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Dr. Jeffery D Whippo is a well-respected business professional and educator. According to him, it is specifically the internal corporate venturing process that consistently makes 3M such an entrepreneurial company. At 3M, he explains, entrepreneurship is clearly encouraged.
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Jeffery D Whippo Explains What Is It About 3M That Makes It the Most Consistently Entrepreneurial Large Company in the World
At 3M, Entrepreneurship Is Clearly Encouraged, Says Dr. Jeffery D Whippo • Dr. Jeffery D Whippo is a well-respected business professional and educator. • According to him, it is specifically the internal corporate venturing process that consistently makes 3M such an entrepreneurial company. • At 3M, he explains, entrepreneurship is clearly encouraged.
About 3M’s Policy • Jeffery D Whippo indicates that we know from other cases that employees may spend 15% of their time engaged in ventures outside the scope of their daily jobs. • 3M has the policy that 30% of their profits will come from products that did not exist just four years earlier, up from 25% and five years.
The “Grow and Divide” Philosophy of 3M • Jeffery says that through their internal, interdepartmental science fairs, so to speak, the most creative developments can be identified and teams formed around them. • He further says that this process enabled 3M to develop the “grow and divide” philosophy it has. • According to the philosophy, “Projects that survived the rigorous stage-by-stage review became departments, and departments that grew into substantial businesses were spun off as new divisions which seeded their own set of projects to meet the 30% new product sales initiative.” (Bartlett & Mohammed, 1994)
Conclusion: • Jeff Whippo suggests that additionally, each spun off division of 3M was held to extremely stringent performance standards of 10% adjusted sales growth, a 20% pre-tax profit margin, and a 27% return on employed capital. • Dr. Whippo concludes that all these demanding benchmarks, coupled with the ability to borrow technical personnel from other departments as part of a cross-divisional loan, enable the folks at 3M to remain as innovative and nimble as a global corporation can be.
