George Buckley, global chief of the US-based consumer and industrial conglomerate, visited Vietnam for the first time Thursday and spoke to TuoiTreNews about Vietnam’s role in 3M’s global value chain, reverse innovation, and training future business leaders.
What is the purpose of your trip to Vietnam?
Several times a year, the head of international operations and I travel to several countries, usually large ones such as China, Japan and India. From time to time I take a detour through places that are just beginning to get going and that we think will be very important in the future. And of course Vietnam fits into that category.
I think in particular, Vietnam and Indonesia are two countries of enormous potential for us. So we’d like to invest our time and money early.
This is also a chance for me to personally witness what happens in Vietnam. When I am here, I am astounded by how many young people there are. Along with that is the vibrancy and modern way of thinking. Of course the right investment and giving people the right focus would generate a lot of good growth.
3M is probably most famous for its innovation culture. How does the firm encourage and reward innovations?
We have had a culture of innovation for many years. To build it, first of all you need great technical competencies. Second you must provide the appropriate tools such as lab equipment. Once you set up the physical aspect you have to create an environment that encourages innovation. That means promoting a spirit of curiosity, investigation, and discovery.
In addition, we accept that in the journey to discovery there are failures. We investigate in markets that haven’t been built or technology that hasn’t been developed before. So we count those journeys as experiments. We do not immediately characterize things that don’t work as failures because we know well enough that we have to invent maybe 100 patents before the technology is sufficiently robust and viable for us to achieve economic success.
Can you give me an example of a 3M policy that encourages innovation?
We give our researchers 15 percent free time to do what they want. Theoretically, they could say ok, maybe I can work on something irrelevant, but actually it doesn’t happen too much. There is always some peer pressure which keeps them focused around certain activities.
We also have a policy that anytime an economy becomes sufficiently large for us, we establish a lab there to encourage localization. We believe that locals are the best people to decide what is right. In Vietnam, for example, that would be the Vietnamese, not the Americans. We can develop some basic technology but ultimately the best people to decide the right market direction and what special features to include in a product are the people in the local market.
How about reverse innovation whereby a product invented in a developing country can become successful in a developed market?
This happens to us all the time. Our headquarters in St. Paul, in the US, was the original hotspot of innovation. But we have developed about 36 labs all over the world. Initially the labs adapt maybe American, German, or British products for the local market and give advice to customers. But gradually, the local market will begin to modify American products and then progressively begin to formulate ideas and invent local products.
Ultimately, the labs will become worldwide centers of excellence. For example, for us, America is the worldwide center of excellence for material sciences-surface chemistry, German and France for telecommunications, Japan and Germany for automotive technology. Before technology or ideas came from the US while now other centers supply those technologies to the mother countries. This is how we accelerate growth.
Innovation and inventions can’t come happen without leadership. So how do you develop leaders for 3M?
The only way to learn to lead is by doing it. We are providing formal training at multiple levels to our leaders to then place them in circumstances where they can experience real life challenges with real risks.
To become global leaders, employees from a local office like Vietnam, I think, need to be willing to relocate. That would be a great chance to build skill sets, not only in the environment in which they are comfortable with, but also in one where they are not.
3M is very open-minded in terms of choosing its leaders. Let me just give you an example of our leadership team. It’s an American corporation.
I am British and the majority of the people who report directly to me are not American. In fact the head of our consumer and home improvement business, the next level down, is Vietnamese. Two thirds of our sales are outside the US. We are genuinely international. Personally, I’d like for local people to be in charge. But obviously as you move up the level in the organization, it is very diverse. If I think of the top 100 people in 3M, 65 percent were born outside the US.
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