[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
is the norm, where innovation is expected, and where people
56 TAKING IDEAS TO MARKET
both desire and feel able to take their ideas forward. How trans-
ferable this is to other organizations with an existing culture in
place, or how well the six elements of vision, foresight, stretch
goals, empowerment, communication, and recognition specifically
apply to smaller companies, are both common questions asked by
commentators. However, even if this cannot be completely repli-
cated with the same levels of success, the underlying principles
can be adopted by many other organizations. 3M recognizes that
corporations must adapt and evolve if they expect to survive.
Competitors will always bring products or technologies into the
market that will change the basis of competition. To succeed, 3M
has to be the company that innovates and the company that is at
the forefront of idea creation.
That said, current performance is, however, not good enough
for 3M, and after major restructuring in the mid-1990s and the spin-
off of its data storage and imaging businesses, to further progress
the organization is also currently driving several key initiatives
across the entire company. These include:
» Global Products/Local Execution ensuring people are able to
work outside their home environments for three or more years
to improve global thinking and execution and deliver new
technology faster and more pervasively;
» Process Improvement moving from multiple quality-manage-
ment systems to one Six Sigma across the whole company to
lower costs, increase sales, satisfy customers, develop managers,
increase cash flow, and make the whole organization faster; and
» 3M Acceleration targeting generating even greater return on
the $1bn annual R&D investment by shortening development
cycles and sharpening focus on growth areas with the best
returns.
These are, however, all additional to the core of the organization
which have for the past century, been at the heart of the company s
continued success.
IN PRACTICE 57
Table 7.1 3M Time-line.
1902 3M founded in Minnesota
1904 First sandpaper
1925 Masking tape
1930 ScotchTM transparent tape
1935 First automotive under-seal coating
1939 First traffic sign using reflective sheeting
1954 Magnetic videotape
1956 ScotchgardTM fabric and upholstery protector
1960 First sterile, disposable surgical drapes
1962 Tartan Track first synthetic running track
1967 Disposable face masks
1972 Data cartridges revolutionize computer data storage
1979 ThinsulateTM thermal insulation
1980 Post-ItTM notes
1985 Refastenable diaper tapes
1990 Fast connections for fiber-optic cables
1995 First medical aerosol without CFC propellant
1996 Brightness enhancement film improves laptop screens by 60%
1998 Flexible circuits for mobile phones
2000 Sandblaster sponges sand three times faster than sandpaper
Time-line
See Table 7.1.
SKANDIA INNOVATION CULTURE
Skandia is one of the most innovative companies in financial services
today. Established in 1855, Skandia was Sweden s first stock insurance
company. Today the group holds euro 120bn in assets under manage-
ment, employs 5600 staff, and is active in 20 countries worldwide.
Over the last decade, Skandia has consistently out-innovated most of
its competitors in developing new and better investment and insurance
products. The key to this has been a focused strategy and a deep
commitment to people. Most companies would claim to have these
things, but Skandia s difference amounts to much more than a corporate
slogan.
58 TAKING IDEAS TO MARKET
In the early 1980s much of the asset management industry was highly
vertically integrated. Companies performed fund management, product
development, packaging, administration, and distribution in-house, and
this model worked proprietary funds represented 80% of sales in the
US in 1980, but by the year 2000 they accounted for just 30% of sales.
Skandia s strategic revolution was to turn its attention purely to
product development, packaging, and administration. It was the first
financial services company to reject the industry wisdom of vertical
integration. At the back end, it bought investment performance from a
host of other fund managers and at the front end it left distribution to
banks and financial advisors. The Skandia vision states faster, smarter,
better at helping our distributors serve their clients. This strategy has
been refreshed and renewed by a consistent ability to set unreasonable
goals as a way of driving corporate renewal. But focused strategy and
unreasonable targets are only a part of what allows the group to make
consistently high quality and innovative products.
The other part of Skandia s success is down to its people policies. Jan
Carendi, Skandia s chairman, is the man who engineered the strategy,
but most of what Jan talks about is people and, in particular, values,
education, and renewal. If you treat your people with warmth, charm,
intimacy, and caring they will ruthlessly destroy your competitors.
A key belief in Skandia is that a truly innovative and entrepreneurial
culture is a vital competitive asset. This is accomplished in a number
of ways. Skandia s balanced scorecard includes a focus on human
factors that is almost exclusively concerned with the extent to which
employees feel that managers and peers contribute to the innovative
culture. This survey is backed up with a strong commitment to the
accountability of line managers for the culture of their work units.
Over-performance can be used as a way to identify and share knowl-
edge, whilst identified under-performance is used as a catalyst for
development and feedback.
Despite the precision of Skandia s values-based scorecarding, a key
assumption for the company is that building control systems is just
as expensive as investing in building employees understanding. As
Carendi says, if you think competence costs a lot try incompetence.
Learning at Skandia is both a strategic priority and a managed process,
and it is combined with the recognition that quality learning does
IN PRACTICE 59
not come cheaply. Skandia s scorecard, for example, captures the per
capita cost of training and development.
Education is a part of what enables the process of continual renewal.
Carendi talks about the challenge of turning around a successful
company. Many companies lose out when success breeds compla-
cency and boom turns to bust. To achieve repeated and extraordinary
success requires a suffusion of collective wisdom into the culture,
structure, and systems of the organization no one is more clever
than everyone, as Carendi puts it. In practice, this means a continual
critical re-examination of past assumptions to avoid becoming blinded
by success.
Whilst Skandia stands as an example of strategic focus as a way of
building success, its real point of differentiation is its powerful focus
on values-based management and education to create a culture that is
a genuine source of competitive advantage.
KEY INSIGHTS
Skandia s success rests on innovation, strategic discipline, and
culture. As a strategy, the group s focus on product packaging
and administration allows it to concentrate on areas of greatest
opportunity. However, it takes genuine bravery and belief to run
in the opposite direction to the rest of the industry, which in the
mid-1980s was highly vertically integrated. This ability has been
reinforced by a willingness to set unreasonable goals.
Much of Skandia s management effort is focused on the develop-
ment of a culture élan that supports the company s ability to build
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]