3m Strategic Management

Resource based plan involves a situation where by a firm mainly focuses on its internal environment in making its strategic decisions concerning the capabilities and resources than the external environment. The resources can be tangible or intangible and they may include the human resources, capital and patents. The capability is the firm’s ability to integrate its resources to produce products or perform tasks that the competitors can not imitate nor understand and eventually the firm is usually at competitive advantage.[1]

Input-output plan is one where by firms within an industry are dependent and a firm output is used by another firm as input. The input-output model focuses on accumulation of resources and making strategic decisions as dictated by the external environment of the firm.[2] 3M is a resource based firm because it mainly focus on efficiency and creativity and make decision based on the resourced it has at its own disposal rather than comparing with those of competitors.

SWOT analysis means strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a firm. The strengths and weaknesses pertains the firm’s internal environment whereas the opportunities and threats pertains the firm’s external environment in reference to the competitors in the industry. The SWOT analysis are aimed to assist a firm to become more competitive in the market and eventually have a bigger market share and a growth in sales volume that is reflected by the increase in sales volume. The SWOT analysis needs to be carried out cautiously so that the correct strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are identified.[3]

            One of the strengths of the firm is the introduction of the performance review process that was aimed at improving the efficiency in 3M. This brought about good results since the firm was able to control its expenditure.

One of the threats of 3M is that innovation has been overtaken by the need for efficiency hence the firm has not been spending much in innovation yet initially identified by innovation.

One of the great opportunities for the firm is its ability to hire very qualified personnel and the ability to train its employees so that they can meet the demand of the firm. These highly skilled workers are able to produce goods very efficiently and there fore have a bigger and growing market share.

One of the threats facing the firm is the decrease in the rate of innovation due to introduction of the six sigma and there fore the firm ending up losing part of the profits despite becoming more efficient in its operations

            The major challenge facing George Buckley is the issue of returning the lost glory of 3M as a very innovative company since it has always been identified with innovation and creativity, this is because Mcnerney had invested a lot I ensuring efficiency and putting innovation aside. George Buckley can only achieve his objective by investing a lot in the research and development.

REFERENCES

New Paradigm: Resource-Based Theory, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_stategic_resource-based.html   [1]

SWOT Analysis, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at,

www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input-output_model

1New Paradigm: Resource-Based Theory, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_stategic_resource-based.html   [1]

[2] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input-output_model

[3] SWOT Analysis, retrieved on 20th September, 2007, available at,

www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot