About
3M's origin story is a lesson in failure: founded in 1902 as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company to mine corundum for sandpaper, the mine turned out to contain worthless anorthosite. Stuck with a failed mining business, the founders pivoted to making sandpaper itself — and the company discovered its real talent: not mining rocks, but inventing new products and materials. More than a century later, 3M has created over 60,000 products, from Post-it notes and Scotch tape to advanced ceramics and medical adhesives. The company's structure is designed for invention: its famous '15% rule' lets employees spend time on projects outside their day job, an idea that spawned products like the Post-it note. Its industrial business makes the abrasives, adhesives, tapes, and films that go into cars, phones, airplanes, and buildings, while its safety and healthcare divisions produce N95 respirators, surgical drapes, and drug delivery systems. With about 85,000 employees and annual revenue near US$33 billion, 3M is organized around five business groups serving everything from electronics to dentistry to energy. Its 100+ research labs and its culture of cross-pollination between divisions — the '3M way' — remain the most studied innovation model in American business, proof that a failed mine can become the world's most prolific product engine.
Also known as: 3M, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
