3M: A Century of Innovation PDF

3 3Innovation  This book is dedicated to the thousands of 3M employees who have made 3M a strong, vibrant, growing, diversified technology company with innovative products and services in markets throughout the world. About the co...

3 3Innovation  This book is dedicated to the thousands of 3M employees who have made 3M a strong, vibrant, growing, diversified technology company with innovative products and services in markets throughout the world. About the cover: Shortly after the Century of Innovation began, 3M introduced Wetordry sandpaper, shown in the background, giving the company its first entry into the important automotive market. Inventor Francis Okie often scribbled notes on scraps of the sandpaper as he worked. Today, 3M optical films, shown in the foreground, are among the company’s newest products. These innovative films enhance the performance of electronic displays from the smallest hand held devices, such as cell phones, to large liquid crystal display monitors and televisions. © 2002, 3M Company. All rights reserved. First Edition: 2002 International Standard Book Number ISBN 0-9722302-0-3 (cloth) ISBN 0-9722302-1-1 (paper) from the CEO... It is exciting to celebrate 3M’s first Century of Innovation with the extended 3M family. There are many reasons for 3M’s hundred years of progress: the unique ability to create new-to-the-world product categories, market leadership achieved by serving customers better than anyone else and a global network of unequalled international resources. The primary reason for 3M’s success, however, is the people of 3M. This company has been blessed with generations of imagina- tive, industrious employees in all parts of the enterprise, all around the world. I hope you’ll join us in celebrating not only a Century of Innovation but also a century of talented and innovative individuals. W. James McNerney, Jr. Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Contents 1 Early Struggles Plant the Seeds of Innovation 1 3M opened for business as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing in  in the little town of Two Harbors, hoping to capitalize on a mineral used for grinding wheels. Nothing is easy for the optimistic founders, but their persistence pays off and they begin manufacturing sandpaper. 2 3M Innovation—A ‘Tolerance for Tinkerers’ 13 3M welcomes innovative people who are creative, committed and often eccentric. The “architects” of innovation, Richard Carlton, Dick Drew and Francis Okie, create a climate that turns 3M into a new product powerhouse. Researchers explain valuable lab lessons and provide a glimpse into the fabled, highly productive Pro-Fab Lab. 3 3M Innovation—How It Flourished 29 Sustaining innovation in a growing company is a massive challenge. 3M walks the innovation “high wire” and invests mightily in Research and Development. 3M people share ideas and solve customer problems across oceans and continents. The highest potential product ideas attract company champions and are rewarded with additional capital. 4 Ingenuity Leads to Breakthroughs 49 The most important innovations respond to unarticulated needs. 3M calls work in this arena “the fuzzy front-end,” and it can lead to significant breakthroughs. That’s what happens in nonwovens, fluorochemicals, optical lighting film and microreplication—technologies that spawn a wide array of products and new “technology platforms” for 3M. 5 No One Succeeds Alone 67 While 3M people must take personal initiative to build rewarding careers, they are rarely “lone rangers.” 3M people naturally gravitate toward being champions, sponsors and mentors even before these were popular business buzzwords. 6 No Risk, No Reward—‘Patient Money’ 77 For most of the century, 3M demonstrates its bias toward growth through diversification. Follow three business ventures where long-term investments, known as “patient money,” pay off in multiples. These include: reflective technology; 3M Health Care, which today has more than , products; and 3M Pharmaceuticals, developer of innovative drugs. 7 The Power of Patents 95 Intellectual property is imbedded in 3M’s “DNA.” Protecting the company’s unique tech- nology, products and processes has been a priority for  years. Because innovation is the growth engine at 3M, intellectual property has more currency than cold cash. 3M defends its patents—at home and abroad. 8 Look ‘Behind the Smokestacks’ 109 When -year-old William McKnight becomes the company’s sales manager, he develops an enduring philosophy—the best way to find business is to “look behind the smokestacks.” Move beyond the purchasing office and find out what your real customers need. 3M Timeline: A Century of Innovation 126 9 Going Global—The Formative Years 137 Wetordry sandpaper is 3M’s ticket to Europe in the s. William McKnight recognizes the potential of global business and joins the game early. The pioneers of 3M International chron- icle their first  years—an era demanding resourcefulness and gumption from its leaders. 10 Capitalizing on a Global Presence 155 With characteristic fervor and entrepreneurial ambition, 3M launches  new international companies during the s, s and s. Managing directors explain the joys and frustrations of their first overseas assignments as 3M International becomes a new source of innovation and soon accounts for more than  percent of the company’s revenues. 11 Divide and Grow—Follow the Technology 169 In , William McKnight has a revolutionary idea uncommon to American business. He creates divisions that divide as they grow so new businesses get a running start. By following a proven technology into uncharted waters, some of these businesses achieve astounding results. 12 Defining Moments Strengthen 3M’s Culture 185 When times are tough, “doing the right thing” defines the company’s character. This philoso- phy is present in  when 3M people are killed in an explosion. It echoes through the s and s when the company handles environmental issues and apartheid in South Africa. And, it guides decisions in the s when the Asia Pacific region faces a drastic economic downturn. 13 A Culture of Change 199 Long before “reinvention” was common in American business, change already was a central part of 3M’s corporate culture. Follow the rise and fall of 3M’s copying business, the trans- formation of magnetic media from being a pioneer to selling a commodity. Understand 3M’s spin-off of some of its businesses, creating a new, independent company called Imation. 14 3M Leaders—The Right Choice at the Right Time 215 The top leaders of 3M have been largely Midwestern hard workers. Most came to 3M with technical training, and all, except the most recent, built their careers at the company. Review their individual contributions and styles. Acknowledgments 236 3M Trademarks 236 Beginnings in Two Harbors Perseverance and the survival spirit  1 Early Struggles Plant the Seeds of Innovation In today’s business world, innovation is the mantra of success. For companies large and small, the big winners are those that match new, marketable ideas with customers before anyone else can. It takes flexibility and creativity and a willingness to risk. One hundred years ago, when 3M was founded as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, the formula for business success was the same. But for 3M, perseverance mattered even more. The multiple crises that rocked 3M a century ago could have easily destroyed a young company in the st century. Imagine, for example, that 2 Chapter 1 your “big idea” for a new product has properties that discovered in the region and prospectors hoped to get will leave your competition in the dust. You attract ven- rich with new mineral claims, including the possibility ture capital, invest in production facilities, and set your of finding gold. sales force loose to beat the market leaders. Then—as now—everything is riding on a marketable innovation > Incorporate First, Investigate Later with immense promise. Leaps of faith were common in those days, as one But instead of soaring revenues and customer observer noted: “Like so many others who organized orders, your big idea fails. Your mining ventures in the early s... 3M apparently product is flawed. Your major incorporated first and investigated later.” The company investors have given you all the sold shares and made plans to start mining before they funding they can. This is pre- were even certain they had customers. Finally, Hermon cisely what happened when five Cable, a 3M co-founder and successful Two Harbors northern Minnesota entrepre- meat market owner, traveled to Chicago and Detroit neurs extracted a mineral to test samples of 3M’s corundum with potential cus- from the shores of Lake tomers. Though Cable came home describing only Superior. The optimistic part- “fairly satisfactory” results, he encouraged his four ners believed their “Crystal Bay” partners—who all seemed infected with Cable’s enthu- mineral was corundum, almost as tough siasm—to move ahead. as diamonds and an ideal substitute for It was almost two years after 3M’s founding that garnet, the mineral abrasive found in the company sold its first batch of minerals, one ton grinding wheels used by furniture makers. of Crystal Bay corundum, in March . Fortunately, 1 The founders of 3M were banking on success when based on the founders’ own solid reputations, the local the company was born in . Each man contributed bank had no qualms about loaning the company oper- , in start-up funds in exchange for , shares. ating capital until more sales revenues materialized. They started their venture in Two Harbors, a booming frontier village on the North Shore of Lake Superior, where the winds of entrepreneurship were as strong as Alberta Clippers blowing across the lake. Iron ore had been 2 Chapter opening photos Prospective stockholders were offered a free boat trip from Two Harbors to the 3M Crystal Bay plant to inspect 3M’s corundum; 3M company letter- head; Original 3M plant on North Shore of Lake Superior at Crystal Bay, Minnesota, 1903; Label on back of Crystal Bay corundum paper.  Early Struggles Plant the Seeds of Innovation 3 But a long dry spell followed because 3M’s product president and never drew a paycheck. To scrape along was actually anorthosite, a soft mineral that is inferior in those years, Cable also worked without pay and to garnet. 3M’s partners voted to cut their salaries and so did Dwan. Decades later, William McKnight, con- then abolished them altogether. Meanwhile, impatient sidered the “architect” of 3M growth, credited Dwan, suppliers wanted their money, and 3M owed its own Ober and Cable with “remarkable faith and tenacity.” employees back pay. (Each of the partners contributed They also shared a strong work ethic and Midwestern roots, a background that worked in their favor during The first key issue the company faced was difficult times. With no revenues in sight and the treasury bare, failing to make quality sandpaper. They could 3M’s founders tried another approach in . If grind- have given up and gone under. It’s incredible ing wheel manufacturers aren’t buying our corundum that they persisted and looked beyond a short- to make their wheels, let’s make the wheels ourselves, they reasoned. Deciding to become a manufacturer of term vision of success. > Dick Lidstad retired vice president, Human Resources You have an idea, you take this idea and you money to cover the payroll.) 3M had little success sell- pull all the things that need to come together ing its stock to raise operating capital, and the company and it’s called ‘believing.’ Innovation boils down was racing head-long for disaster. Only two investors to conceive it, believe it, achieve it. > Leon Royer stepped forward—Edgar Ober, a St. Paul railroad man, retired executive director, 3M Leadership Development Center, and John Dwan, a Two Harbors lawyer and co-founder of 3M, who had a reputation for smart investments. Human Resources, formerly a technical director Ober came from modest means. After graduating from high school in St. Paul, he became a clerk at the finished goods, rather than merely a supplier of raw Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad. materials, set 3M on a new, stronger course, but it didn’t The hardworking Ober was promoted often, but his seem so at the time. The partners had no knowledge ambitions soared beyond his job. That’s when Ober of the grinding wheel business. They also didn’t know took a chance and bought , shares in 3M. He had that an ambitious New York inventor named Edward high aspirations and faith in the venture. In  of Acheson had discovered how to make an artificial abra- the early, touch-and-go years of 3M, Ober served as sive combining carbon and silicon at high temperatures. 3 1 Anorthosite, mistaken for corundum, was mined at 3M’s Crystal Bay property. 2 Articles of Incorporation, signed on June 13, 1902, by the five founders (Henry Bryan, Hermon Cable, Dr. J. Danley Budd, John Dwan and William McGonagle.) 3 John Dwan in his law office, where the company had its headquarters until 1916, when 3M moved to St. Paul. 4 Chapter 1 Acheson’s “carborundum” was taking off on the East Coast, especially with grind- ing wheel manufacturers. Searching for other options to keep the company afloat, the founders jettisoned the grinding wheel idea a year later and chose to focus on manufacturing sandpa- per, another business they knew noth- ing about. To get started, the company needed about , to pay its debts and finance a sandpaper plant. Who would be the financial supporter this time? Ober called his younger friend, Lucius Ordway, Ober had a clear vision that 3M could be built on manufacturing abrasives when the United States was becoming an industrial nation. If he hadn’t been bold and courageous, 3M wouldn’t exist today. > Roger Appeldorn retired corporate scientist 1 co-owner of Crane and Ordway, a plumbing supply Ordway migrated to St. Paul, at age , after gradu- firm in St. Paul and a man of means who liked to take ating from Brown University. He married into St. Paul risks. Ordway invested , on the assurance that society, promoted new business development in the he wouldn’t need to be involved in the day-to-day city, sailed the waters of White Bear Lake as his yacht affairs of 3M. club’s first commodore, and pursued his own company’s 2 1 Letter from John Dwan 3 to Edgar Ober, July 13, 1906, questioning the future of 3M. 2 Sheets of unsuccessful Crystal Bay corundum paper. 3 Early 3M sandpaper factory, in a converted flour mill in Duluth. Its location on the water- front made it easily accessible to Lake Superior boats.  Early Struggles Plant the Seeds of Innovation 5 growth. By the time Ober appealed to his friend for of New York and both mines were dominated by larger an investment in 3M, Ordway was already worth nearly sandpaper manufacturers.  million. 3M had no domestic source of raw materials, no After Ordway had invested ,, the founders ready cash and no product. This might have been a logi- came back for more money. Within two years, Ordway cal time to admit defeat. Instead, the company moved had invested , in the fledgling enterprise. Even to Duluth in  and found a source of Spanish garnet. though sales had begun to pick up, 3M still needed It received its first shipment in . more cash. Breaking his own rules about daily involve- At just about the same time, 3M’s first and only ment, Ordway became 3M’s president and personally “angel,” Ordway, introduced the concept of patient approved every purchase and every check issued. In money—a term that is still used today at 3M to repre- the back of his mind, Ordway considered getting out, sent long-term investment in an idea, technology or but he couldn’t think of anyone else who was a likely prospect to buy his majority share of 3M. If you look at 3M technologies and the strongest A survival spirit dominated the little company and, thankfully, a modicum of good sense. Even though programs we have today, they’ve been long- there was talk of large copper deposits at Carlton Peak term. It’s not the money that’s patient, it’s the in northern Minnesota, Ordway argued that 3M could people supporting the new idea that are patient. go broke using all its resources trying to find the pre- > Leon Royer cious metal. Ordway also refused to engage in price fixing when two other abrasives companies suggested to 3M in  that life would be ever so much better product that shows promise, even when others argue if all three just “cooperated on prices.” otherwise. The angel in Ordway resurfaced again in  when he acquired property to move 3M from > Perseverance and a Spirit of Survival Duluth to St. Paul. The first step was construction of About that time, 3M’s partners learned that their Crystal a new sandpaper plant. It was a big gamble, given 3M’s Bay corundum wasn’t corundum at all, but a low-grade ragged history. In fact, McKnight said years later that anorthosite that was useless for abrasive work. If the without Ordway’s investment of patient money, 3M company was going to make sandpaper, it needed a would have disappeared before . source of garnet and only two deposits existed in the The company seemed star-crossed. First, a worthless United States. Both were in the Adirondack Mountains mineral, then virtually no sales, poor product quality 4 5 4 Workers taking a break during construction of 3M’s original St. Paul building. 5 Harriet (Hattie) Swailes, 3M’s first female employee, began as a “general office girl” in 1903. Later she transferred to St. Paul as secretary to McKnight and retired in 1923. 6 Chapter 1 Background: Imperial Wetordry sandpaper and formidable competition. All the founders had to “Much to my surprise,” McKnight recalled keep them going was perseverance, a spirit of survival years later, “Mr. Ober appointed me sales and optimism. What would happen next? It was the manager to succeed Mr. Pearce and to fall heir equivalent of the sky falling, only at ground level. 3M to his troubles.” McKnight knew nothing about built its new plant, a two-story, -foot by -foot sales or quality assurance, but he experienced a dimension of 3M’s young culture that has become a key strength for  years. It was to The founders had unshakable faith in the future provide promising people with new opportuni- of 3M. Even though they almost went bankrupt, ties, support them and give them time to learn they kept pouring money in. You succeed if you and thrive. That is precisely what happened. When McKnight proved he could take initiative, be cre- have faith. > Walter Meyers retired vice president, Marketing ative and produce, Ober promoted him to general manager in, ahead of two men who were older structure with a basement. It wasn’t the best construction, and more experienced. but it was all the budget allowed. When raw materials arrived from Duluth and were stacked on the first floor, one Saturday, the weight tested the timbers—and the 3M recognized the importance of quality timbers lost. The floor of the new plant collapsed and assurance and technology excellence sooner every carton, bag and container landed in a heap in the than most companies. The builders of 3M basement. With the plant finally restored, 3M faced quality knew that if their company was to be a leader, problems. The company had sales of , in , they had to identify and solve problems. but disgruntled customers were sending its inferior > Ken Schoen retired executive vice president, sandpaper back. To make matters worse, 3M had no Information and Imaging Technologies Sector lab or technical expertise to figure out what was wrong with its sandpaper or how to fix it. 3M’s naturally ambi- tious sales manager, John Pearce, grew dispirited and quit. For a solution, Ober turned to 3M’s young office manager. 1 1 Letter to 3M Secretary John Dwan from an early stock- holder, 1910.  Lou Weyand Walter Meyers erals to make abrasives for sand- New Recruits Taste 3M’s Evolving Culture got a taste of was a market- paper in a six-floor building 3M’s work ethic ing student at nicknamed ‘six floors of fun and and frugal tem- Wayne State frolic,’ ” Heltzer said. The Benz perament early University in building was physically isolated in his career. 1935 when he from 3M headquarters and had Weyand joined the company in came up with a unique idea to a reputation for creativity and 1915 as an office clerk in the promote a new product. 3M had freedom to experiment. company’s five-person national introduced a blockbuster prod- Heltzer applied for work and sales office, based in downtown uct, Scotch cellophane tape, became a $12-per-week factory Chicago. When a price changed five years earlier in 1930, the worker unloading boxcars, as or a special order came in, it was year after the U.S. stock market most newcomers did. About the not unusual for Sales Manager crashed. “I got to thinking about time Heltzer moved to 3M’s min- Archibald Bush to work with new ways to use the tape; one erals department lab, a customer Weyand and a shipping clerk was putting up posters in gro- asked Sales Manager George until midnight, packing products, cery stores to advertise specials,” Halpin why 3M couldn’t use labeling and preparing them for Meyers recalled. “3M didn’t know its mineral expertise to make shipping. Because he was away their tape turned dark brown and reflective glass beads to improve most of the week making sales stained windows when it was highway markings.Young and calls, Bush worked Saturdays exposed to sun. I wrote them inexperienced as he was, Heltzer and often Sundays with Weyand a letter about this problem.” got to use his education and had to catch up on paper work. Even though the country the chance to “fool around with Weyand’s wife frequently volun- was deep in the Depression and the challenge.” teered as a stenographer and 3M wasn’t hiring, Meyers’ letter “One of the things that has the trio warmed themselves with landed him a job unloading box- always been important at 3M is a kerosene stove in the drafty cars for $75 and $10 in stock a giving people a chance to branch 3M office. month. But Meyers’ first assign- out and spend some time on When Weyand, who later ment wasn’t the loading dock. projects that excite them,” said retired as executive vice presi- It was a trip to St. Paul to meet Heltzer. “I was intrigued with how dent and director, Sales, began privately with Bush. If there was to make glass beads. My first selling four years later and something the company could ones involved melting glass in covered six states, he said, learn from an 18-year-old, Bush, a crucible about the size of a cup “Mr. Bush finally condescended who by then was general sales and pouring it out of the sixth to provide a Dodge sedan which manager, wanted to know it. floor of the Benz Building. When relieved me of a lot of foot travel, Meyers spent his entire career you melt glass and pour it in a buses and trains.”The bargain at 3M and eventually became thin stream, it breaks into parti- vehicle had only a rear bumper, vice president, Marketing. cles that turn into bubbles. I’d run but that didn’t concern the frugal down the six floors and sweep Bush. He told Weyand that he When Harry up what I had.” Those early exper- was responsible for watching Heltzer gradu- iments led to 3M’s Scotchlite carefully and not hitting any- ated from the reflective products and the thing. Weyand wasn’t allowed University of chance for a young man to try a spare tire either, only tire Minnesota in his ideas: “Mr. McKnight and the patches. Traveling salesmen 1933 with his people around him recognized couldn’t charge laundry costs metallurgical engineering degree, the value of gambling on people to the company and, if there was he remembered a class field trip instead of things,” he said. Forty a choice of restaurants for meals, to 3M’s minerals processing years later, Heltzer became 3M they were expected to go to a department. “I was intrigued with chairman of the board and chief coffee shop and sit on a stool. how they crushed and sized min- executive officer (CEO). 8 Chapter 1 It was McKnight who went straight to customers’ Retracing the route of the Spanish garnet shipment, factories to find out why 3M’s sandpaper was failing. 3M discovered that its sacks of garnet had crossed And, it was McKnight who told Ober—with all due a stormy Atlantic Ocean with an olive oil shipment. respect—3M would never succeed unless its general When the ship pitched and rolled, a couple of casks manager supervised both sales and manufacturing. broke and oil soaked into the garnet bound for St. Paul. The one-two punch in  and  that hit 3M 3M was left with  tons of oily garnet and a might have been the end of this start-up story, but once pack of angry customers. Fortunately, Orson Hull, 3M’s again, perseverance prevailed. Once the plant was resourceful and determined factory superintendent, restored, McKnight dealt with what he called “an finally found a solution after many experiments. He epidemic of complaints” that spread like a nasty virus “cooked” the garnet and roasted the oil away. That incident led to 3M’s first quality program. But, regaining ‘We want you to inspect everything,’ Mr. McKnight the trust of customers would take much longer and that task fell to a young up-and-comer, Archibald Bush. told me. He outlined what he wanted me to do Like McKnight, Bush was raised on a Midwestern and I said, ‘I don’t know how long it’s going to farm, paid his way through business school in Duluth, take.’ He said, ‘All your life if you like; we’ve got then joined 3M as a bookkeeper. But, the extroverted, ambitious and energetic Bush seemed far better suited to get a good product.’ > Bill Vievering 3M’s first quality to sales. It was Bush who is credited with building a assurance employee and a Carlton Society member strong sales culture at 3M in the company’s early years. He later held leadership positions on 3M’s Executive among customers and “what little reputation we had... Committee. was badly impaired.” In the daily mail, every complaint The second punch in the one-two punch came on was the same... pieces of bare, rumpled sandpaper. the heels of 3M’s first real success. When the large and Quite simply, the crushed garnet fell off when the cus- established Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls, tomers tried to use 3M’s product. New York, introduced a cloth coated with an artificial After weeks of frantic study, a worker noticed some abrasive as a substitute for emery cloth used in the auto crushed garnet left from manufacturing that had been industry, scrappy little 3M responded in kind. “We very tossed in a water pail. The water’s surface was oily. quickly made arrangements to obtain a competing arti- If the garnet had been contaminated with oil, it would ficial mineral produced by the Norton Company of resist glue and never stick to the sandpaper backing. Worcester, Massachusetts, and we made ‘Three-M-ite 1 1 Archibald G. Bush, sales manager in the national sales office in Chicago, circa 1919, seated at a desk received in payment from a craftsman who owed 3M $16.84. 2 William L. McKnight as a young man. 3 McKnight pictured in 1939, inspecting the cornerstone of Building 21, which would serve as company headquarters until 1962. 4 McKnight in the 1950s. It was rare to find him working in his shirtsleeves. Background: 3M aluminum oxide sandpaper E ven though he started his McKnight knew risk was nec- McKnight: Always Ahead of His Time 4 business career as an assis- essary to achieve success. “The tant bookkeeper, in 1907, and best and hardest work is done,” never graduated from Duluth he said, “in the spirit of adven- Business University, William L. ture and challenge... Mistakes McKnight developed a personal will be made.” McKnight put his business philosophy that was faith in the good judgment of profoundly progressive. In fact, 3M employees. He warned what McKnight espoused 75 against micromanagement and years ago is echoed in today’s the chilling effect that accom- best-selling business books. panies intolerance of failure. “Management that is destruc- 2 tively critical when mistakes are these progressive ideas? made can kill initiative,” he said. McKnight’s Scottish parents “It’s essential that we have many were pioneering settlers on the people with initiative if we are Midwestern prairie. From Joseph to continue to grow.” and Cordelia McKnight, the boy McKnight knew that others learned about risk-taking, self- could rise to leadership. “As our determination and personal business grows,” McKnight said ambition. Growing up in an era in 1944, “it becomes increasingly when farmers were plagued by necessary to delegate responsi- drought and grasshoppers, he bility and to encourage men and learned about interdependence. McKnight broke into business women to exercise their initia- Watching his father struggle to at a time when a U.S. business- tive.” For a man who liked to sustain and build the family farm man was often a larger-than-life control most aspects of his life, from season to season taught economic hero who ruled his McKnight demonstrated a rare McKnight the rudiments of entre- enterprise with an autocratic ability to see beyond his own preneurship. Cordelia McKnight’s hand. Workers should be seen needs. Delegating responsibility faith in the goodness of people and not heard. If a breakthrough and authority, he said, “requires gave her son an enduring ideal- idea surfaced, it would surely considerable tolerance because ism. Joseph McKnight’s activism come from the top. good people... are going to want on behalf of struggling fellow McKnight saw business and to do their jobs in their own way.” farmers taught his son to stand the workplace differently. He Born in a sod-covered house for his ideals. understood interdependence in South Dakota and raised work- When William broke the news as well as the importance of per- ing on his father’s farm, where to his parents that he would sonal freedom. “It is proper to and how did McKnight develop not be a farmer, one parent said emphasize how much we depend to the other: “Let him have his on each other,” McKnight said dreams.” From that simple 3 on his 60th anniversary with 3M. response, McKnight learned how In business, he said, “the first the support of personal freedom principle is the promotion of can set creativity free. entrepreneurship and insistence upon freedom in the workplace to pursue innovative ideas.” 10 Chapter 1 cloth,’ ” McKnight recalled years later. But, it was no instant success. While Carborundum’s product was very flexible, Three-M-ite cloth was stiff and brittle. Like roasting oil from garnet, solving this problem required creativity and a little luck. Three-M-ite cloth became 3M’s first profitable product,  long years after its founding in . The start-up company in Minnesota was thrilled to challenge a New York behemoth—that is, until the letter arrived. The Carborundum Company charged 3M with patent infringement and demanded that they stop making Three-M-ite cloth. Goliath was on the offensive. Bush, 3M’s sales manager, suggested that the company hire Paul Carpenter, a tough Chicago lawyer who knew patent law cold and was noted for standing his ground in the face of formidable odds. 3M did not back down and Carpenter did his home- Beginnings are slow. Beginnings are hard. Somewhere along 1920, it began to ease up. > Bill Vievering work. Ultimately, Carpenter argued that Carborundum’s patent was invalid: his argument was so strong 3M pre- vailed. This was 3M’s first experience with the power of patents, and the positive outcome saved the company from a terminal case of red ink. It also educated the 1 1 Record of early 2 dividends paid out on December 18, 1916. 2 Early view of sand- paper production. Before machinery like this, sandpaper had to be coated by hand.  Early Struggles Plant the Seeds of Innovation 11 young company about the importance of patents, a phi- and John Dwan gathered to share the good news, Ober losophy that endures today. was jubilant: “Gentlemen,” he said, “this is the day Thanks to Three-M-ite cloth and a boost in business we’ve been waiting for. Some of us wondered if it from World War I, 3M finally posted substantial profits would ever come. We’re out of debt and the future looks and declared its first dividend of  cents per share in good. Business has more than doubled in the past two the last quarter of . The dividend totaled , years; and, for the first time, we’ll have enough left after on , shares outstanding. When Edgar Ober, expenses to pay a dividend... There are a lot of people William McKnight, Samuel Ordway (son of Lucius) who thought we’d never make it.” time-tested truths Conceive, believe, achieve. Persistence—combined with creativity and faith—is still the best formula for long-term success. Don’t let one approach or solution blind you to better options. Struggle is a necessary component of success. “Patient money” and patient people help the big ideas germinate. Ask your customers what quality is—then never let the standard slip. Give good people opportunities, support them and watch them thrive. Respect the “power of patents.” Early architects of innovation The famed Pro-Fab lab Mining a mountain: George Swenson Lab lessons  2 3M Innovation— A‘Tolerance for Tinkerers’ In the same year a baseball game was broadcast on U.S. radio for the first time and French scientists developed a vaccine to combat tuberculosis, 3M welcomed three men who turned the company into an innovation powerhouse that would attract admiration—and analysis—for  years to come. The year was . The early architects of innovation were Richard Carlton, Dick Drew and Francis Okie. Looking back, observers might call this one of the most “harmonic convergences” in the annals of business. 14 Chapter 2 With his company in the black and annual sales wrote to McKnight asking for samples of every sand- exceeding  million, President William McKnight knew paper grit size 3M made, McKnight responded. Okie it was time to hire a strong technical person to lead and was a young printing ink manufacturer who had an idea coordinate 3M’s research, manufacturing and engineer- far removed from his own business. 3M didn’t sell bulk ing activities. Carlton was an affable, quick, -year-old materials to anyone, but McKnight was curious about engineering graduate from the University of Minnesota Okie’s unusual request typed on sky blue stationery. McKnight dispatched his East Coast sales manager, Robert Skillman, to check out Okie. Sitting at a worn We’ve made a lot of mistakes. And we’ve oak desk (that Okie used to test his sandpaper), he told been very lucky at times. Some of our products Skillman he hadn’t planned to share his idea with any- are things you might say we’ve just stumbled one, but he had been unable to find a reliable supply of on. But, you can’t stumble if you’re not in motion. > Richard Carlton quoted in “The 3M Way to Innovation: Okie created quite a stir among the workers, Balancing People and Profit,” Kodansha International Ltd., 2000 for he was the first live inventor they had ever met. Like William McKnight, he was quiet, with experience in drafting and electrical contracting. soft-spoken and unaffected. But he said he The only trouble was that McKnight could pay Carlton hated ‘to be confined to the specific.’ only  a month—less than one-third of what he was > Mildred Houghton Comfort author, “William L. McKnight, already making. No problem, the ambitious Carlton answered, “Your company can’t get along without a Industrialist” technically trained man like me. I’ll take .” Carlton became the first member of the lab staff with a college raw materials. Furthermore, his financial backers had degree and made the first steps toward turning 3M into cold feet. Here was a young entrepreneur with a great a well-oiled innovation machine. idea and no way to bring it to market. Could 3M help? Okie agreed to sell his patented waterproof sandpaper, > Probing the Impossible later called Wetordry, to 3M. He moved to St. Paul, More than a few people in the industry had turned Okie joining 3M in . down when he asked for samples of sandpaper grit. They Okie made his first Wetordry experimental batches thought Okie was a wild-eyed inventor. But when he in a washtub until someone suggested he could make Chapter opening 1 1 Richard Carlton (top photos Rolls of Scotch row, far right) and Francis masking tape; The 3M Okie (holding trophy) tape lab where Scotch were members of the brand pressure-sensitive 3M bowling team. tapes were developed in 2 William McKnight and the 1920s; A prolific Okie traded telegrams writer, Francis Okie in 1920 concerning 3M’s scratched notes on any- request to experiment thing, even the back of with Okie’s sandpaper 3M sandpaper; Samples binding agent. 3 Dick of Wetordry Tri-M-Ite Drew’s letter in 1921 sandpaper. was in response to a 3M employment ad.  15 smaller ones in a bowl. He often forgot to record ingredi- ent amounts. When he had a particularly good batch, Okie didn’t know why. In later years, the absent-minded and research- 3 focused Okie frequently forgot where he had parked his car in the Drew spent his first two years at 3M checking raw 3M lot and an accommodating colleague took him materials and running tests on sandpaper. Next, he was home. On the next day, Okie often drove another car assigned to make “handspreads” of Okie’s revolutionary to work, then forgot where it was. Another colleague Wetordry waterproof sandpaper and take them to a local drove him home. auto-body paint shop for testing. (This product gave 3M an important entry into the automotive marketplace.) > The ‘Irresistible Force’ While waiting for the test results on the sandpaper, Drew At , Drew was an engineering school dropout who made his living playing the banjo for dance bands while Dick Drew had an instinct that compelled him studying mechanical engineering through correspon- dence school. There was a job open in 3M’s tiny research to push beyond reasonable limits and... in lab. “I have not as yet been employed in commercial some cases... unreasonable limits. He was an work and am eager to get started,” he wrote Bill irresistible force drawn toward any immovable Vievering, 3M’s first quality assurance expert. “I realize object. > Lew Lehr retired 3M chairman of the board that my services would not be worth much until a certain amount of practical experience is gained, and I would be and chief executive officer (CEO) glad to start with any salary you see fit to give... I am accustomed to physical labor, if this be required, as I couldn’t help but notice—or hear drove a tractor and did general farm work... ” about—the problems people had paint- ing cars in the popular, two-tone style of the day. Either the paint came off when painters tried to remove the plaster tape they used, or the tape’s 2 16 Chapter 2 adhesive—softened by lacquer solvent—remained on facturing and sales objectives. Looking back, he was the car’s surface. Profanity peppered the air. a visionary when he wrote in a manual he published Not knowing how he would do it, the irrepressible in : Drew promised he could produce a better, nondrying The time to get closest control of your product is adhesive tape and solve their sticky problems—even during your manufacturing process. What you do after though, after weeks of experimentation, McKnight this is just history, except in isolated cases. ordered him to quit his work and get back to improving There is no room for a thin-skinned man in this Okie’s Wetordry sandpaper. Drew’s “contraband” Scotch organization. Carelessness cannot exist. The future masking tape debuted two years later in 1925. is in building even more exacting requirements so refinements on machinery can be designed to meet > The ‘Dream Team’ the demand. The trio that joined 3M in  shared characteristics The technical phase has passed from the laboratory that set the tone for 3M’s innovative climate. Carlton to the production department. A free exchange of data was an optimist, go-getter, calculated risk-taker and and ideas, we hope, will always be our policy and creed. a leader. Drew shared Carlton’s optimism. He was also The laboratory of the modern industrial plant must unconventional, innately curious, a rule-breaker and have something more than the men and equipment to a leader who had his own distinctive style. Okie was do control work. It must be a two-fisted department the consummate inventor: open to new ideas, resisting generating and testing ideas. This work, dressed in its limits, probing the impossible. He might have been a best Sunday clothes, is termed “research.” misfit in a more traditional organization, but at 3M, No plant can rest on its laurels—either it develops he was very successful. and improves or loses ground. Carlton set the tone for 3M’s innovative future Every idea evolved should have a and echoed McKnight’s chance to prove its worth. operating philosophy This is true for two when he blended reasons: 1. If it is research, manu- good, we want it; 1 Soft-spoken Francis Okie, pictured in 1 1963, was 3M’s first authentic inventor. He was brilliant, but absent-minded— there often were eight to 10 hats on the hat tree in his office because he forgot to wear them home at night. 2 Richard Carlton was lauded for his ability to inspire creativity. 3 The first Central Research Lab was established in 1937 to spur new product development.  3M Innovation—A ‘Tolerance for Tinkerers’ 17 2. If it is not good, we will have purchased our insur- every dollar invested in research and development ance and peace of mind when we have proved it imprac- (R&D) from  to the early s had a strong tical. Research in business pays. “multiplier effect.” Each dollar invested returned  in gross sales. Even so, Carlton said, there were broader research horizons to explore. What about pure research During the dark days of the Depression, when that focused on products not even imagined yet? money was almost nonexistent, Carlton fought Thanks to Carlton’s sponsorship, 3M created its first tooth and nail to keep the laboratories in Central Research Laboratory in  with a twofold existence and to keep the people from being purpose: to supplement activities of 3M’s division labs that worked on product refinements and to explore inde- hurt. I have never known a man more kind, pendent, long-range scientific problems beyond the ken more considerate, more companionable or of any division. The Carlton Society, which even today more inspirational than him. > Clarence Sampair recognizes 3M technical employees for career achieve- ments, is named after Richard Carlton. retired president, International Division Innovation has more to do with inventing Like McKnight, Carlton—who later succeeded the future than with redesigning the past. McKnight as 3M’s president—was a “management by > Alex Cirillo Jr. division vice president, Commercial walking around” leader who didn’t stay at his desk. He could blend the talents of the nontechnical, the college- Graphics Division trained and the “idea” people who operated on the fringes of policy and practice. Strong, annual investment in research was a finan- For its first  years, 3M’s definition of research was cial imperative for McKnight. He wanted his company “product development” not to aim for a  percent increase in sales annually, a  “pure” or “fundamental” percent profit target and  percent of sales plowed back research as research scien- into R&D every year. It was a sum above the average tists define it. To the leaders for U.S. companies at the time. of 3M, research meant growth Looking back, 3M people agree that this early and and, according to early consistent commitment to R&D was crucial. By the company records, s, the annual investment averaged  to  percent 2 3 18 Chapter 2 Say What? of sales. “It was one of the most important decisions ever made,” said Ray Richelsen, retired executive vice Almost 50 years after 3M’s founding, Bob Adams, president, Transportation, Graphics and Safety Markets. then senior vice president, Research and Develop- “Every business we’re in today is based on having ment, and Les Krogh hosted two University of Illinois invented something new to the world and taking that professors at 3M. One guest was John Bardeen, co- invention to customers around the world. 3M has spent inventor of the transistor and 1956 Nobel Prize winner. a lot of time, money and effort to create a culture of After the visiting professors gave technical presenta- invention.” tions at 3M, they piled into Krogh’s van to head for a local golf course. > Among Cinders... Creativity “We were driving down 35E in St. Paul and passed The first Central Research Laboratory location was the Benz Building,” Krogh, who later became senior hardly conducive to creativity—it was located below vice president, Research and Development, recalled. “I pointed at it and said, quite proudly, ‘That’s where an adhesive maker in Building #, in space that Les Central Research got its start.’ ” Krogh, retired senior vice president, Research and The car was silent. From the seat beside Krogh Development, called “too bad to describe.” Before long, came a hesitant question, “You don’t use the building however, Central Research moved to the Benz Building any more do you?” Bardeen asked. on Grove Street in St. Paul. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. “I was proud of the Benz Building heritage,” said Krogh, Annual investment in R&D in good years— “and all they saw was an old, run-down factory and bad—is a cornerstone of the company. building. The fact is, we were still doing experiments through the 1990s.” The consistency in the bad years is especially important. > David Powell vice president, Marketing “I heard the building had been a candy factory and a whiskey warehouse,” said Krogh, who started work there in . “It was extremely well-built, but it had large factory windows. We were right next to a railroad switching yard with a steam locomotive that spouted cinders. Standard operating procedure Background: Post-it note 1 1 The Benz Building housed Central Research until the mid-1950s. 2 An early lab notebook used to record experiments.  3M Innovation—A ‘Tolerance for Tinkerers’ 19 every morning was to dust cinders off your desk before bered Carlton calling his lab staff the “shock troops,” starting work. With no air conditioning, it was hot. One after the members of a university football team who day, I remember a reading of  degrees Fahrenheit played the role of the team’s next opponent and bumped in the building. It was hard to conduct experiments.” heads with the first string players. “Dick’s idea was to Even 3M technical directors might be spotted visit- have a group of us handle the dicey problems that 3M’s ing the lab in their sandals, shorts and short-sleeved product labs didn’t have time for,” Hendricks said. shirts. In spite of the heat and grit, however, Krogh said, it was one of the most productive labs he’d ever seen Thomas Edison believed that a small group of in his long career. “A plaque at the entrance names the discoveries that led to major products,” said Krogh, people with varied backgrounds could be the “including magnetic tape, printing products, modern most inventive. That’s what I found when I joined pressure-sensitive adhesives, acrylate adhesives (provid- Central Research. I could talk to an analytical ing the basis for medical tapes), Thermo-Fax copying, chemist, a physicist, people working in biology and 3M has a tolerance for tinkerers and a pattern organic chemistry—people in all the sciences. of experimentation that led to our broadly based, They were all within 50 yards. > Spencer Silver retired corporate scientist, Office Supplies Division diversified company today. To borrow a line from ‘Finian’s Rainbow,’ you might say we learned People in Central Research were on their honor when to ‘follow the fellow who follows a dream.’ it came to working hours, said Krogh. If a guy decided > Gordon Engdahl retired vice president, Human Resources to go fishing on a weekday, Carlton knew the time would be made up. If he decided to work independently fluorochemicals that led to Scotchgard fabric protector, on his own product idea, he had the freedom to do it— reflective sheeting and Scotch black vinyl electrical tape. even if the boss said otherwise. From the early days of Carlton set the tone for the lab. He was an idea man and 3M, “bootlegging” was a time-honored practice. The he had a huge tolerance for experimentation.” leaders of 3M understood that no one should stand in Jim Hendricks, who spent  years in the Central the way of a creative person with passion because that Research Laboratory during its formative years and was person might invent the next product or manufacturing a founding member of the 3M Technical Forum, remem- breakthrough. 2 First You Find a Flower Pot... W illiam McKnight’s desire for diversification some- times led to surprising results and a motherlode of innovative thinking. About the time the United States stock market crashed in 1929, McKnight learned that 3M’s only Midwest 2 competitor, Wausau Abrasives Company of Wausau, Wisconsin, was on the block. For $260,000, that practical considerations lim- nificantly, thanks to the work of McKnight made his first acqui- ited the amount of coating used a young newcomer to the 3M sition for 3M. He picked up on roofing materials to only a minerals department, Cliff Jewett, one roadster, three trucks, two fraction of an ordinary coat of 3M manufactured more and more plants—and one mountain. paint. Normally, paints last five tons for less cost. Even in its first McKnight called his entire man- years, at best, but roofs were year—producing 18,000 tons— agement and laboratory force expected to survive 20 years. 3M managed to run in the black. together and asked, “What can Swenson experimented Its product was decidedly better you do to make a mountain of by mixing powdered ceramic than the competition’s, in part, silica quartz profitable?” glazes with paint and firing that Swenson said, because 3M had George Swenson was one mixture at nearly 2,000 degrees strong cooperative relationships of the research chemists in the Fahrenheit. He and his team cre- with the labs at the roofing com- room. He remembered H. Colby ated a little rotary pot furnace to panies. In about four years, how- Rowell, a specialty salesman for test the approach. They mounted ever, calamity struck. 3M, telling the group that a huge a flower pot on a spindle that “It’s not unusual in new prod- market existed if 3M could make rotated on a 45-degree angle. ucts,” Swenson recalled. “Our colored minerals for the roofing The heat came from an open gas quartz granules were losing industry. Consumers were tired flame. During the firing, the paint their adhesion and falling off the burned off and the glaze fused roofs.” Like the olive oil incident 1 with the roofing material. Voila— in the earlier years, this product it worked and 3M delivered its failure threatened to put 3M out first 200 pounds of colored roof- of a booming business where it ing granules to Bird & Son of could charge premium prices, Chicago in 1932. The company even during the Great was so impressed that it asked Depression. for two carloads—80 tons— Swenson and his colleagues in six weeks. Because speed was went to work as sleuths. “There important (even in those days), was a real feeling of camaraderie 3M acquired a small enamel on our team. Everybody was smelting furnace, installed it in young and full of energy,” said of their dull gray and brown the 3M minerals building, filled Swenson. “I didn’t see people roofs. But early versions of col- the order and began manufactur- who were thinking first about ored roofs faded much too soon. ing between 40 and 80 tons in ‘What will this do for my Because he had some experi- multiple colors every week by career?’ ” With persistence and ence with resins and coatings, operating all day, every day. no small amount of creativity, Swenson, at age 24, was told to With major improvements in they found the problem. Light— figure out how to make the gran- manufacturing that cut costs sig- and damaging ultraviolet ules fade-proof. Here was the big light—was passing through the challenge: Swenson discovered  3M Innovation—A ‘Tolerance for Tinkerers’ 21 roofing granules and causing the Drew was an early icon for bootlegging. Krogh and asphalt underneath to lose its adhe- others agreed that Drew’s response to McKnight led sive properties. How would they solve to what is known today as the  percent rule at 3M. the problem? Make the granules Regardless of their assignment, 3M technical employees more opaque to let in less light? Would they have to find a new mate- Entrepreneurship, in my definition, is a spirit— rial altogether? Meanwhile, consumers were a quality—that believes so strongly in an idea asking for blue roofs—a color 3M that it risks the security of the present for the didn’t offer. Richard Carlton inspired the team when their spirits waned. reward of the future. > Gordon Engdahl “On many occasions, we’d try every approach to a problem without are encouraged to devote up to  percent of their work- success, and we were feeling pretty ing hours to independent projects. With the develop- down,” Swenson said. “Five or 10 ment of Scotch masking tape, McKnight and Carlton minutes with Mr. Carlton would often saw what Drew could do by saying, “Management, bring out some avenues we hadn’t you’re wrong. I’m right and I’m going to prove it.” After explored, and I’d leave his office ready that, McKnight and Carlton both supported the idea to take up the fight again.” When that technical people could disagree with management, things looked their worst, luck experiment, and do some fooling around on their own. intervened. “I was only with 3M a couple years,” said Roger “All these problems descended upon us at once,” Swenson said. Jack Appeldorn, retired corporate scientist, “when we were Brown, 3M geologist, went in search of other minerals with more opacity I started working as a ‘lab flunkie.’ It dawned and luckily found a large deposit of greystone rock about five miles away on me that, even without formal education, from 3M’s Wausau plant. “Without this a guy could use his brains and further himself. extreme good fortune,” Swenson You weren’t paid to do the job: you were paid said, “we probably would have dis- continued the business.” 3M wound to think. > Don Douglas retired vice president, Reflective up making all of its colored roofing Products Division granules using this base rock and quickly patented the manufacturing processes. 3 Because of its long-term success, the roofing granules business became the first separate division 1 3M’s Wausau Plant supplied Mid- created at 3M with its own manage- western roofing manufacturers with ment team—a pattern that would quartz roofing granules. 2 A trend in be replicated many times as the brightly colored rooftops began with company grew. And, after 39 years, the introduction of 3M Colorquartz roof- ing granules. 3 The roofing granule Swenson ended his career as vice business fit well with 3M’s strategy to president of the division. diversify. Background: 3M algae block copper roofing granule system 22 Chapter 2 in a staff meeting and someone asked, ‘I have a new > Incubating the ‘Birth Rate’ idea that could be useful to 3M, but it’s not related to Innovation isn’t complete until an idea explored in the the business I’m working in right now. Am I allowed to laboratory is transformed into a product—and that prod- work on it?’ The vice president of Research and Devel- uct goes to market. 3M’s most successful stories revolve opment answered, ‘The facilities we have here—the lab around innovative products that solved problems and and all the equipment—are for you to use. If you want met customer needs. In the best cases, these products to work on those programs on your own time, you’re changed the basis of competition by introducing a never- welcome to do it.’ ” before-seen idea to the marketplace. But, that wasn’t happening fast enough to satisfy McKnight in . The 15 percent rule is unique to 3M. Most One Saturday morning, McKnight analyzed the “birth of the inventions that 3M depends upon today rate” of 3M products. He ticked them off: Wetordry came out of that kind of individual initiative... waterproof sandpaper in , Scotch masking tape in , Scotch transparent tape in , Colorquartz You don’t make a difference by just following roofing granules in  and rubber cement in . orders. > Bill Coyne retired senior vice president, Then there was a six-year dry spell. Although Scotchlite Research and Development reflective sheeting was created in , the rewards of that new product had not yet been recognized. During his years as senior vice president, Research “While these dates are only approximate and are and Development, Krogh said the  percent rule was really predicated on when the product commenced to often greeted with skepticism by technical people from yield some profit, it indicates rather a long period of other large companies. “They couldn’t understand how hunger... nothing appears to have been developed we could allow people  percent of their time to do since the rubber cement birthday,” McKnight wrote what they wanted and still meet important deadlines. Carlton. He urged Carlton to push some of the ideas in It was inconceivable that we would permit so much development stage to marketable products generating freedom,” said Krogh. “Here was my answer. If 3Mers revenue or “to move on to other fields.” have to get something done, they’ll do it. They’ll take In his memo to Carlton, McKnight said, “I do not their  percent on Saturdays or Sundays, if think there is anything we can do about it immedi- need be. The  percent philosophy flies in ately.” In spite of his own comments, later that same the face of standard management ideas day, McKnight took action. After thinking about about control.” the innovation dilemma and talking with 1 1 The equivalent of two daily coffee breaks plus lunch time gave inventors “15 percent time” for their own projects. 2 Dick Drew (right) set the company’s standard for perseverance and encouraged his lab team to follow their instincts.  Background: Scotch masking tape Carlton and others, McKnight created 3M’s first New Everything I Learned in Products Department that Saturday afternoon. In a second memo dated October , , McKnight a Lab, I Learned From... described his plan. Much of what Paul E. Hansen, who retired as technical “3M is spending a substantial and an increasing director, Nonwoven Technical Center, learned about amount on research every year,” McKnight said. “It’s working successfully in a lab, he learned from Dick time to create a department to cooperate with all inter- Drew. They are timeless lessons: ested parties in studying the commercial value of each Anything worth doing is worth doing before it research project upon which money is being spent.” is perfected. Don’t wait to try to do everything exactly The goal was to recommend to management whether on your first attempts in an experiment. If you knew or not work should continue on a project. McKnight how to “do it right the first time,” you would, but in gave Joe Duke, who later retired as executive vice presi- most first attempts, you don’t. dent, Sales Administration, the responsibility of leading Be a jack of all trades and a master of one. It is the effort. He told Duke to keep him informed on all good to know how to do a lot of things but also good to be an authority in a specific area. new development work in research at 3M; learn about Put things in a nutshell. It is good to take a the large new markets with product needs; conduct mar- broader approach to things and look for a simple ket surveys to identify the potential size and profitability definition of the task or problem. Always update these of a market; supervise product quality; design a sales objectives because the task can constantly evolve. and distribution network; and—most importantly— It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. decide which research projects lived or died. With a sincere attitude toward one’s work, the chances Duke was a s genius. He helped introduce of doing real damage or harm are small. Consequences Wetordry sandpaper to the automotive industry; from bad calls, in the long run, do not outweigh the time waiting to get everyone’s blessing. If you can do the task today, don’t wait for tomor- row. A quick and marginally successful experiment will fuel thought that evening for your next attempt. Keep the ball in the other person’s court. With everyone doing their job responsibly and promptly, tasks stay current and fresh and move quickly to an end. Don’t keep blinders on all the time. It’s good to have defined goals, but don’t get so engrossed that you miss other opportunities that may spawn from your efforts. 2 Most people aren’t stubborn enough. Too many people quit easily at the first sign of failure. The reward for persistence is internal. The person who is persistent and eventually succeeds is usually only recognized for accomplishing the feat. Seldom does anyone appreciate all that went into making the success a reality. Follow your instincts.Your instincts are actually your total experience in practice. 24 Chapter 2 Background: Scotchlite Diamond Grade reflective sheeting quickly became Eastern division sales manager; and 3M Goes to War was sales manager of 3M’s entire Abrasives Division W orld War II called for a special kind of innovation at 3M. When the war broke out, when McKnight tapped him to lead the New Products Department. the company was making its Scotch transparent tape using To succeed, McKnight said, Duke “should be a natural rubber adhesives. But, free-lancer in our organization” and interact with sales, the United States government manufacturing, engineering and research. Anticipating cut off the supply for commercial the obvious, McKnight said that when “differences of applications in order to stockpile opinion” became serious enough, the 3M management rubber for the war effort. “The big group would have the final vote on a product’s future. push to develop substitutes for Eight years later, the New Products Department became rubber that could make a reason- a division and its most productive years continued able adhesive started,” said John through . In about  years, the division produced Pearson, retired vice president, new business that represented  percent of company Development, who created a new sales and  percent of 3M’s profits. There was more than one way to identify and launch new products and 3M still was learning. McKnight cre- ated a second option in the early s. He was a good judge of people and he noticed that young Drew—the inventor of Scotch masking tape and the even-more- popular Scotch cellophane tape—was stuck. Stalled. Unhappy. “Here was Dick Drew at age , a successful inventor. 3M was busy developing many more tapes,” said Paul E. Hansen, retired technical director, Non- woven Technical Center, and a member of the Carlton Society. “However, Dick was not a happy fit in this thriving business where his maverick, free-wheeling style didn’t fit the company’s organized, technical 1 approach to product development and line extensions.” Seeing this, McKnight took Drew aside, encouraged device to test the adhesion of various resins. “Synthetic resins 1 Among 3M products that had direct applications became the next frontier, and the during WWII were Safety-Walk treads on ship decks, big advance was acrylate that and 3M adhesives were used in everything from planes we discovered during the rubber to artillery. 2 Intended for 3M men in the service, ‘Tape- crisis. It was a whole new plat- Up Girls’—pretty, young 3M employees—were featured form, to use today’s language.” on the back covers of the Megaphone during the war. Work in the lab in those years 3 Lou Spiess, pictured in 1942, held one of the $5 could occur at any hour. “Lab money orders the 3M Club sent to 3M servicemen people would work at all hours at Christmas. of the day or night,” said Pearson, who was later named a Carlton visor. “She was the one Society member. “There was a who told us, ‘Double limited amount of equipment your quotas! We’ll win available and, if you wanted the war and bring the to use it, it might mean com- boys home,’ ” Mulvaney ing in at midnight to get it.” said. “The girls worked Another research like heck. We were going scientist, Don Douglas, to win that war. What experimented with melting camaraderie we had in a old inner tubes to make crisis. It felt like we were adhesive for Scotch elec- doing something with our trical tape. “One night I hearts, souls and guts. snapped a rubber band. “Most of us lived in It fell on a hot plate,” he apartments within walking said. “I wiped the plate distance of 3M and we were off with a paper towel bounced off the machines and the rubber impreg- when the heroes came nated the towel. When I told my home. Nobody said we were 2 lab mates, they said, ‘But we heroes... and most of us can’t get any rubber,’ and I said, 3M chairman of the board and married them.” ‘If a rubber band works, I’ll take chief executive officer (CEO), In fact, the women inner tubes.’ Too bad the smell with 18 patents to his name. were heroes. They was so bad when I melted a “Our success hinged on creating doubled the peace whole box car of inner tubes that reflectorized products for the time plant productiv- th