Thread regarding 3M layoffs

It's dead slow. Best numbers we've ever had because no sales lol

Growth is dead. What more can be said? Last person out, please turn off the lights.

I would say skeletonization is a more accurate description.

Huzzah to all the comments around NPI and 3M Ventures - The businesses 3M is in, are struggling to find avenues for growth - last new product launched that was truly innovative - Command - More than a few division VPs complain about how Ventures asks them to come up with ideas on where to invest - shouldn’t that be ventures’ job? Also, from what I understand, the leaders in the ventures team have been there for 6-7 years now and are not the brightest bulbs in the room - interesting how 3M stock started to decline just as these guys were named - no business wants to hire them, they can’t get jobs anywhere else (those who were bright, have left) and the leaders have managed to stay on because of favoritism. Will be interesting to see what personnel changes happen once Mike Roman retires as CEO, and the favoritism shifts.

In response to the recent message…… Not a ventures person, but saw what they were trying to do…..invest in startups with emerging technologies that could be integrated into 3M’s new products. Many of these were in the display/optical area, advanced materials for films with novel performance, AI capabilities, green energy, etc. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the appetite to incorporate many of these technologies into 3M products. Hence, another reason for lack of new growth.

I take umbrage at the other comments….”take criticism constructively”? How is saying the ventures group, or any other one, has made “0 contributions” constructive? And that the people there were just paperpushers? Also, Don’t assume that someone trying to correct a misleading and abusive post has to have some other motive besides trying to set the record straight.

And yes, people leave poor leaders, but not necessarily only their immediate mgmt. within the last year, I saw a new tech opportunity that would leverage 3M technologies for green energy generation industry being shown to a recently departed (he who shall not be named) exec who proceeded to expound on all the reasons this wouldn’t work and why it was a stupid idea. Unnecessarily cruel. Why stick around when your hard work to grow 3M into emerging markets is ignorantly unappreciated?

Really sad to see this response below from what I can only presume is the 3M Ventures management to HH’s comment:

1. Take criticism constructively. When I joined the company 40 years ago, what made 3M great was its leaders’ ability to accept criticism and rise to the challenge. Your response is the fundamental reason 3M doesn’t have growth - everyone is pointing fingers at someone else. “I did a great job, but divisions didn’t, or businesses didn’t.. etc etc”. You are part of a team - act like it.

2. Earn your VP title and half a million dollar salary by understanding that you need to work smarter to help the company now instead of wasting your time responding to criticisms defensively and pointing figures.

3. Teams often leave poor leaders, not companies. Loyalty runs deep within 3M’ers and if they leave it’s usually because their management makes them feel under appreciated or is unable to provide career advancement. Surround yourself with creative and innovative people instead of people who will only reflect your own glory to you.

If you’re going to defend comments made on a public forum, try not to make it so obvious it comes from within the team. I hope when I return to the company store and interact with other leaders, I hear of how you turned things around for the company or how the company took a harder look at its leadership for groups that are critical for growth.

I disagree that the ventures group has been ineffective overall. The new technologies 3M has access to through their investments haven’t been utilized adequately by the divisions due to their short term focus. So, they’ve invested in areas aligned with business group strategies, but the BGs don’t do much with them.

And, actually, there are some investments that have actually generated meaningful returns,

That said, a number of talented people have left for other opportunities, sadly.

We also have a completely useless corporate 3M ventures group that has not contributed to 3M’s growth at all. Companies like Honeywell and Danaher have yielded returns close to 10-15% on investments they’ve made and spurred new growth. Our ventures group has made “0” contributions to 3M’s growth, asks the divisions to come up with ideas, and then helps them file paperwork to get through the investment committee. Why do we have people like that in charge of the group who have never turned around a business, and only know how to be corporate stooges? Please hire externally, or at minimum a go-getter who knows how to get stuff done.

Wonder how many people who worked on Class 4 and 5 projects and were laid off over the last few years are now making great products for some other company that doesn't just focus on this quarter's numbers.

These comments are spot on. For all its faults the new product vitality index at least focused divisions on introducing new to the market products. Since that went away the number of new products introduced per year has dropped precipitously. In 2015 3M was introducing almost 1000 products per year. Of course one can argue how much gameplaying went into that number. But in recent years the number of new products introduced was under 100. With some divisions not even introducing one new product at all in a year.

Upper management just did not focus on introducing new products but instead focused on short term financial performance and the divisions responded by being risk-averse and focusing on getting class three products out.

Innovation driven growth has been dead for years. The cumbersome barriers around NPI, risk aversion, and lack of strategic vision has finally caught up with financial results.

some great points stated, I think you are correct in the knowledge of the company only thinking short term on nearly every commitment. But we all know the mistakes the company has made and unfortunately there is only one way out of this. We will not know if this is the right way out until Q1 next year, but all we can do is cross our fingers that something comes into the company and breathes new air that fills the tanks and sees a chance to maybe put investment into place for a slow steady growth. Be it a five year plan but this once great company cannot go under