3M

For more information on 3M Co., visit Britannica.com.

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.mmm.com
Employees: 79,183
Employee growth: 3.9%

Loath to be stuck on one thing, 3M makes everything from masking tape to asthma inhalers. The diversified company makes products through six operating segments: consumer and office; display and graphics; electro and communications; health care (through 3M Health Care); industrial and transportation; and safety, security, and protection services. Well-known brands include Post-it Notes, Scotch tapes, Scotchgard fabric protectors, Scotch-Brite scouring pads, and Filtrete home air filters. 3M has operations in more than 60 countries. About two-thirds of its sales are made outside of the US. It sells products directly to users and through numerous wholesalers, retailers, distributors, and dealers worldwide.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $25,269.0M
One year growth: 3.3%
Net income: $3,460.0M
Income growth: (15.5%)

Officers:
Chairman, President, and CEO: George W. Buckley
SVP and CFO: Patrick D. (Pat) Campbell
EVP Research and Development and CTO: Frederick J. Palensky

Competitors:
Avery Dennison
DuPont
Johnson & Johnson

Incorporated: 1902 as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

The largest manufacturer in Minnesota, the 110th largest U.S. company overall, and a member of the Dow Jones "30," 3M Company (known officially as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company from its founding in 1902 until 2002) is Wall Street's epitome of high-tech/low-tech business and solid blue-chip performance. Its daunting inventory of some 50,000 products runs the gamut from Post-it Notes and Scotch tape to transdermal patches of nitroglycerin and a prescription cream for treating genital warts. Its equally daunting global presence extends to subsidiary companies in more than 60 countries and markets in nearly 200, as well as net sales from international operations of $8.91 billion, or 55 percent of the company's total 2002 revenue. 3M owes its formidable strength to its unusual corporate culture, which comfortably fosters innovation and interdepartmental cooperation, backed by a massive research and development budget, which typically exceeds $1 billion annually. Because of this, 3M ranks as a leader in--and in many cases a founder of--a number of important technologies, including pressure-sensitive tapes, sandpaper, protective chemicals, microflex circuits, reflective materials, and premium graphics. At the beginning of 2003, the company realigned into seven major business units: Consumer and Office; Display and Graphics; Electro and Communications; Health Care; Industrial; Safety, Security, and Protection Services; and Transportation.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (soon nicknamed 3M) was formed in 1902 in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a thriving village on the shores of Lake Superior, by five entrepreneurs--a lawyer, a doctor, two railroad executives, and a butcher--in order to mine the rare mineral corundum and market it as an abrasive. The ill-planned venture--sparked by a flurry of other forms of mining operations in northeastern Minnesota--nearly bankrupted the company, for its mineral holdings turned out to be not corundum but low-grade anorthosite, a virtually useless igneous rock. This unsettling discovery (by whom or when is unclear) was never disclosed in the company records and, for whatever reason, did not deter the owners from establishing a sandpaper factory in Duluth, another more or less ill-fated scheme that placed the company further in jeopardy (3M faced a host of abrasives competitors in the East and was soon forced to import a garnet inferior to that owned by domestic manufacturers, which resulted in a lower quality product). Company headquarters were moved to Duluth in 1905.

In May 1905 a principal investor named Edgar B. Ober, determined to save the company, persuaded friend and fellow St. Paul businessman Lucius Pond Ordway to join with him in rescuing 3M from almost certain demise by paying off $13,000 in debt and pumping in an additional $12,000 in capital. Together Ordway and Ober purchased 60 percent of the company; over the next several years, Ordway, a self-made millionaire, spent an additional $250,000 on a company that had yet to produce a profit, and Ober, who proceeded to oversee 3M, went without a salary. Ordway's continued backing, despite a strong desire to cut his losses early on and his decision to move the firm to St. Paul, ensured 3M's eventual health during the boom years following World War I. A new sandpaper factory was built in St. Paul in 1910, and 3M's headquarters were shifted to that city in 1916, the same year that the firm paid its first dividend.

Of greatest significance to both the company's foundation and future were the hirings in 1907 and 1909 of William L. McKnight and A.G. Bush, respectively. Former farmhands trained as bookkeepers, the two worked as a team for well over 50 years and developed the system that helped make 3M a success. McKnight ran 3M between 1914 and 1966, serving as general manager from 1914 to 1929, president from 1929 to 1949, and chairman of the board from 1949 to 1966. He created the general guidelines of diversification, avoiding price cuts, increasing sales by 10 percent a year, high employee morale, and quality control that fueled the company's growth and created its unique corporate culture. In some ways, the sales system overshadowed the guidelines. McKnight and Bush designed an aggressive, customer-oriented brand of salesmanship. Sales representatives, instead of dealing with a company's purchasing agent, were encouraged to proceed directly to the shop where they could talk with the people who used the products. In so doing, 3M salesmen could discover both how products could be improved and what new products might be needed. This resulted in some of 3M's early innovations. For instance, when Henry Ford's newly motorized assembly lines created too much friction for existing sandpapers, which were designed to sand wood and static objects, a 3M salesman went back to St. Paul with the news. 3M devised a tougher sandpaper, and thus captured much of this niche market within the growing auto industry. Another salesman noticed that dust from sandpaper use made the shop environment extremely unhealthy. Around the same time, a Philadelphia ink manufacturer named Francis G. Okie wrote McKnight with a request for mineral grit samples. According to Virginia Huck, "McKnight's handling of Okie's request changed the course of 3M's history. He could have explained to Okie that 3M didn't sell bulk minerals. ... Instead, prompted by his curiosity, McKnight instructed 3M's Eastern Division sales manager, R.H. Skillman, to get in touch with Okie to find out why he wanted the grit samples." The reason soon became clear: Okie had invented a waterproof, and consequently dust-free, sandpaper. In 1921, after purchasing the patent and then solving various defects, 3M came out with Wetordry sandpaper and significantly expanded its business, eventually licensing two other manufacturers, Carborundum and Behr-Manning, to keep up with demand. It also hired the inventor as its first full-time researcher. This marked the creation of one of the nation's first corporate research and development divisions.

Sending salesmen into the shops paid off a few years later in an even more significant way, by giving 3M its first non-abrasives product line. In 1923 a salesman in an auto body painting shop noticed that the process used to paint cars in two tones worked poorly. He promised the painter that 3M could develop an effective way to prevent the paints from running together. It took two years, but the research and development division invented a successful masking tape--the first in a line of pressure-sensitive tapes that now extends to more than 900 varieties. The invention of Scotch tape, as it came to be called and then trademarked, established 3M as a force for innovation in American industry. Taking a page from its sandpaper business, 3M immediately began to develop different applications of its new technology. Its most famous adaptation came in 1930, when some industrious 3M workers found a way to graft cellophane, a Du Pont invention, to adhesive, thus creating a transparent tape.

Transparent Scotch tape, now a generic commodity, provided a major windfall during the Great Depression, helping 3M to grow at a time when most businesses struggled to break even. Another salesman invented a portable tape dispenser, and 3M had its first large-scale consumer product. Consumers used Scotch tape in a variety of ways: to repair torn paper products, strengthen book bindings, mend clothes until they could be sewn, and even remove lint. By 1932 the new product was doing so well that 3M's main client base shifted from furniture and automobile factories to office supply stores. During the 1930s, 3M funneled some 45 percent of its profits into new product research; consequently, the company tripled in size during the worst decade American business had ever endured.

3M continued to grow during World War II by concentrating on understanding its markets and finding a niche to fill, rather than shifting to making military goods, as many U.S. corporations did. Nevertheless, the war left 3M with a need to restructure and modernize, and not enough cash on hand to do so. To meet its building needs, in 1947 3M issued its first bond offerings. Its first public stock offering, coupled with its tremendous growth rate, attracted additional attention to 3M. Among the new products debuting in the immediate postwar period was Scotch magnetic audiotape, which was introduced in 1947. In 1949, when President McKnight became chairman of the board (with A.G. Bush also moving from daily operations to the boardroom), it marked the end of a tremendous era for 3M. Under McKnight, 3M had grown almost 20-fold. By its 50th year, it had surpassed the $100 million mark and was employing some 10,000 people.

Such growth could not be ignored. Now that 3M was publicly traded (having debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 1946), investment bankers took to recommending it as a buy, business magazines sent reporters to write about it, and other companies tried to figure out how 3M continued to excel. McKnight's immediate successor as president, Richard Carlton, encapsulated the company's special path to prosperity with the phrase: "We'll make any damn thing we can make money on." Yet the 3M method involved a great deal more than simply making and selling. Its métier had been, and would continue to be, finding uninhabited markets and then filling them relentlessly with high-quality products. Therefore, research and development received money that most companies spent elsewhere--most companies still did not have such departments by the early 1950s--and the pursuit for ideas was intense.

Carlton kept the company focused on product research (today, 3M honors its scientists through the Carlton Society), which led to further innovations in the 1950s: the first dry-printing photocopy process, ThermoFax (1951), Scotchgard fabric and upholstery protector (1956), and Scotch-Brite scouring pads (1958). 3M breezed through the 1950s in impressive fashion, with 1959 marking the company's 20th consecutive year of increased sales. Yet, for all its growth and diversity, 3M continued to produce strong profits from its established products. In a way, this was almost to be expected, given 3M's penchant for being in "uninhabited" markets. As noted by John Pitblado, 3M's president of U.S. Operations, "Almost everything depends on a coated abrasive during some phase of its manufacture. Your eyeglasses, wrist watches, the printed circuit that's in a TV set, knitting needles ... all require sandpaper."

In the 1960s 3M embarked on another growth binge, doubling in size between 1963 and 1967 and becoming a billion-dollar company in the process. Existing product lines did well, and 3M's ventures into magnetic media provided excellent returns. One venture, the backdrops used for some of the spectacular scenes from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, earned an Academy Award. During the 1970s a number of obstacles interfered with 3M's seeming odyssey of growth. Among these were the resignations of several of the company's top executives when it was revealed that they had operated an illegal slush fund from company money between 1963 and 1975, which included a contribution of some $30,000 to Richard Nixon's 1972 campaign. Sales growth also slowed during the decade, particularly in the oil crunch of 1974, ending 3M's phenomenal string of averaging a 15 percent growth rate. 3M responded to its cost crunch in characteristic fashion: it turned to its employees, who devised ways for the company to cut costs at each plant.

The company also had difficulties with consumer products. Particularly galling was the loss of the cassette tape market, which two Japanese companies, TDK and Maxell, dominated by engaging in price-cutting. 3M stuck to its tradition of abandoning markets where it could not set its own prices, and backed off. Eventually, the company stopped making much of its own magnetic media, instead buying from an overseas supplier and putting the 3M label on it (3M instead focused attention on data storage media for the computer market). The loss of the cassette market was not overwhelming: revenues doubled between 1975 and 1980, and in 1976 3M was named one of the Dow Jones Industrial 30.

Unfortunately, price-cutting was not the only problem confronting 3M as it entered the 1980s. Major competitors seemed to face the company on all fronts: the niches of decades past seemed extinct. When Lewis Lehr became company president in 1981, he noted, "There isn't a business where we don't have to come up with a new technology." He promptly restructured 3M from six divisions into four sectors: Industrial and Consumer, Electronic and Information Technologies, Graphic Technologies (later renamed Imaging and combined with Information and Electronic), and Life Sciences, containing a total of some 40 divisions. He also established a goal of having 25 percent of each division's earnings come from products that did not exist five years before. Lehr's concern was not to keep the company going, for 3M was still well-respected, with a less than 25 percent debt-to-equity ratio and reasonable levels of growth. Shareholders, too, had little to complain about, for 1986 marked the 18th consecutive year of increased dividends. Rather, Lehr wanted to ensure that 3M would continue to develop new ideas. The major product to come out of the 1980s was the ubiquitous Post-it, a low-tech marvel created by Art Fry.

L.D. DeSimone, who joined 3M in 1958 as a manufacturing engineer and moved into management while working in international operations, was named CEO in 1991. He took the helm of a ship being buffeted by economic recession and stiff price competition: sales rose an annual average of just 2 percent from 1991 to 1993. Kevin Kelly wrote in a 1994 Business Week article, "It turned out that the creative juices that had transformed 3M into a paragon of innovation and the inventor of everything from ubiquitous yellow Post-it notes to surgical staples weren't producing new products fast enough."

DeSimone pushed research staff to work more closely with marketers and transform existing technology into commercial products. Connecting with customers' needs took on more urgency. Product turnaround time was slashed; product development rivaled basic research. Customer-driven products gleaned from the new system included the Never Rust Wool Soap Pad made from recycled plastic bottles and a laptop computer screen film that enhanced brightness without heavy battery drain.

On the international front, foreign sales produced more than 50 percent of total 3M sales for the first time in company history in 1992. The Asia-Pacific region yielded nearly 27 percent of the $7 billion foreign sales volume. A major restructuring of European operations was completed in 1993: manufacturing plants were closed and consolidated and the workforce was trimmed in response to declining operating income.

The company achieved record sales, operating income, net income, and earnings per share in 1994. More than $1 billion of the $15 billion in total sales came from first-year products. DeSimone raised the bar: at least 30 percent of future sales were to come from products introduced within the past four years.

On a more somber note, in 1994 3M took a $35 million pretax charge against probable liabilities and associated expenses related to litigation over 3M's silicone breast implant business operated through former subsidiary McGhan Medical Corporation. 3M was named in more than 5,800 lawsuits claiming injuries caused by leakage or rupture of the implants.

In 1996, 3M dismantled the Information, Imaging and Electronics sector, which accounted for a fifth of its business. It was the largest restructuring effort in company history. The divisions making floppy disks and other data-storage media, X-ray film, and specialty imaging equipment were spun off as an independent, public company (Imation Corporation), and the audio- and videotape operations shut down entirely. 3M retained the businesses making electrical tapes, connectors, insulating materials, overhead projects, and transparency films. The company cut about 5,000 jobs.

Since DeSimone took command, 3M had pumped $1.2 billion into the Information, Imaging and Electronics division, yet operating profit margins remained only a third of the Industrial and Consumer Products and Life Sciences divisions. Persistent pricing pressures from competitors such as Kodak plus rising raw material costs prompted DeSimone to pull the plug on the audio and videotape business. A smaller, leaner operation--the new $2 billion Imation--was deemed to have better prospects in the equally fierce data-storage marketplace.

Following restructuring, 3M concentrated product development efforts on about two dozen core technologies. In 1997 the company achieved one of DeSimone's goals: 30 percent of total sales were generated from products introduced within the past four years. But 3M's numbers began slipping again in 1998. Michelle Conlin wrote in an October 1998 Forbes article, "Are these unavoidable downward blips on a rising curve? Or are they signs of deeper trouble? 3M has been glacially slow to respond to the economic meltdown in Asia, where it gets 23% of its business. In the U.S. a flood of cheaper products made by competitors like Korean polyester film outfits SKC and Kolon have cut into 3M's sales." Conlin nevertheless conceded that 3M had promising products, such as bendable fiber-optic cable and a fluid to replace ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, already in the pipeline.

Declines in both revenues and profits in 1998 prompted further restructuring, including a workforce reduction of about 5,000 that was completed by the end of 1999, the closure of about 10 percent of its global factories, and the jettisoning of a number of underperforming product lines. 3M also reorganized into six business segments in 1999: Industrial Markets; Transportation, Graphics, and Safety; Health Care; Consumer and Office Products; Electro and Communications; and Specialty Material. Highlighting the company's continued commitment to innovation, nearly 35 percent of revenues in 2000 came from products that had been introduced within the previous four years. Many of these products fell within higher-technology areas--a point often ignored by Wall Street analysts critical of the company's more recent product development efforts. For example, an important new 3M product line developed in the 1990s consisted of films to enhance the brightness of electronic displays, including those found on laptop computers, cellular phones, LCD televisions, and personal digital assistants. In 2000 the company began marketing these films under the Vikuiti brand.

DeSimone's stewardship of 3M ended at the end of 2000 with his retirement. At the beginning of 2001, W. James McNerney, Jr., took over as chairman and CEO, becoming the first outsider at the helm in the company's nearly 100 years of existence. McNerney was a 19-year veteran of General Electric Company (GE)--like 3M a diversified, manufacturing-oriented corporation--having most recently served as head of GE Aircraft Engines. McNerney had lost out in a three-way battle to succeed legendary GE leader John F. (Jack) Welch, Jr. One of McNerney's first initiatives was to launch Six Sigma, a quality control and improvement initiative that had been pioneered by Motorola, Inc. and AlliedSignal Inc. and then adopted by GE in the late 1990s. The aim of the statistics-driven program was to cut costs by reducing errors or defects.

McNerney's cost-cutting focus was shown in other early initiatives, and 3M during his first year saved more than half a billion dollars through various efforts, including the layoff of 6,500 of the company's 75,000 workers and a major streamlining of purchasing functions. Another initiative, dubbed 3M Acceleration, involved expending more product development funds on the most promising ideas, dropping weaker ideas earlier in the process, and in this way getting the best products to market much faster. In implementing this and other initiatives, most of which focused on making the company more efficient, McNerney had to be careful not to drive out 3M's culture of innovation on which both the company's fame and its long history of success rested. Nevertheless, one apparent victim of McNerney's efficiency drive was 3M's revered "15 Percent Rule," which had allowed its employees to spend up to 15 percent of company time on independent projects, a process called "bootlegging" or "scrounging." Although the rule still existed in theory, it was increasingly difficult to act upon it within the evolving culture at 3M, which was seemingly becoming more short-term oriented.

Early in 2002 the company finally adopted its nickname as its formal moniker, officially becoming 3M Company. Acquisitions were coming more to the fore under McNerney, and the most significant deal of the early 2000s--in fact, the most expensive acquisition in 3M history--was the December 2002 purchase of Corning Precision Lens, Inc. for $850 million. The acquired unit, which was renamed 3M Precision Optics, Inc., was the world's leading supplier of optical lenses used in projection televisions. Overall, financial results for 2002 were encouraging, particularly given the difficult economic environment. While revenues increased only marginally, net income increased by about 20 percent after excluding nonrecurring items. That year, 3M paid a dividend for the 87th straight year and increased its dividend for the 45th consecutive year.

At the beginning of 2003, 3M reorganized yet again, this time attempting to gain improved access to larger, higher-growth markets. The company's largest division--Transportation, Graphics, and Safety--was divided into three units: Display and Graphics; Safety, Security and Protection Services; and Transportation. In addition, the Specialty Material segment was split up, with the unit's consumer-related products shifted into the Consumer and Office unit and its industrial products shifted into the Industrial unit. Overall, this increased the number of business units from six to seven; it also made the Health Care unit the company's largest in terms of both revenues (22 percent of the total) and earnings (27 percent).

In October 2003, 3M implemented a major realignment of its research and development operations. Fourteen separate technology centers were closed, with the scientists at these centers shifted either to a newly formed Corporate Research Laboratory or to the company's 40 divisions, where they would be able to work closely on products within those divisions. The main goal of this R&D shakeup was to move more of 3M's R&D resources to the divisions where the products were actually developed and thereby bring the scientists closer to customers. This was the latest initiative in McNerney's attempt to, in the words of Jennifer Bjorhus, writing in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, "[turn] a slightly ossified manufacturing giant into a nimbler growth machine." It was clear that 3M was changing--and in some very dramatic ways--but only the passage of time would be able to show whether the company's longstanding penchant for innovation would survive in the new environment.

Principal Subsidiaries

Dyneon LLC; 3M Financial Management Company; 3M Innovative Properties Company; 3M Investment Management Corporation; 3M Unitek Corporation; 3M Touch Systems, Inc.; 3M Precision Optics, Inc.; 3M Argentina S.A.C.I.F.I.A.; 3M Australia Pty. Limited; 3M Oesterreich GmbH (Austria); 3M Belgium S.A./N.V.; Seaside Insurance Limited (Bermuda); 3M do Brasil Limitada (Brazil); 3M Canada Company; 3M China Limited; 3M A/S (Denmark); Suomen 3M Oy (Finland); 3M France, S.A.; Dyneon GmbH (Germany); 3M Inter-Unitek GmbH (Germany); Quante AG (Germany; 99%); Quante Holding GmbH (Germany); 3M Deutschland GmbH (Germany); 3M ESPE (Germany); 3M German Holdings GmbH (Germany); 3M Hong Kong Limited; 3M Italia Finanziaria S.p.A. (Italy); Sumitomo 3M Limited (Japan; 75%); 3M Health Care Limited (Japan; 75%); 3M Korea Limited; 3M Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Corporate Services B.V. (Netherlands); 3M Nederland B.V. (Netherlands); 3M (New Zealand) Limited; 3M Norge A/S (Norway); 3M Puerto Rico, Inc.; 3M Singapore Private Limited; 3M South Africa (Proprietary) Limited; 3M Espana, S.A. (Spain); 3M Svenska AB (Sweden); 3M (East) A.G. (Switzerland); 3M (Schweiz) A.G. (Switzerland); 3M Taiwan Limited; 3M Thailand Limited; 3M Gulf Ltd. (United Arab Emirates); 3M United Kingdom Holdings P.L.C.; 3M Venezuela, S.A.

Principal Operating Units

Consumer and Office Business; Display and Graphics Business; Electro and Communications Business; Health Care Business; Industrial Business; Safety, Security and Protection Services Business; Transportation Business.

Principal Competitors

Johnson & Johnson; Henkel KGaA; Avery Dennison Corporation; S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Further Reading

"And Then There Were Two," Economist, November 18, 1995, pp. 74-75.

Arndt, Michael, "3M: A Lab for Growth?," Business Week, January 21, 2002, pp. 50-51.

Byrne, Harlan S., "A Changed Giant," Barron's, July 3, 2000, pp. 18, 20.

A Century of Innovation: The 3M Story, St. Paul, Minn.: 3M Company, 2002.

Conlin, Michelle, "Too Much Doodle?," Forbes, October 19, 1998, pp. 54-55.

DeSilver, Drew, "Aftershock Layoffs Seen for 3M's Spin-Off," Minneapolis/St. Paul CityBusiness, November 17, 1995, pp. 1, 45.

Dubashi, Jagannath, "Technology Transfer: Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing," Financial World, September 17, 1991, pp. 40-41.

Fiedler, Terry, "3M Innovation to Be Tested," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, December 10, 2000, p. 1D.

------, "3M Rides the Tsunami: Asia's Struggles a Big Factor in Payroll-Cut Decision," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 22, 1998, p. 1D.

Fredrickson, Tom, "3M Unifies Its Empire in Europe," Minneapolis/St. Paul CityBusiness, August 13-19, 1993, pp. 1, 29.

Gilyard, Burl, "Tale of the Tape," Corporate Report Minnesota, January 1998, pp. 35-38.

Goldman, Kevin, "Scouring-Pad Rivals Face 3M Challenge," Wall Street Journal, January 11, 1993, p. B5.

Houston, Patrick, "How Jake Jacobson Is Lighting a Fire Under 3M," Business Week, July 21, 1986, pp. 106-07.

Huck, Virginia, Brand of the Tartan: The 3M Story, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955.

Kelly, Kevin, "The Drought Is Over at 3M," Business Week, November 7, 1994, pp. 140-41.

------, "It Really Can Pay to Clean Up Your Act," Business Week, November 7, 1994, p. 141.

------, "3M Run Scared? Forget About It," Business Week, September 16, 1991, pp. 59, 62.

Larson, Don, Land of the Giants: A History of Minnesota Business, Minneapolis: Dorn Books, 1979.

Lublin, Joann, Matthew Murray, and Joe Hallinan, "GE's McNerney Will Become 3M Chairman," Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2000, p. A3.

Lukas, Paul, "3M: A Mining Company Built on a Mistake Stuck It Out Until a Young Man Came Along with Ideas About How to Tape Those Blunders Together As Innovations--Leading to Decades of Growth," Fortune Small Business, April 1, 2003, pp. 36+.

Martin, Neil A., "Too Far, Too Fast: 3M Shares Have Been on a Tear That Could Be About to End," Barron's, September 1, 2003, pp. 17-19.

"The Mass Production of Ideas, and Other Impossibilities," Economist, March 18, 1995, p. 72.

McSpadden, Wyatt, "3M Fights Back," Fortune, February 5, 1996, pp. 94-99.

Mitchell, Russell, "Masters of Innovation: How 3M Keeps Its New Products Coming," Business Week, April 10, 1989, pp. 58-63.

Our Story So Far: Notes from the First 75 Years of 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn.: 3M Public Relations Department, 1977.

Peters, Thomas J., and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper and Row, 1982.

Studt, Tim, "3M--Where Innovation Rules," R & D, April 2003, pp. 20+.

Tatge, Mark, "Prescription for Growth," Forbes, February 17, 2003, p. 64.

"3M: New Talent and Products Outweigh High Costs," Financial World, February 18, 1992, p. 19.

"3M: 60,000 and Counting," Economist, November 30, 1991, pp. 70-71.

Useem, Jerry, "[3M] + [GE] = ?," Fortune, August 12, 2002, pp. 127-28, 130, 132.

Weber, Joseph, "3M's Big Cleanup," Business Week, June 5, 2000, pp. 96-98.

Weimer, De'Ann, "3M: The Heat Is on the Boss," Business Week, March 15, 1999, pp. 82-84.

Weinberger, Betsy, "3M Breaking New Ground with Plan for China Plant," Minneapolis/St. Paul CityBusiness, April 9, 1993, pp. 1, 24.

Weiner, Steve, "A Hard Way to Make a Buck," Forbes, April 29, 1991, pp. 134-35, 137.

— Jay P. Pederson

This article is about the company. For the unrelated computer of the same name, see 3M computer.

3M Company

Type	Public (NYSE: MMM)
Founded	Two Harbors, MN, U.S. (1902)
Founder(s)	Henry S. Bryan Hermon W. Cable John Dwan William A. McGonagle Dr. J. Danley Budd
Headquarters	Maplewood, MN, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	George W. Buckley (CEO) (Chairman) & (President)
Industry	Conglomerate
Products	Adhesives Abrasives List of products
Revenue	▲ $ 25.26 billion (2008) [2]
Operating income	▲ $ 5.218 billion (2008)
Net income	▲ $ 3.460 billion (2008) [3]
Total assets	▲ $ 25.547 billion (2008)
Total equity	▲ $ 9.879 billion (2008)
Employees	76,000 - July 2009
Website	3M.com

3M Company, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, (NYSE: MMM) is an American multinational conglomerate corporation.

With over 76,000 employees they produce over 55,000 products, including: adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, dental products, electrical materials, electronic circuits and optical films.^[1] 3M has operations in more than 60 countries – 29 international companies with manufacturing operations, and 35 with laboratories. 3M products are available for purchase through distributors and retailers in more than 200 countries, and many 3M products are available online directly from the company.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Founding 1.2 Expansion 2 Environmental record 3 Operating facilities 4 Products 5 Corporate governance 5.1 Current officers 5.2 Presidents 5.3 Chief executive officers 5.4 Chairmen of the board 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 9 Additional Resources

History

3M started out on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Two Harbors, Minnesota in 1902. The company then moved to Duluth, Minnesota, and then again to Saint Paul, Minnesota. 3M stayed for 15 years before outgrowing the campus and moving to its current headquarters in Maplewood (a St. Paul suburb). The new campus in Maplewood is 475 acres (1.92 km²) and has over 50 buildings, including an 'innovation center' that displays products 3M has brought to market. The company began by mining stone from quarries for use in grinding wheels. Struggling with quality and marketing of its products, top management supported its workers to innovate and develop new products, which eventually developed into its core business. Twelve years after being founded, 3M developed its first exclusive product: 3M Three-M-ite cloth. Other innovations in this era included waterproof sandpaper and masking tape, then the famous Scotch brand tape was “born.” By 1929 3M made its first moves in to an international expansion by forming “Durex” to conduct business in Europe. This same year, the company’s stocks were first traded over the counter and in 1946 the stocks were listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company is currently a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and of the S&P 500.

Founding

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3M was founded by Henry S. Bryan, Herman W. Cable, John Dwan, William A. McGonagle, and Dr. J. Danley Budd. The founders' original plan was to sell the mineral corundum to manufacturers in the East for making grinding wheels. After selling one load, on June 13, 1902 the five went to the Two Harbors office of company secretary John Dwan, which was on the shore of Lake Superior and is now part of the 3M National Museum, and signed papers making Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing a corporation. In reality, however, Dwan and his associates were not selling what they thought; they were really selling the worthless mineral anorthosite.^[2]

Failing to make sandpaper with the anorthosite, the founders decided to import minerals like Spanish garnet, after which sale of sandpapers grew. In 1914, customers complained that the garnet was falling off the paper. The founders discovered that the stones had traveled across the Atlantic Ocean packed near olive oil, and the oil had penetrated the stones. Unable to take the loss of selling expensive inventory, they roasted the stones over fire to remove the olive oil. This was the first instance of research and development at 3M.

Expansion

The company's early innovations include waterproof sandpaper (1921) and masking tape (1925), as well as cellophane "Scotch Tape" and sound deadening materials for cars. 3M's corporate image is built on its innovative and unique products, with up to 25% of sales each year from new products^{[citation needed]}.

After World War II 3M opened plants across the United States. During the 1950s the company expanded worldwide with operations in Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom in large part by Clarence Sampair. In 1951, international sales were approximately $20 million. 3M’s achievements were recognized by the American Institute of Management naming the company “one of the five best-managed companies in the United States and included it among the top 12 growth stocks (3M).”^[3]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, 3M published a line of board games, largely under the "3M bookshelf game series" brand. These games were marketed to adults and sold through department stores, with easily learned simple rules but complex game play and depth and with uniformly high quality components. As such, they are the ancestors of the German "Eurogames". The games covered a variety of topics, from business and sports simulations to word and abstract strategy games. They were a major publisher at the time for influential American designers Sid Sackson and Alex Randolph. In the mid-1970s, the game line was taken over by Avalon Hill.

3M traffic signals installed in Shelton, Washington. Standing off-axis from the intended viewing area, these signals are invisible to adjacent lanes of traffic in daylight. (A faint glow is visible at night)

The same two signals above, taken in the signal's intended viewing area (a single lane of northbound traffic). Special light-diffusing optics and a colored fresnel lens create the indication.

After three years of testing, in 1969 3M introduced its first and only traffic signal, the Model 131. Labeled a "programmable visibility" signal, the signal had the unique ability to be "programmed" so it was visible from certain angles. The Model 131's "programmability" was achieved via masking a clear glass lens with aluminum adhesive tape. [4][5] It was the first of its type and one of only two of the design in history. 3M sold these signals for special-use applications, such as left turn signals, skewed intersections, or dangerous intersections where a very bright indication is needed. The signals are very heavy (roughly 55 pounds per signal head) and expensive to maintain, and removal is frequent in some areas. In addition to the 3M Model 131 traffic signal, 3M also marketed and sold a retrofit kit for 12-inch (300 mm) conventional signals using modified M-131 optics, a retrofit kit for eight-inch (203 mm) conventional signals using a smaller version of the M-131 optical assembly, a Model 130 Programmable Visibility pedestrian signal (a M-131 with pedestrian signal indications), and a few bi-modal modifications of the M-131. As of 2007, 3M no longer manufactures the signals but has continued to supply parts.

3M's Mincom division introduced several models of magnetic tape recorders for instrumentation use and for studio sound recording. An example of the latter is the model M79 recorder [6], which still has a following today. 3M Mincom was also involved in designing and manufacturing video production equipment for the television and video post-production industries in the 1970s and 1980s, with such items as character generators and several different models of video switchers, from models of audio and video routers to video mixers for studio production work.

3M Mincom was involved in some of the first digital audio recordings of the late 1970s to see commercial release when a prototype machine was brought to the Sound 80 studios in Minneapolis. After drawing on the experience of that prototype recorder, 3M later introduced in 1979 a commercially available digital audio recording system called the "3M Digital Audio Mastering System" [7], which consisted of a 32-track digital audio tape recorder and a companion 4-track digital recorder for final mastering. 3M later designed and manufactured several other commercially available models of digital audio recorders used throughout the early to mid-1980s.

In 1980 the company introduced Post-it notes. In 1996, the company's data storage and imaging divisions were spun off as the Imation Corporation. Imation has since sold its imaging and photographic film businesses to concentrate on storage.

Today 3M is one of the 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (added on August 9, 1976), and is ranked number 101 on the As of 2006^[update] Fortune 500 listing. The company has 132 plants and over 67,000 employees worldwide, with sales offices in over 200 countries. The vast majority of the company's employees are local nationals, with few employees residing outside their home country. Its worldwide sales are over $20 billion, with international sales 58% of that total.

On December 20, 2005, 3M announced a major partnership with Roush-Fenway Racing, one of NASCAR's premier organizations. In 2008 the company will sponsor Greg Biffle in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as he drives the #16 Ford Fusion. In addition, on February 19, 2006, 3M announced that it would become the title sponsor of the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway for at least the next three years.

On April 4, 2006, 3M announced its intention to sell pharmaceutical non-core business. The pharmaceuticals businesses were sold off in three deals, in Europe, the Americas, and the remainder of the world. Another division of the Health Care business, Drug Delivery Systems remains with 3M. The Drug Delivery System division continues to contract manufacture inhalants and transdermal drug delivery systems and has now taken on manufacture of the products whose licenses were sold during the divestiture of the pharmaceuticals business.^[4] On September 8, 2008, 3M announced an agreement to acquire Meguiar's, a car care products company that was family-owned for over a century.^[5]

Today, after 100 years, 3M follows a business model based on “the ability to not only develop unique products, but also to manufacture them efficiently and consistently around the world (3M).”^[6]

Environmental record

The Target Light System, built by 3M.^[7]

In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) began investigating perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) after receiving data on the global distribution and toxicity of PFOS,^[8] the former key ingredient in Scotchgard.^[9] 3M, the former primary American producer of PFOS, announced the phase-out of PFOS, PFOA, and PFOS-related product production in May 2000.^[10] PFCs produced by 3M were used in non-stick cookware and stain resistant fabrics.^[11] The Cottage Grove facility released PFCs from the 1940s to 2002.^[12] In response to PFC contamination of the Mississippi River and surrounding area, 3M states the area will be "cleaned though a combination of groundwater pump-out wells and soil sediment excavation."^[11] The restoration plan is to be based on an analysis of the company property and surrounding lands.^[13] The on-site water treatment facility that handles the plant's post-production water is not capable of removing the PFCs, which were pumped into the nearby Mississippi River.^[12] The clean-up cost estimate is $50-56 million, which will be funded from a $147 million environmental reserve set aside in 2006.^[14] The search area for PFCs in the Mississippi River now extends to five states, spanning approximately half of the river's total distance.^[15] Perfluorochemicals do not break down or degrade in the environment.^[11]

In 2002, 3M ranked 70th on the Political Economy Research Institute's (PERI) list of the top 100 corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States.^[16] In 2008, PERI no longer included 3M on the list. ^[17]

In 2008, 3M created the Renewable Energy Division within 3M’s Industrial and Transportation Business to focus on Energy Generation and Energy Management. ^[18][19]

Operating facilities

3M’s general offices, corporate research laboratories, and certain division laboratories are located in St. Paul, Minnesota. In the United States, 3M has nine sales offices in eight states and operates 74 manufacturing facilities in 27 states. Internationally, 3M has 148 sales offices. The Company operates 93 manufacturing and converting facilities in 32 countries outside the United States.^[20]

3M owns substantially all of its physical properties. 3M’s physical facilities are highly suitable for the purposes for which they were designed. Because 3M is a global enterprise characterized by substantial intersegment cooperation, properties are often used by multiple business segments.^[21]

Selected factory detail information:

• Cynthiana, Kentucky, USA factory producing Post-It notes (672 SKU) and scotch tape (147 SKU). It has 539 employees and was established in 1969.^[22]
• Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, UK factory producing respirators for workers safety, using laser technology. It has 370 employees and recently there was an investment of £4,5 million ($9 million).^[23][24]

Products

• 3M High Visibility Signals: a line of traffic signal devices, with the flagship being the Model 131 12" vehicle signal head. Produced from 1969-2007
• ACCR
• Aearo
• Avagard Hygiene Range
• Bondo
• Cavilon
• Chrome & Metal Polish
• Clarity
• Coban
• Command Adhesive
• Comply Steam Indicators
• CUNO filtration solutions
• Dual Lock
• Durapore
• Dobie
• Dynatel
• FastBond Adhesives
• Filtrete
• Fluorinert
• Hookit sandpaper
• Littmann Stethoscopes
• Medipore
• Micropore Hypoallergenic Skin Tape
• Microfoam
• Nexcare
• O-Cel-O
• Post-it note
• Reddot ECK Electrodes
• Reston
• SandBlaster
• Scotch Tape
• Scotch Magic Tape
• Scientific Anglers
• Scotch-Brand Masking Tape
• Scotch-Brite
• Scotchcal Film
• Scotchgard
• Scotchlite
• Scotchcast Fibreglass casting
• Scotchprint Graphics
• Scotch-Weld Adhesives
• Steridrape
• Steristrip
• Stikit sandpaper
• Super 77 Classic Spray Adhesive
• Tartan
• Tegaderm
• Thinsulate
• Velostat^[25]
• VHB
• Vikuiti
• Wetordry sandpaper
• Microtouch Touch Screens

Corporate governance

Current officers

• George W. Buckley^[26] – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Patrick D. Campbell – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Joe E. Harlan – Executive Vice President, Electro and Communications Business
• Michael A. Kelly – Executive Vice President, Display and Graphics Business
• Angela S. Lalor – Senior Vice President, Human Resources
• Jean Lobey – Executive Vice President, Safety, Security and Protection Services Business
• Robert D. MacDonald – Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales
• Moe S. Nozari – Executive Vice President, Consumer and Office Business
• Frederick J. Palensky – Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Technology Officer
• Brad T. Sauer – Executive Vice President, Health Care Business
• H.C. Shin – Executive Vice President, Industrial and Transportation Business
• Marschall I. Smith – Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel
• Inge G. Thulin – Executive Vice President, International Operations
• John K. Woodworth – Senior Vice President, Corporate Supply Chain Operations

Presidents

1902–1905	Henry S. Bryan
1905–1906	Edgar B. Ober
1906–1909	Lucius P. Ordway
1909–1929	Edgar B. Ober
1929–1949	William L. McKnight
1949–1953	Richard P. Carlton
1953–1963	Herbert P. Buetow
1963–1966	Bert S. Cross
2005–present	George W. Buckley

Chief executive officers

1966–1970	Bert S. Cross
1970–1974	Harry Heltzer
1974–1979	Raymond H. Herzog
1979–1986	Lewis W. Lehr
1986–1991	Allen F. Jacobson
1991–2001	L.D. DeSimone
2001–2005	W. James McNerney, Jr.
2005	Robert S. Morrison (interim)
2005–present	George W. Buckley

Chairmen of the board

1949–1966	William L. McKnight
1966–1970	Bert S. Cross
1970–1975	Harry Heltzer
1975–1980	Raymond H. Herzog
1980–1986	Lewis W. Lehr
1986–1991	Allen F. Jacobson
1991–2001	L.D. DeSimone
2001–2005	W. James McNerney, Jr.
2005–present	George W. Buckley

See also

• Endothermic
• Fireproofing
• Firestop pillow
• Firestop
• Intumescent
• Passive fire protection
• Sodium silicate
• Sterilization (microbiology)

References

1. ^ http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/our/company/information/about-us/ 3m.com - Who We Are
2. ^ MPR: 3M at 100 - on the right path for growth?
3. ^ solutions.3m.com
4. ^ 3M (2006-04-04). "3M to Explore Strategic Alternatives for its Branded Pharmaceuticals Business". Press release. http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/3m/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20060404005553&ndmHsc=v2*A1133442000000*B1146123539000*C4102491599000*DgroupByDate*G2*J2*N1000940&newsLang=en&beanID=75290669&viewID=news_view. Retrieved 2006-04-24. 
5. ^ Meguiar's Online - NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.
6. ^ solutions.3m.com
7. ^ Target Lights create evolving Minneapolis landmark, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal , April 11, 2003.
8. ^ Aziz Ullah. "The Fluorochemical Dilemma: What the PFOS/PFOA fuss is all about" Cleaning & Restoration. www.ascr.org, (October 2006). Accessed October 25, 2008.
9. ^ Kellyn S. Betts "Perfluoroalkyl Acids: What Is the Evidence Telling Us?" Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 115, Number 5, May 2007. Accessed October 18, 2008.
10. ^ 3M: "PFOS-PFOA Information: What is 3M Doing?" Accessed October 25, 2008.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Cleaning up river site may cost 3M $18 million
12. ^ ^{a b} Perfluorochemicals and the 3M Cottage Grove Facility: Minnesota Dept. Of Health
13. ^ Health Consultation: 3M Chemolite: Perfluorochemicals Releases at the 3M - Cottage Grove Facility Minnesota Dept. of Health, Jan. 2005
14. ^ 3M submits plans to Minnesota for cleaning up PFCs in the east metro
15. ^ MPR: Search for PFC contamination in Mississippi River expands
16. ^ PERI - PoliticalEconomy Research Institute: Toxic 100 Table
17. ^ Toxic 100 Index 2008 http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic100_index/
18. ^ http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/global/sustainability/
19. ^ http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/02/3m-forms-renewable-energy-division-54663
20. ^ 3M Company SEC Form 10K - Annual Report - filed 2/15/2008
21. ^ http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=5739314-51571-52309&type=sect&dcn=0001104659-08-011226 3M Company SEC Form 10K - Annual Report - filed 2/15/2008
22. ^ solutions.3m.com
23. ^ thenorthernecho.co.uk
24. ^ thenorthernecho.co.uk
25. ^ [1]
26. ^ CEO and Corporate Officers

External links

Companies portal

• 3M Worldwide
• Yahoo! - 3M Company Profile
• Google Local's satellite image of 3M head office campus
• 3M Global Company Profile from Transnationale.org

Additional Resources

• The historical records of the 3M Company are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.

v • d • e 3M Company Corporate Directors: Linda G. Alvarado · Edward A. Brennan · George W. Buckley (chairman) · Vance D. Coffman · Michael L. Eskew · Edward M. Liddy · Robert S. Morrison · Aulana L. Peters · Rozanne L. Ridgway · Kevin W. Sharer · Louis W. Sullivan Annual Revenue: $22.923 billion USD (2006) · Employees: 67,071 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: MMM · Website: www.3m.com

v • d • e Dow Jones Industrial Average components Current 3M · Alcoa · American Express · AT&T · Bank of America · Boeing · Caterpillar · Chevron · Cisco Systems · The Coca-Cola Company · DuPont · ExxonMobil · General Electric · Hewlett-Packard · The Home Depot · Intel · IBM · Johnson & Johnson · JPMorgan Chase · Kraft Foods · McDonald's · Merck & Co. · Microsoft · Pfizer · Procter & Gamble · The Travelers Companies · United Technologies Corporation · Verizon Communications · Wal-Mart · The Walt Disney Company Selected former Altria Group · American International Group · American Telephone & Telegraph · American Tobacco Company · Bethlehem Steel · Citigroup · Colorado Fuel and Iron · Eastman Kodak · General Foods · General Motors · Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company · Honeywell · International Paper · Johns-Manville · Nash Motors · Navistar International · North American Company · Owens-Illinois · Sears, Roebuck and Company · Union Carbide · United States Rubber Company · F. W. Woolworth Company

v • d • e Minnesota-based corporations Fortune 500 Corporations (by size) UnitedHealth Group · Target Corporation · SuperValu · Best Buy · Travelers · 3M · U.S. Bancorp · CHS · General Mills · Medtronic · Xcel Energy · Land O'Lakes · Ameriprise Financial · C. H. Robinson Worldwide · Hormel · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · The Mosaic Company · Ecolab Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size) Companies listed above, plus: PepsiAmericas · Nash Finch  · Pentair · St. Jude Medical · Alliant Techsystems · Valspar · Patterson Dental · Securian · Regis Corporation · Polaris Industries · Toro · Deluxe Corporation · Donaldson Company · Fastenal · H.B. Fuller · Federated Mutual Insurance · Ceridian Major non-public or externally owned corporations (alphabetically) Andersen Corporation · Cargill · Carlson Companies · Dairy Queen · Musicland · Schwan Food Company

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