Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver: Post-it Notes – 3M This is the story of the creat
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Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver: Post-it Notes – 3M This is the story of the creation of the Post-it® Note. You might think, given its commercial success, that researchers were burning the midnight oil to find a way to leave clingy notes in books and on memos. But that is not what happened… In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a senior chemist in 3M’s central research lab, developed a high-quality adhesive that could be easily peeled off the surfaces to which it was adhered. This particular discovery was not considered a great success, since the real goal of Silver’s project was to develop a super-strong adhesive, but instead he had found a rather weak one. So, Silver moved on to look at other materials for use as a powerful adhesive. Five years later, Arthur Fry, an avid collaborator in 3M’s research lab and a singer in his local church choir, was frustrated by how his bookmarks always slipped out when opening the hymnals. He suddenly remembered an old presentation by Silver in which Silver mentioned trying to find a promising commercial use for his removable adhesive. The next morning, Fry made some prototype sticky bookmarks that worked wonderfully for his problem. Fry then wrote up a proposal to develop a reusable, reliable, and adhesive bookmark and presented it to his supervisors. Fry’s managers were hesitant at first, but 3M’s culture of innovation led his supervisor to give Fry a chance to develop his idea. Fry created more samples, giving them to colleagues at work and fellow singers in the choir. Almost everyone kept asking Fry for more samples! Even then, it took several more years of design and manufacturing work to bring the Post-it Note to fruition. By 1977, the product was fully developed and functional, but it still took another two years to gain broader acceptance. In 1979, after implementing a massive consumer sampling, the product became widely available in the U.S. Within two years, it had become so indispensible that no office supply list was complete without Post-it Notes. For Drs. Silver and Fry, it was a wonderful addition to their long and productive careers with 3M. Both have been awarded 3M’s highest honors in research, as well as a number of prestigious engineering awards across the globe. It should be noted that 3M is well known for fostering innovation. It lets its employees dedicate 15 percent of their time to pursuing projects that might be good potential innovations for the firm. In great part, this culture is what led to the Post-it Notes’ success. A less open firm would simply have shut the project down. There were certainly many times during the 10 years of development where the idea could have been abandoned. One interesting point to consider from this story is not how firms allow serendipitous moments to grow into successful innovations, but how firms should promote such serendipity to begin with.
1.
In the case of Post-it Notes, the primary strategic process described came from which of the following?
Scenario planning
Intended strategy
Dominant strategic plan
Planned emergence
Top-down strategic planning
2.
Dr. Arthur Fry's idea about a method to hold the bookmark in his hymnal is best described as which of the following?
Serendipity
Autonomous action
Upper-echelons theory
Resource allocation process
Organizational values
3.
As demonstrated in both the 3M example here and the Enron Wind example in the textbook, senior managers have a vital role in the planned emergence process. Which of the following best describes that role?
Executives provide a mission that fosters conformity and cohesiveness.
Senior leaders must add the emergent idea to the list of scenarios.
Executives decide which projects to shut down and which to continue.
Top managers need to provide financial rewards to emergent creators.
Top executives decide who to assign to specific projects.
4.
The most "top down" of the three approaches to making strategy is strategic planning. Often, these plans will run in three- to five-year cycles. What happens once the plan has initially identified the strategic needs of the corporation?
The functional areas are asked to submit new projects to support the plan.
Senior management submits the detailed plan to the Board of Directors for approval.
Senior management develops a set of metrics to measure the success of implementing the plan.
Nothing. By the time a plan is accepted, the next planning cycle has started.
Senior management allocates the corporate resources to match the plan.
5.
When managers envision different "what-if" future alternatives and develop strategic plans to address them, they are engaging in scenario planning. The process of planning scenarios can be considered a microcosm of the overarching framework of this textbook. Analysis is identifying a variety of future scenarios. Formulation is developing strategic plans to address many of those future scenarios. What is the final Implementation phase of scenario planning?
Presentation of the alternative plans to senior management.
Voting on which of the plans to recommend to senior leadership.
Choosing a dominant plan and discarding the other alternative plans to help organizational focus.
Giving feedback on the alternative plans to the original analysis team to check for coverage of their concerns.
Executing a dominant strategic plan. Strategy is meaningless if it is not actionable
6.
The examples of investment in Enron Wind assets and Starbucks' Frappuccino give interesting insights into the process of getting an emergent strategy approved by an existing firm. Which of the following characterize the individual skills needed for a passionate employee to get a new product or investment approved when it lies well outside the firm's core business?
A personal relationship with the CEO
A large amount of self-confidence and perseverance
A well-defined business plan
Luck and timing
The ability to demonstrate a high profit margin
Explanation / Answer
From the above information,
1.
Answer: Planned emergence
2.
Answer: Serendipity
3.
Answer: Senior leaders must add the emergent idea to the list of scenarios.
4.
Answer: Senior management submits the detailed plan to the Board of Directors for approval
5.
Answer: Executing a dominant strategic plan. Strategy is meaningless if it is not actionable
6.
Answer: The ability to demonstrate a high profit margin
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