3M 2011 Annual Report Download - page 5

Inspired Innovation 3
The second reason for optimism is that innovation
and excellence at 3M are not limited to research and
manufacturing. Every function of the company is taking
on big projects as we move to become faster and
more competitive. Last year, for example, we began
contemporizing our information systems across the
company and around the world. With 3M’s complexity
and global reach, this is not a small task. We are taking
a phased approach – and it will take some years to
fully implement – but the rewards are enormous for our
productivity, for our speed, and, most importantly, for
our customers through improved customer service
and efficiency.
Third, 3M is a truly global company. We are a company
with an incredible capacity – more than any other I know
of – to compete and win against local competition
anywhere in the world. To win the battle against them,
you have to be like them in as many respects as you can
be. You have to develop locally, manufacture locally, hire
locally, purchase locally and lead these entities locally
while always being mindful of world-class compliance.
Looking ahead, 3M is fortunate to have as its new Chief
Executive Officer, Inge Thulin, who for many years was
a great leader of our International Operations and who,
as a senior member of our team, helped create much of
3M’s new capabilities. He has led 3M businesses in both
developed and emerging markets and helped develop many
of our current localization capabilities and success. Inge
has my respect, my full support and my warm personal
friendship. I know that he will lead 3M to new levels
of success.
As I close this chapter of my career, I will try to do justice
to how I feel about this unique and wonderful company. In
short, I have come to love 3M – its culture, its spirit and
its people. I have been fortunate to work side by side with
some of the brightest people in the world and even more
fortunate to have become personal friends with many of
them. I hope those friendships will be lifelong.
When I joined this company six and a half years ago, the
engineer in me characterized it as a veritable candy store of
technologies. But the more I learned of 3M’s technologies
and the company’s ability to combine and commercialize
them, I realized that the ‘candy store’ metaphor was
woefully inadequate.
The fact is that 3M is a technological powerhouse
unequalled in its breadth and depth anywhere in the world.
And that power grows every day. It grows not just because
of ongoing investments – though they are certainly
required – but because of the innate curiosity, optimism
and creativity of 3M’s people. It grows because of a global
commitment to invent and innovate close to our customers,
be it in St. Paul or Sao Paulo, Singapore or Shanghai. And
it grows because of the commitment of generation after
generation of 3M people to create a better future for their
customers and for themselves. I am so privileged and
honored to have had the chance to play, along with many
wonderful colleagues, a role in 3M’s resurgence and
new progress.
I thank you all for your continued interest and confidence in
3M, and I praise Almighty God for the opportunity to have
led this marvelous and unique enterprise. A company you
could never imagine if it didn’t exist today.
George W. Buckley
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
February 16, 2012