Innovation Centers -- still operating?

Are any of the Innovation Centers still operating/staffed outside of the building in Maplewood? At one point there were over fifty 3M CICs/CTCs around the globe, but last I heard they were moved from Corporate Comms to R&D a little over a year ago which tells me they're targets for shuttering. The labs are already being starved. How would they fund fancy videos and gimmicky displays to sell MR's latest useless initiative? And if they are functioning, they're going to spend a small fortune updating them post-Healthcare.

They spent huge money to open the one in Washington DC almost a decade ago. New ICs opened in Austin and Cergy shortly after, but the '22 reorg took out the sr comms mgrs running both the DC and Austin ICs. The support teams responsible for maintaining the US and Canada ICs were part of EWS and were likely axed mid '23.

Are these still be used as customer engagement tools to share the wealth & depth of capabilities harnessed by 3M Science? Or have they just locked the doors to prevent people from giving tours where half of the displays are turned off or covered up due to the spinoff and legal troubles?

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The one at the old Austin Center (Bldg 110) actually came online before Bldg 278 in Maplewood. 278 was developed under Desi's watch. It was originally going to have more of a Minnesota lodge aesthetic (think Wonewok) but when McNerney came on board he told them to go back to the drawing board.

In Austin, one of the key centerpieces was video clips that played on brand new 42" plasma displays. The clips were triggered by motion sensors & when you approached it would begin by saying "hello" in languages from all around the world. It was about a 60 second clip that gave an overview of 3M's ideals and principles. One of the first lines was "working at 3M means the ability to fail, and the opportunity to dream." On McNerney's first trip to Austin he took the tour and when he heard that clip he turned to look at one of his lackeys and just shook his head. Less than a month later a new clip was installed with that line being replaced with "3M means the opportunity to dream and the ability to succeed." You sure showed 'em, Jimmy!

My coworker in EMEA still is at one in the UK.

About time to jettison this excess of a previous era

I always hated that Maplewood innovation center. It was built with $10MM of Jimmy Mac’s hoard of accumulated cash flow created by su-king $300MM per year out of capital investments. Imagine this, his dream for that Taj Mahal was to sell GE (Jack Welch) style management training to other companies.

They have been outsourced, no longer run by 3M.

Thread regarding 3M layoffs

Innovation Centers -- still operating?

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