Illustration: Cameron Galley for Bloomberg Businessweek Businessweek 3M Might Just Escape Its Toxic Chemical Legacy Decades of selling PFAS left the iconic American manufacturer mired in legal liabilities. A new CEO is hoping to spark a turnaround.
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The Command strip is one of those quintessential 3M products. Released in 1996, it was simple yet revolutionary, strong enough to hold items without stripping paint when removed. Soon it was fastening framed photos, bathroom towels and outdoor decorations around the world.
The adhesive that made the strip possible was invented by a 3M scientist in the late 1980s. The exact science is a closely guarded secret, but it can resist gravity while somehow pulling away clean when tugged as instructed. In hindsight the market for such an invention is obvious, and yet it was almost lost to corporate bureaucracy. 3M shelved the project at one point in the ’90s and revived it only after impassioned pleas from a determined product development executive. His persistence paid off: Within three years of its debut, the Command strip was turning a $10 million profit. 3M Co. now sells more than 200 varieties, bringing in $500 million a year.
As Command strips turned into a product empire, though, they also became captive to 3M’s unique form of industrial sprawl. Historically the company has organized its factories by material science and manufacturing processes, rather than by product—think chemicals in one facility, adhesives in another and packaging somewhere else, for example, regardless of their ultimate end use. This way, the thinking went, with each innovation, 3M could wring more value from existing machinery and underlying technologies. But every new product and geographic market also brought with it new costs and complexities, resulting in a labyrinthine factory network. This approach meant that Command strip production took place at multiple sites, sometimes hundreds of miles apart. Add in more steps for distribution, and the journey to Walmart shelves of what is, at base, just a particularly good sticky plastic hook looks pretty convoluted.
3M is one of the most sparkling brand names in US business history, known for advancing material science to the point that the first astronauts who walked on the moon were equipped with boots made from its synthetic rubber. If America wanted it, 3M could invent and produce it, building its fortunes on products as innocuous as Post-it notes and as dangerous as chemicals lining nonstick pans. From its headquarters in St. Paul, the company also became known in the business world for its Minnesota-nice corporate culture, a contrast to the ruthlessness championed by the likes of longtime General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch. 3M’s executives were unfailingly polite, its senior scientists were allowed to devote 15% of their time to research projects of their choosing, and many employees worked at 3M for their entire careers, long after staying in one job forever ceased to be fashionable.
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