Research Paper on:
3M and Customer Service

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of the new century, the vice-president for supply-chain management at Staples Inc., David Crosier, credited 3M Corporation with more than a few headaches. Staples consistently was unable to maintain  inventory of Post-it Notes(r) and Scotch(r) tape either in its warehouses or its stores. An order for 10,000 rolls of Scotch tape generally would gain the company no more  than 8,000, and 3M could be counted on to deliver even the short order late. "It was always a crapshoot ... The problem was causing stock-outs of popular 3M  office products" (3M: Glued To the Web, 2000; p. EB64). Now celebrating its centennial year as a $16 billion, truly global company, the  former Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company has been noted for nearly all of its history for its commitment to innovation and for filling needs that no one realized existed -  witness Post-it Notes(r) and Scotch(r) tape. But while 3M perfected listening to the customer decades ago, it only recently made notable progress in providing customer service. True to  its innovative nature, when it did make improvements, it made huge strides. The 3M Culture The culture at 3M has been one that  other organizations have envied and virtually no one could duplicate. Much of the current culture at 3M can be traced to the pronouncements made in 1948 by CEO William  McKnight. Known now as the "McKnight Principles," the document states that "Mistakes will be made ... but if the man is essentially right himself, I think the mistakes he  makes are not so serious in the long run as the mistakes management makes if it is dictatorial" (Useem, 2002; p. 127). The McKnight Principles are still operational in