Strategic Leadership - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Strategic Leadership - - Case determine ExampleRoutines Creation of the Central Research Laboratory enabled 3M to learn outside its defined domain by looking on opportunities generated by both external demand and internal capacity (Bartlett & Mohammed 3). Substantial organizational slack manifested through the policy encouraging researchers to spend up to 15% of their time pursuing projects of participation to them (Bartlett & Mohammed 4). Identifying and developing innovations arising from projects even when no large market potential was evident (Bartlett & Mohammed 4) Continued organic increase and spurning off of fresh groups, divisions and products strengthened 3M through increased product variation. Culture Creativity was advance via institutionalize singular entrepreneurship (Bartlett & Mohammed 2) Informal recognition given to maverick employees through semi-legend stories that were circulated in the company to encourage individual persistence and commitment to innovati on (Bartlett & Mohammed 5). Tolerance for what McKnight referred to as well-intentioned failure and risk taking was encouraged as shown by management supporting those who were involved in failed projects quickly move on to or sothing new (Bartlett & Mohammed 5). 3M has been able to retain its market leadership through technological innovation, market responsiveness and institutionalized entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship by its very nature is specifyd by high risk and possibility of failure. Therefore it is necessary to wee-wee a management that encourages employees to innovate through incentives, and giving them time to actu bothy pursue these innovative projects. Innovation requires research, which is mental imagery intensive, therefore the company needed to ensure that these resources are available by making huge investments in R&D such as in the development of the Central Research Laboratory. However, we must whole tone that this is a business where the ultimate goal is to maximize on shareholder return. Thus giving severally of these innovative divisions a clear set of corporate financial performance targets ensures that they self-monitor themselves, by investing just in those products that show promise of a return. If say, 3M lacked this form of financial targets for each of its divisions we would probably see some divisions becoming less accountable than others. Is 3M an innovation factory, or does it work by a different stupefy? And are those at 3M T-shaped? 3M is an innovation factory because we can identify within it the four intertwined work practices that characterize such a factory namely capturing good ideas (3M spans multiple markets with multiple business units), keeping ideas viable (3M has a database containing over 25 years of information on hundreds of projects), imagining new uses for old ideas (3M encourages cross-functional interaction among all its divisions) and putting promising concepts to the test (3M encourages development of innovations from projects even when no large market potential is evident) (Hargadon & Sutton 324). The stave at 3M is T-shaped. This is so because we can identify several of the approaches highlighted by Hansen and von Oetinger as necessary for an organization to have so that its staff can effectivel be T-shaped. Firstly, we see that 3M constructed a facility at Austin, Texas whose specific place was to facilitate cross-functional interaction and encourage teamwork (Bartlett & Mohammed 12) which is line with the formalization of cross-unit