The global economic downturn is not expected to impact 3M as much as many other firms, but the company still expects some sluggishness. In order to withstand the downturn, the company is shedding approximately 1800 jobs, with an estimated cost savings of $170 million (Chernikoff, 2008)
There is a significant threat in the optical film business. This product line, which was 16% of the firm's revenues in 2006 (Jayson, 2006) has suffered a slowdown since that point
Furthermore, they have been able to maintain this leadership through innovation. They do this by plugging 6% of sales back into research and development (Marcial, 2008)
5. Resource-Slack Resource slack is a practice implemented by the managerial team at 3M by which employees are allocated time and resources to engage in "curiosity-driven activities" (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2005)