This is the story of the creation of the Post-it® Note. You might think, given i
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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?
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selectIntended strategyDominant strategic planTop-down strategic planningScenario planningPlanned emergence2.
Dr. Arthur Fry's idea about a method to hold the bookmark in his hymnal is best described as which of the following?
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selectSerendipityOrganizational valuesResource allocation processUpper-echelons theoryAutonomous action3.
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?
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selectSenior leaders must add the emergent idea to the list of scenarios.Executives provide a mission that fosters conformity and cohesiveness.Top managers need to provide financial rewards to emergent creators.Top executives decide who to assign to specific projects.Executives decide which projects to shut down and which to continue.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?
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selectSenior management develops a set of metrics to measure the success of implementing the plan.Senior management allocates the corporate resources to match the plan.The functional areas are asked to submit new projects to support the plan.Nothing. By the time a plan is accepted, the next planning cycle has started.Senior management submits the detailed plan to the Board of Directors for approval.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?
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selectVoting on which of the plans to recommend to senior leadership.Giving feedback on the alternative plans to the original analysis team to check for coverage of their concerns.Choosing a dominant plan and discarding the other alternative plans to help organizational focus.Executing a dominant strategic plan. Strategy is meaningless if it is not actionable.Presentation of the alternative plans to senior management.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?
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Explanation / Answer
1. The answer is 'planned emergence'. Planned emergence strategies are a set of actions that are consistent over time, though not explicitly mentioned or intended. In the case of 3M the actions was focused on innovation. The approach of fostering innovation was given utmost importance and all employees were allowed to dedicate 15% of their time to pursue activities and projects that can lead to innovation. This helped the company in seizing the unexpected opportunities as and when they arrived. In other words, planned emergence and focus on innovation helped 3M use serendipitous strategy.
2. The answer is 'serendipity'. Serendipity is the aptitude to make desirable discoveries by accident. Now, in this case Fry discovered the use of the weak adhesive that was developed Dr. Silver. While at the choir, he saw how his bookmarks always fell and he suddenly had an idea that the weak adhesive can be used for sticky bookmarks and it can be easily removed.
3. The answer is 'senior leaders must add the emergent idea to the list of scenarios'. By adding emergent ideas in the list of scenarios the mission is being made somewhat explicit. Also by adding it to the list of scenarios, the senior leaders are encouraging and backing the innovation.
4. The answer is 'senior management allocates the corporate resources to match the plan'. Once the strategic need have been identified, it is time to fulfill the needs by implementing the strategic plan.
5. The answer is 'Giving feedback on the alternative plans to the original analysis team to check for coverage of their concerns'. This is because scenario planning was done to consider the implications and fallouts of all possible events and scenarios that can occur in future. By checking with the original analysis team, the scenarios can be updated, if there is a need to do so.
6. (Options not given in the question).
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