3M, a Global Partner in Innovation

Suren Rajanathan is Vice President of 3M Sri Lanka, an innovation-based company which boasts a catalog of over 1,000 products sold in Sri Lanka that span 25 different business categories. 3M has an income internationally of $30 billion in sales, employs about 84,000 people worldwide, and has operations in more than 65 countries with products sold in nearly 200 countries. The local contingent works with over 30 channel distributors as their 'partners in innovation'. Suren sat down with the Daily FT to discuss 3M's role in the country and their plans for the future.

Q: What is 3M as

a company?

A: 3M is a global innovation company that never stops inventing. Over the years, our innovations have improved daily life for hundreds of millions of people all over the world. We have made driving at night easier, made buildings safer, and made consumer electronics lighter, less energy-intensive and less harmful to the environment. We even helped put a man on the moon. Every day at 3M, one idea always leads to the next, igniting momentum to make progress possible around the world. 3M's culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. Two of 3M’s core values – entrepreneurship and listening to the voice of the customer - are as old as the company.

Q: What is the scope of your operation/success in Sri Lanka? (size of product range, customer base, market shares, employees, etc.)

A: 3M Sri Lanka began its operation in 1994, as a fully owned subsidiary of 3M USA. We have strongly established ourselves in diverse industries such as Health Care, Electro Communication, Infrastructure, Construction, Apparel, Woodworking, Automotive aftermarket, Occupational Health, Safety & Security and Consumer & Office.  We market most of our products through our network of well respected Channel Partners from the respective Industries and Key Account Growth Partners, and our team of 20 highly trained and specialized business development professionals work closely with them. We are all a part of 3M’s International organisation and we work very closely with the Asia Pacific team to support our customers, especially in the B2B sector.         

Q: How is the role of marketing changing in 3M?

A: We have adopted the idea that the 4th M of 3M is Marketing Excellence. This is an exciting time for us, as we have great opportunities before us; our future growth will be driven by marketing excellence, and our strong brand will be a major element in this plan. We see an opportunity to reinvigorate the 3M Brand, to change the way we present 3M to our customers and to change the way we approach our business. Change is often uncomfortable, difficult, and rarely are there quick fixes – the coming changes are no exception, but they are also exciting and will lay the foundation for our future. In this journey the Leadership Challenges we will face are two fold; we need to present a consistent view of 3M to our customers, continuously leveraging and strengthening our brand, maintaining a consistent, customer-focused experience across all 3M businesses. Our Marketing Initiatives will help us to drive profitable growth, anticipate and  understand the needs of customers, and find better ways to meet those needs, faster and more completely than our competition.  We also see opportunities. We are shifting our objectives from informational to transactional, collecting customer behavior and data at every interaction. These are building blocks for continued customer relationships and improved customer service. We will also leverage the 'Big 3M.' We will present a coordinated view of 3M to our customers, pulling together products across businesses. Our strength as a manufacturer of thousands of quality products across diverse markets and geographies hasn't been leveraged, and its time that it was. 3M’s brand personality is:-Free thinking and creative; Sharing and trusting; Fascinating; High-energy and optimistic and Confident.

Q: What Leadership style do you aspire to?

A: I believe that employee empowerment is important, as our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and encourage our employees to exercise their initiative. Our employees take decisions at the customer location which will help the customer to succeed. They take risks at times in the spirit of adventure and challenge, and we encourage that.  If as a leader you are destructively critical when your staff makes mistakes, it will kill their initiative. We recognize our employees for their pursuit of excellence, going out of their way to help our customers succeed.

Q: How many different business units fall under 3M's operations in Sri Lanka?

A: We represent six large businesses and 25 business categories.  For each business unit we have specialized business partners to support our growth plans.  The six large businesses are: Health Care, Occupational Health & Environmental Safety, Industrial & Transportation Business, Electronics & Telecommunication, Consumer and Office and Display & Graphics

Q: What do you see as major opportunities in Sri Lanka for 3M?

A: In the postwar era companies are beginning to invest and we see many industries thriving to become internationally competitive. 3M is a preferred supplier to many Industries around the world and we are excited to share our global technologies with Sri Lankan companies to make them global players. Some of the local companies which manufacture products for their export market are using our products to make their end product globally competitive. Apparel, furniture, rubber and steel are great local examples. 3M applied the Microreplication technology to highway signs and roadways in 1980s. With thousands of tiny prisms reflecting a car’s headlights back to the driver, signs and raised pavement markers (cats eye) on highways and in construction zones appeared significantly brighter, helping drivers find their way safely.  If you take a drive on the southern expressway you'll experience a sample of 3M’s technology.

Q: How has 3M developed the knowledge bases within the respective industries they have been a part of?

A: Our innovations are born in our ability to collaborate across technologies, industries and geographies like no other - many have tried to emulate 3M on this, but none have succeeded.

Q: What new frontiers of knowledge is 3M looking into for purposes of expansion/innovation?

A: Owning “Innovation” is challenging and it has become a crowded space around the world. We need to stand out with our own special kind of Innovation. Innovation is no longer something that any one company can credibly claim to “own” outright. Innovation is no longer seen as something unique to a small number of companies: value has migrated to the demand side of the global economy, meaning that all companies are under pressure to innovate now. The novelty value of new industries (software, internet, bio-tech) gives companies exclusively focused on those industries a natural perceptual advantage in being seen as the “most innovative”. Customers are not rational in how they assess the innovativeness of a company - they view companies whose impact on their life is most immediate and obvious as being the most innovative. Our goal is to make them more rational and by doing so make them more excited about 3M. The market tends to focus on the “grand gesture” and laud major, risky product launches over sustained incremental change and less risky ventures. This is a reality we must deal with as a brand. We have done our homework to understand what is special about us. Many elements are needed as fuel for 3M Innovation: people, technologies and ideas.  Internally, we don’t think of ourselves as innovative. 3Mers focus on people and product – an important part of who we are, but neither speak about innovation directly. That is because we focus on continuous innovation.    We're not about one-hit wonders, we want to be your innovation partners for the long haul. We don’t sell products, we build relationships based on our ability to innovate time and again. Harnessing the chain reaction of new ideas – This is what is special about 3M innovation.