3M
Margins up, invention down. What happens when you de-variance a research lab.
BusinessWeek, 3M's Innovation Crisis: How Six Sigma Almost Smothered Its Idea Culture
cover story, 11 June 2007
Under James McNerney from 2001, 3M extended Six Sigma into research, requiring scientists to document early-stage projects with charts and projected returns. Operating margins rose from 17 percent in 2001 to 23 percent in 2005. The share of revenue from new products fell.
His successor George Buckley pulled it back out of research, reasoning that invention is by its nature a disorderly process. It is the Learning cell's failure case and the clearest evidence available that a method can be executed correctly and still be pointed at the wrong domain.
How does tacit judgment become reusable, and who owns the loop that has to close?
Where on the evolution curve does each capability sit, and does that dictate build, buy, or let go?
What would you show an auditor, and can the system produce it without being asked?