3M is the text book case of an innovative company. They prided themselves on drawing at least 1/3 of their sales from products released in the past five years. It was official company policy that employees could use 15% of their time to pursue their own projects.
However, some said that the company had become unwieldy, erratic, and sluggish. So they hired McNerney, a Jack Welch disciple, to straighten the company out.
On the news of his hiring stocks soared 20%. He axed 8000 (11%) employees and cut 22% of capital expenditure in his first year. McNerney also introduced the Six Sigma program and drove it through the company. The result was years of increased sales and profits.
However, today the percentage of sales from newly developed products dropped below 25% percent and there is not enough innovation.
After 4,5 years McNerney left to pursue a new challenge at Boeing. The new CEO, George Buckly, is now facing the challenge to manage the tension between innovation and efficiency. The same challenge that is bedeviling CEO’s everywhere.
Many workers say they are happy that focus is shifting from profitability and process discipline to growth and innovation.
I’m frequently searching for brandnew infos in the net about this topic. Thankz!
January 2nd, 2010 by Tashaneta
The story written here is tipical consequence of diminishing a role of working epople in big companies. Sometimes big is OK if you built something for masses, but what we need actually if we know, that consuming material goods can destroy our planet.
January 2nd, 2010 by Miro Mele