The economy is chief among threats to 3M's growth and profitability, although its diversification and innovation strategies help to mitigate that threat somewhat. There is a significant threat in the optical film business. This product line, which was 16% of the firm's revenues in 2006 (Jayson, 2006) has suffered a slowdown since that point. The company is transitioning this division towards the LCD market. Competitors represent another significant threat, especially in fast-paced technology-driven markets like optical film (3M 2007 Annual Report). Another threat is increased costs of inputs. In 2007, raw materials costs increased significantly as global commodities prices increased significantly. This in turn squeezes 3M's margins.

Five Forces

It is difficult to analyze 3M's competitive environment, given that the firm is a diversified conglomerate. 3M has strong buyer power, a function of their size and purchasing capacity. 3M also has strong seller power, given the quality of their goods and 3M's….

Lacking in an introductory part and in explanatory paragraphs that introduce the reader to the story, it can be perceived as "skimpy." On the other hand, the same features make it easy to read and follow through.
In terms of the organization and its stand on innovation, it is important to notice the increased emphasis placed by the 3M leaders on the organizational culture. Innovation in itself represents a culture of change, in which the current features are continually replaced by newer items which provide more benefits. While it is in fact crucial to create a culture that engages the staff members in the process of innovation, there are also other elements which must be granted, if not the same, maybe even more, attention. Some examples in this sense include market research to identify new needs and adjust to them or responses to the innovation strategies implemented by the other….

Marketing Case Study
Chapter 1 discusses the underlying factors for business market. 3M Canada has to consider the growth rates of its customer bases, and the drivers of those respective growth rates. The company also needs to consider the structure of those markets, for example the consolidation/creative destruction in MRO that sees waning companies combine and new companies emerge.

Chapter 2 discusses organizational buying behavior. This relates to understanding the buying trends, something that will help 3M identify the segments with the best potential to help it meet its sales growth objectives. The sales target is the problem that 3M must solve. The solution lies with, it appears, the MRO channel because OEM has become mature, but the major MRO distributors are growing double digits.

Chapter 3 discusses customer relationship marketing strategies. Right now, the 3M sales reps are not assigned by customer, so there may not be much in the way of….

Greptile Technology
3M currently operates in more than 60 countries with more than 70,000 employees worldwide. It mainly focuses on six markets; industrial, Transportation, Graphics and Safety; Health Care; Consumer and Office; Electronics and Communications; and Specialty Material Markets. Innovation and the creation of new products stem from 30 technology platforms such as adhesives, non-woven materials, micro-replication, drug-delivery systems, and medical-surgical supplies.

apid growth and success of 3M is as a result of its commitment to innovation by giving the employees the freedom to try new ideas.

Applications of the greptile technology within the sports and leisure market

acing industry; steering wheel and hydraulic jack; Greptile technology has helped drivers and crew members in the racing industry perform best. When 3M greptile gripping material is applied on the steering wheel and the hydraulic jack it will help in providing a better grip. It works in a way that thousands of the microscopic "fingers" inter-connects….

It is also a "what" problem, however, because the major issue Mr. McNerney, (and others at the company) need to address is "what needs to be changed." It is a "why" problem, moreover, because 3M executives need to endeavor to discover how 3M "lost its groove" (so-to-speak) in the first place, and how it might now go about getting it back. So the problem of #M's organizational leadership problem is a three-part problem (or, perhaps, three separate yet related problems).
3. One strategy Mr. McNerney is using is to attempt to get everyone onboard, and in favor of the changes he envisions, rather than simply ordering change. Mr. McNerney is using persuasion with subordinates, rather than coercion. As one 3M employee, having watched McNerney in action, observes: "Jim doesn't say, 'You've got to do this.' Instead he says, '3M has this tremendous reputation and global presence and great technology, and….

The 3M model is also one that thrives on internal competition between ideas for further funding, the progression to the next stage of the innovation process, and the development of prototypes and finished products. What unifies all of these elements together is the strong focus on innovation that is predicated on team-based assignment and requirements (Allio, 1993). There is also a strong focus on minimizing variation in new products once defined and in production using Six Sigma, a technique for minimize product variations over time (Hindo, 2007).

eferences

Constraints eferences

Bernardi, d. S. (2010). Theory of constraints contributions to outbound logistics. Management esearch eview, 33(7), 683-700. Link:

http://ebiz.uoregon.edu/poms2008/FullPapers/008-0518.pdf

Goodrich, D.F. (2008). The relationship of the theory of constraints implementation to change management integration in professional service organizations. Nova Southeastern University). Link: http://gradworks.umi.com/33/12/3312014.html

Gupta, M.C., & Boyd, L.H. (2008). Theory of constraints: A theory for operations management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 28(10), 991-1012. Link:….

The other is that the author is using the same references as before, shoehorning them into the paper without regard for appropriateness. Utilizing more sources would be preferred. Also, there are times when old sources are used for information about online marketing. A paper from 2000 is of questionable relevance given the phenomenal technological advancements in the e-Business sphere over the past nine years.
Overall, the paper lacks cohesion. Sources and concepts have been plucked at random and pasted together. Yet, the facts presented do not support each other. There is no central thesis towards which these random tidbits work. 3M is a huge company - the paper may have been improved by focusing on just one of 3M's businesses. As it is, the reader is left with little sense of what 3M's e-Business strategy is, how it works, or whether it has been successful..

In addition to these technological factors there is also the fluidity of people moving across borders and throughout regions of the world as well. This all adds up to an exceptional pace of change globally for Operations Management as a discipline.
3) Research the Theory of Constraints by Eli Goldratt. How does this theory apply to the company, such as Kroger or Circuit City?

The Theory of Constraints most applies to Kroger and Circuit City from the standpoint of streamlining and making more efficient their supply chain, sourcing, procurement and logistics strategies, making it possible to keep products that sell well on their store shelves. The Theory of Constraints also is invaluable in terms of helping the management teams in those retail chains determine the optimal mix of inventory for any given month or season as well, as the Goldratt model seeks to define optimization through constraint modeling.

4) Research standardization, flexibility….

real number is assigned to each statement written in a language, within a range from 0 to 1, where 1 means that the statement is completely true, and 0 means that the statement is completely false, while values less than 1 but greater than 0 represent that the statements are partly true, to a given, quantifiable extent. This makes it possible to analyze a distribution of statements for their truth-content, identify data patterns, make inferences and predictions, and model how processes operate.
Read the following instructions in order to complete this assignment, and review the example of how to complete the math required for this assignment:

Use the properties of real numbers to simplify the following expressions:

2a (a -- 5) + 4(a -- 5)

3(w -- 4) -- 5(w -- 6)

(0.3m + 35n) -- 0.8(-0.09n -- 22m)

Problem #1

2a (a-5) +4(a-5) I multiply 2a by each term inside the parentheses

2a^-10a+4(a-5) then I multiply….

J. Heinz Company
Strengths: it is short and concise; it is constructed in a formal means which also uses specialized language to promote the company's commitment to customers and employees.

Shortcomings: it lacks an introduction and it does not mention the well-being of other categories of stakeholders aside customers and employees

(5) Chevron

Strengths: offers detailed input on the company's visionary goals; includes several categories of stakeholders

Shortcomings: it is rather long and too detailer, creating as such the possibility for the reader to lose interest and not remember what he read; seems explicative and responsive to the criticism of environmental threats to which the company has been subjected.

ank of vision statements from best to worst: I (4); II (1); III (2); IV (5); V (3)

eferences:

ed Hat 2009 Annual eport, http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/HAT/763006950x0x304106/3145E646-AE56-4FE1-9C59-B79F4491C4C5/FY09_Annual_eport_on_Form_10-K.pdf last accessed on November 2, 2009

2009, ed….

Three -- Steel Dynamics, Alcoa and IE DuPont fell in excess of 6% for the week. The drop in the first two can be attributed to weakness in commodities. The other outlier was Pfizer, which was the only stock to gain this week, up 0.49%. Even fellow pharmaceutical firms JNJ and MRK dropped, indicating specific strength in Pfizer, most likely tied to merger talks. Most stocks in the portfolio, however, roughly tracked the market, which slumped on generally discouraging sentiment with regards to economic recovery, spurred by weak new home sales and durable goods sales, two key economic indicators (Perman, 2009).
Stock

Close Sept 18

Close Sept 25

Return

STLD

17.85

16.61

-6.95%

XOM

69.81

68.7

-1.59%

AA

14.04

13.08

-6.84%

DIS

28.44

27.62

-2.88%

MRK

31.88

31.25

-1.98%

PFE

16.32

16.4

0.49%

MMM

74.65

73.8

-1.14%

KO

53.83

52.97

-1.60%

JNJ

60.72

60.62

-0.16%

DD

33.77

31.74

-6.01%

Dow

-1.58%

S&P 500

-2.24%

orks Cited:

All stock quotes from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved September 25, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp

No author. (2009). Stock index futures point to higher open. Reuters. Retrieved September 25, 2009 from http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20090925&id=10373441

Gibson, Nevil. (2009). all Street Stocks Fall as Fed Keeps Interest Rates Down. National Business Review.….

Nanomaterials
Advances in Nanomaterials and Their Applications

Nanomaterials, including carbon nanofibers and nanotubes, are being explored extensively for their use and application in multiple manufacturing domains. One of the most eager manufacturing sectors to incorporate nanomaterials into their midst is the athletics gear and sporting industries. Tennis rackets, surf, skate, and snow boards, skis, ski poles, boats, bicycles, hockey sticks, baseball bats, golf clubs and balls are all potentially transformed by the use of nanomaterials. Other athletics applications of nanomaterials include sports stadium materials, artificial turf, running track surfaces, clothing, and gymnasium equipment (Chunyan, 2011). While nanomaterials are proving promising from design, implementation, and development perspectives, there are also significant safety issues that need to be taken into consideration by engineers, manufacturers, and industry regulators.

The root word "nano" comes from the Greek meaning dwarf because the particles are extremely small and require special technologies for visualization as well as manipulation (Hickman, 2002).….

Responsibilities of Corporations
Most people would agree that the purpose of business is to make a profit, but at what cost in human lives and suffering?

On December 3, 1984, a cloud of highly toxic gas rose above the city of hopal, India. When it settled, it instantly killed approximately 3,000 people, and left up to 600,000 people dying slowly or suffering various kinds of medical problems (Economist, par. 2). Union Carbide's pesticide plant was the culprit, yet the company denies any wrongdoing as well as any responsibility in the incident. According to the company's official statement, the explosion was the result of sabotage (Union Carbide, par. 4).

Even if we accept Union Carbide's claim that sabotage was the cause of the catastrophe, does this clear the company of any guilt in the matter? If sabotage really is to blame, doesn't it only shift the company culpability from one area to another; security….

"
This is significant because it shows how some critics of contrarian investing will often point to the various instances of speculation and assume that it is contrarian investing. In some cases the psychology of consumers can become so extreme, that the definition of what is speculative expands greatly. As a result, using contrarian investing in conjunction with other indicators / tools can help prudent investors and traders, be able to identify when the market condition are becoming more extreme.

Contrarian Indicators and Tools

When using the different contrarian indicators / tools in conjunction with one another, you can begin to see how this strategy can be used, to effectively determine if the market conditions are overbought or oversold. There are number of different tools that can be utilized to indentify major changes that are occurring in the trend of a stock or the market averages. These would include: headlines within the mainstream….

All those nice customer-friendly marketing techniques notwithstanding, hite notes, customer-centered personalization can't work well without being linked with high-quality, high-visibility customer service.
Even some of the most successful corporations, like IBM, apparently stumbled along for a time, totally failing to "get it" when it came to customer-centric strategies. According to the industry publication Chain Store Age, in the early 1990s, a customer-centric culture "was foreign to Big Blue" - and to al-Mart - until fairly recently. The writer goes on to explain that when considering al-Mart and Target (two retail giants that are becoming "more alike than different"), "sameness" is a "trap" that happens when a company "takes its eye off the brand to focus on the numbers, loyalty goes by the wayside. It happened to Sears," the article asserts.

RESISTANCE TO CCS/CRM: In the Jossey-Bass book, Designing The Customer-Centric Organization (Galbraith 2005), the author suggests that businesses that hesitate to….