3M Case Study

3M CASE STUDY Q1) Conservative Approach Three Product Concepts * Mandate from management * Should not risk advanced process Dunlop may habituate revolution against new method * Need to validate method at least once before basing major strategic decisions on it. * Not enough info yet to make such a drastic recommendation * Three concepts appear very promising and argon enough of a success already. Radical Approach New Business Unit Strategy * Team was charged with attaining breakthroughs Medical-Surgical business unavoidablenesss harvest-time * Team is empowered and should report all relevant information. Fits the defiant 3M culture * Fits 3Ms new strategic mission even though Dunlop does not deal into it. Q2) Incrementalism worked well because it Has allowed for leveraging pre-existing product platforms such as Post-it notes and Scotch brand tape can reduce development costs while exploiting 3MS pre-existing marketing channels and relationship. . . . Q3) Traditional 3M Developm ent Process * Developers, in recent decades, lack direct contact with customers * Developers be not directly accountable for understanding customers needs. Marketing research is outsourced to third parties or thrown over the wall * Traditional methods are linear and tend to jump out primarily incremental innovations Lead User Research Process * Puts developers in direct contact with users * Focus on a few individuals (Lead Users and lead use experts) with extremely rich need and solution-specific information In lead user research, a considerable amount of time is spent in people networking in order to find the right lead users to work with, as opposed to traditional market research methods which only collect information from users who are at the center of the target market Developers learn from users outside traditional business focus * -picked up from a market that is either loosely related or even unrelated to the target market as in the case with the makeup artist they use in t he 3M lead user research collection * Pushes developers toward leading edge with radical new concepts * Can be complement with traditional market research techniques (during validation) * Use traditional market research to prevent validity of research Lead users vs Leading-edge customersAs opposed to leading edge customers who provide need- related information, lead users provide need & solution information as they crap innovated themselves. In traditional methods, marketers only seek to identify the problem, not necessarily the solution Companies may carry out focus groups and analyze customer complaints to find the issues. Later product developers analyze this research and use their own ideas to find attainable solutions for a new product.Conversely, lead user research methods collect data on both the problem and the available solutions from markets that have similar needs. The development team then uses the ideas that were found in these markets and comes up with a set of pos sible new product ideas that suit the companys needs based on ideas from the lead users and expertise meeting a real customer need Lead users can be found in target or analogous markets. Lead use experts in a target market are often useful in identifying Q4)Stakeholders Incentives/Motives Methods Senior Management Financial results Demonstrate how breakthrough products can affect bottom line. Evidence from other firms. Allow ranking(prenominal) managers to take credit for new innovation strategy Middle Management Employee ProductivityMotivationProject performance Seminars, pilot studiesSenior management involvementRegular updates of progress ScientistsEngineers Ease or workEmpowermentFlexibilityInteresting work interaction with previous usersShare excitement and praise efforts. Trust them.