.
Feel very fortunate to have been involved in multiple customer meetings at Wonewok. It is a very special place. Sad 3M is losing and has lost the things that made the company unique to other companies. The employees at Wonewok provided some of the best hospitality in the world, they all were hardworking, dedicated employees. It may be the right decision, but it makes me sad at the same time.
Never made it there but being a manufacturing employee, being on call, working weekends when the plant was not running well probably kept a lot of us under the radar for such nice trips. Heard it was a great quaint place.
I think a lot of people had great times at tartan. Not sure why that was ever sold. The common folk enjoyed it a lot.
Why do we need the iconic 3M center building. It is sparsely populated (from looking at the parking lot)
Truly a monument to yesteryear
Wonewok shoulda been axed years ago. It’s an artifact of how business was done 30+ years ago. IMO, It’s recent utilization for external focused activities has likely been very poor and the cost is just unjustifiable