Over the years, 3M innovations have improved the 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.
Just to give you an example, by leveraging our more than 40 very diverse technology platforms such as Abrasives, Biotechnology, Electronic Materials, Films, Imaging, Predictive Engineering and Modelling, Surface Modification, Polymer Melt Processing, Wound Management, Nanotechnology, etc. we got from traffic signs to a flat screen TV.
How was it possible?
3M innovators pioneered a technology platform called Microreplication that incorporates thousands of tiny grooves into a plastic surface to achieve light-bending properties and the same technology moved from overhead projectors to traffic signals on the roads. 3M experts then began exploring new possibilities for the technology in abrasives, in magnetic recording and in the emerging field of flat-panel displays (LCDs). Brightness Enhancement Film became a game-changer for 3M, making screens brighter and thinner at the same time, optimizing all angles of light while extending battery life.
So, by developing a technology that bends light we set our idea on a journey where it has evolved into a new opportunity and then another and another…and we keep asking ourselves “What’s next?”
At 3M, we dare to imagine what can be created when we connect an idea from one area to the need of another.
How do we listen to our customers?
The 3M Innovation Centres of Technical Excellence which are located in over 30 countries worldwide play an important role in this ongoing process, as through dynamic displays and interactive, hands-on demonstrations, customers come to our innovation centres to collaborate with 3M experts and explore creative solutions to help their businesses grow and succeed.
The VOC is then translated into the development of transformational products and solutions that enable customer success and improve people’s lives around the world. We use a collaborative, high-energy approach to solving the toughest problems across industries and markets that consists of:
- Constantly exchange and build on each other’s ideas;
- Uncover new connections between seemingly unrelated markets and more than 40 diverse technology platforms;
- Foster a culture of intellectual curiosity and creativity that pushes boundaries.
By continually discovering connections, we innovate with a core focus on helping customers tackle challenges and enable progress in our fast-changing world.
3M innovations are born from the contributions of many, working together to share and reshape ideas in a way that creates more than could be done alone.
