Innovation and the story of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Est. 1902

Innovation and the story of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, Est. 1902

Innovation is about creating business value out of new ideas, whether it’s new ways of doing things, new products, or new services.
Organizations must continually innovate to remain competitive, let alone grow. Failure to innovate inevitably causes organizational malaise, and invites the competition to come and take market share.

Innovation – straight forward, right? For many organizations, it is not so straight forward.

As organizations grow, many migrate from being the challenger attacker to being challenged and attacked. The problem usually lies in inadvertently allowing a culture to emerge that does not foster innovation. Strict policies, procedures, and product and project management styles put in place in the name of consistency and best practice often lead to a culture of risk aversion and dampened creativity.

In 1948, William L. McKnight, then president of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, directed the management of his company as follows:

"As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility. This requires considerable tolerance and mistakes will be made. Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made will kill initiative. It's essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow.”

While many turn to the latest best selling business books and industry gurus for advice on just about everything, Mr. McKnight’s wisdom after 50 years still makes good common sense.

Later renamed 3M, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing’s innovative culture is today the envy of companies around the world. From Post-it Notes, to Scotch tape, to health care and highway safety, to office products and optical films for LCD displays, 3M’s annual revenue tops $24.5 billion USD and its market capitalization is $52.72 billion. Mr. McKnight’s focus on creating and maintaining a culture of innovation is core to 3M’s continued success.

Businesses of all sizes need to enable a culture where innovation is encouraged, continuous, and recognized. Further, an innovative culture is one in which risk is managed, mistakes are learned from, customer and supplier input is welcome, and management is open minded to changes to established business models. To some this might sound like anarchy, but it simply describes a business culture where progress, positive change, and innovation are embraced.

Management must encourage and harness innovation across the entire organization. Processes, policies and procedures should be constantly evolved to ensure relevancy, competitiveness, and increased value add. Organizations can effectively leverage innovation and attract and retain top talent.

Whether you are trying to increase yield, decrease costs, increase customer loyalty, diversify into new market sectors, or all of the above and more, having a culture of innovation will help position you for success.

Innovation, while not straight forward, is next to impossible if you do not have the right culture.

Dan MacDonald

Dan MacDonald is the president and CEO of InNOVAcorp based in Halifax. www.innovacorp.ca