Everyone has heard of small yellow sticky notes or the popular Post-it, but almost no one has heard of the conceptual originator of the product that is in every office, the company 3M.
There is hardly a phone or LCD screen in the world that does not contain some 3M component, nor a car with at least six to eight of their components used during production. Next year will mark 30 years since 3M opened its office in Croatia, and the head of the Adriatic region, Tomislav Šlat, is celebrating 25 years of his career at one of the largest and richest companies in the world this year. With 88,000 employees and last year’s sales revenue of $30 billion and over $4 billion in net profit, 3M is among the 100 largest companies in the world. It is one of the 30 companies that are part of the Dow Jones stock index. The company has 226 factories on all continents and invested $1.63 billion in research and development last year. We spoke with Šlat about the business environment that must change.
• How do you interpret the fact that almost no one has heard of the company you work for, while the products you sell are known worldwide?
– Given the breadth of products, 3M has almost never promoted itself as a company as a whole. In product niches, we have developed quality and brand awareness among the narrow professions that know us very well. We are marketing-oriented only on consumer brands – Scotch, Post-it, Nexcare, Tegaderm, ScotchBrite, etc. Our products are always in the A or B segment and are often more expensive than the competition, but this vision has proven correct as we have survived as a corporation for 110 years and are becoming stronger. However, consumer products make up only a smaller segment of our business. Our products are based on more than 40 technologies and grouped into five divisions: Industrial Products, Electronics and Energy, Healthcare, Consumer, and Safety and Labeling.
