Assignment task:
Respond to summary with personal feelings and ideas on how you feel about the points hit here in the summary. What is your opinion? With facts to state your point
3M is a company that is known for its innovation. The organization launched in 1902 with only one location in Two Harbors, MN, and fast forward to 1929, the company had expanded its reach to 29 countries (Williams & Liaw, 2011). They had a variety of brands, but they were best known for their Commet, Post-it, Scotch- Brite, Nexcare, and Scotch brands (Williams & Liaw, 2011). It was a company that knew that in order to stay current and competitive in their market niche they needed to have innovation. Innovation is what drives the growth of a company and ensures that the future is one where they are still operating. A company without innovation is stagnant, and nothing in this world is stagnant. Great management recognizes that innovation within a company will drive sales, boast morale, and Make a workplace environment where employees will thrive. 3M has a "company culture that emphasized innovation, risk-taking and team-work. Pursuing ideas that did not have immediate impact, and learning from mistakes became an important part of 3Ms culture of innovation; failure was seen as a learning experience" (Williams & Laiw, 2011, p. 3). Each and every subsidiary of 3M drove innovation forward for the company.
3M Taiwan subsidiary was headed by Tao-Chih Chung, who noticed that a 3M product such as the hydrocolloid dressing may prove to be a product to utilize in the Taiwan acne treatment market as an Acne Dressing (Williams & Liaw, 2011). It was a product that hadn't yet been in this particular market in Taiwan, and Chung saw this as a way to push into a lucrative market. The innovation of this product changed the trajectory of the Taiwan subsidiary. This subsidiary was able to look at an existing 3M product and find a way to market it in that country based on that country's markets. Chung saw the need to innovate with this product, and chose to market it as an Acne Dressing to be used within that country. "Innovative ideas are most likely to occur to persons who have some familiarity with the situation to which the ideas would apply. Hence, most novel ideas are likely to be generated at some distance from the power center of the organization" (Shepard, 1967, p. 471). Innovation is about taking initiative, and Chung saw that the 3M hydrocolloid dressing had amazing potential to be utilized within the Taiwan acne treatment market. There were challenges, but innovation is all about looking at one has, how to change it, and overcome the obstacles. "3M provides a rich variety of centers and forums to Make a pool of practical ideas that are then nurtured into opportunities and provided the necessary resources for success" (Govindarajan & Srinivas, 2013, para. 4). The innovation of the 3M Taiwan subsidiary made it so the existing 3M could be marketed in a whole new market that it had ever been before. Perhaps without the genius innovation of Chung and then his support, the 3M hydrocolloid dressing would have remained in its sole market in the medical field and sold only to drugstores partnered with clinics and hospitals (Williams & Liaw, 2011). Their innovation opened a whole new opportunity for the 3M company.