3M
3M manufactures 60,000 products - from Post-it Notes to N95 respirators to semiconductor polishing slurries.
3M manufactures 60,000 products - from Post-it Notes to N95 respirators to semiconductor polishing slurries. That's not diversification for its own sake. It's technological complementarity: diversifying across 46 technology platforms that can be recombined to serve multiple industries.
The famous '15% Rule' allows engineers to spend 15% of work time on self-directed projects. This isn't corporate kindness - it's deliberately injecting variance to prevent fixation on local optima. Post-it Notes emerged from a 'failed' adhesive. N95 respirators sat as a niche product for decades, then became a billion-dollar business during COVID when 3M scaled production 50-fold within months. By maintaining diverse capabilities, 3M maintains exploration insurance.
The company mandates that 30% of revenue must come from products introduced in the past 4 years, forcing continuous portfolio turnover. This is sustained high mutation rate as strategy - where every employee acts as a mini-R&D lab, and breakthrough products emerge from accidental discoveries that become billion-dollar product lines. Most companies try to eliminate variance; 3M cultivates it.
3M Appears in 3 Chapters
3M's 60,000 products across 46 technology platforms create overyielding - generating far more products through technological complementarity than specialized firms could.
How 3M's diversity creates value →The '15% time' policy deliberately injects variance to prevent fixation on local optima - Post-it Notes emerged this way.
How 3M prevents genetic drift →3M maintains sustained high mutation rate through the '15% Rule' and mandating 30% of revenue from products introduced in past 4 years.
3M's mutation rate strategy →