Does anyone have any details on this? There's a formal meeting about it tomorrow evidently.
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Yep, making pretty ppt slides from UK using 3M Navigator! No doubt it contributes a lot to 3M's impressive organic growth.
BW is pretty good. He can articulate a good strategy, but tend to love PPT too much.
@1jh BW is the R&D strategy director and reports directly to MK
@189 what do you mean? He was really well liked by his group in CRSL. The other directors hated him but his group was the only one with a coherent strategy. And real sales dollars. I haven’t heard anyone that reported through him say anything negative about him.
Yes, one of the keys to getting nominated for such awards from 3M's side is being a sycophant to the CTO. Plain and simple.
A few years, another such person got the same award. This person's role was being a desk peon in the CTO's office. Technical achievements in terms of patents and papers published and technology developed was same as or even inferior compared to many well qualified T5's in 3M, lets not talk about T6 or T7s.
New world. You can talk through to any award….
Nobel prize is the one that is left
JS won the NAE fellowship recently. The same list has at least 3 Nobel laureates. Wow !
I think it was a joke. Somebody who talks a lot about innovations, wins awards from every corner but is not able to stimulate innovation in her company and has no products to speak of …. Should actually do something useful like taking a step down and being a R&D director.
Her equivalent counterpart over at Solventum apparently was let go recently. Guessing she may be seeing the writing on the wall soon.
Did she change jobs? She used to be the "chief science advocate"
@1nt
More clues as to who JS might be, please.
JS the one who always gives talks and receives awards
Who is the R&D strategy director?
Why does HR still keep Dr.Claw ?
- Dr. Claw* is a well recognized racist. His hate and disregard for 3Mers of Asian origin are well known in EMSD.
Is there a R&D strategy?? Waste of money on these people. They are there just for SVp to feel good. Can’t think forward.
@1a8 perhaps Dr. Claw can join the R&D strategy director to help run the CRL book club...
The one and only Dr. Jeff Florczak. Managed to do the unthinkable, got his entire group in CRML, Austin fired in 2015, primarily due to his mismanagement. Yet he had a job, the coveted Special Projects Manager.
I am curious who is Dr Flo being referred to below? Is he still around?? I know who Dr Claw is.
@189 you are spot on. I worked with him when he was a new employee in CRPTL and he was the resident tattle tale. He told the boss everything that was happening in the group. He was promoted wheeling into the process area the UV curing lights for other people's experiments. The manager gave him credit for all the work that others did because he was the UV lights guy. He learned early on that the fastest path up the ladder is to spy on your peers for the boss.
@15q
Well said. He did do a good job of carrying news about his peers, employees to upper management. I have experienced his wrath. He had more than 100 people reporting to him in TEBg division where he treated the Asians very badly, like a strict old time school teacher. When performance was bad he was moved to CRSL and made in charge of modeling which he knew nothing of. This time he focused more on spying to survive. That way he has done a great job. HR keep it up.
So, what I understand about Special Projects Manager position.
Lets see here. Management realized that Dr. Claw' s position was no longer relevant for the company. However he has done his duty, loyally doing horsework for upper management for many years. Hence instead of giving him the shaft, a Special Projects Manager position was created. Great desk job with a cute title and a cushy salary. Work as long as you want before slowly riding into the sunset.
The person before him who got the coveted position was Dr.Flo. He had this position for 5 plus years. His claim to fame ..... managed to get his entire group fired in CRL Austin. But miracles do happen and his job was saved, thanks to his wife who is still a big wig in 3M.
There is no money for Doers in 3M, but plenty to throw in the drain for such positions.
Great optics to start the year 2026 !
@13t
He has been this way for many years. He covers his lack of technical depth by being over nice with his people. That doesn’t take you far. Leaders need vision and strategy. I agree he is a nice guy but tech leadership….
@11j in my experience from working in his group for 3 years, he seems to want to help people and do good projects, but he has no idea how to do this. Either he's way out of his depth or just has too much going on.
Sorry you had a problem with MD, apparently. But I and others here have different personal experiences. The discrepancy is striking.....a number of folks saying he was very good (well above the norm) as a manager/leader. And one person who seems to think he was hated by everyone. Can't both be true. I'll go with the majority.
@zq you seem to have a personal vendetta against MD. I agree with others here in that he was fine to work with and was impacted by the common things that leaders deal with here, funding and strategy changes every 6 months.
Again, you may be mixing up your MDs, or are just seeking to besmirch him. I do think you've got the wrong person in mind. Again, he was never at Solventum, didn't have a political connection thing, etc.
I knew Mike for ~8 years and he was generally well-liked, and certainly respected. Certainly, not "everyone hates him". So must be a different guy.
The list of talented people that jumped ship outta PS solely because of her is loooooong.
For real. I know people who left solely because of her
@ws
Saying the VP of Product Stewardship is not well liked is the understatement of the century. She’s universally despised by her reports.
@wd I have heard of several reductions in PS. Mainly on the corporate side. The reorg has not gone over well. The VP is not well liked and putting everyone under corporate is a bad move that will negatively impact divisional NPIs. It also doesn't help the new reporting structure goes up through the CTO, who has been completely useless.
Between the VP and CTO's incompetence, I'm sure more layoffs are on the way for PS.
@rq you’re lying. No one would ever think MD is good at his job. Everyone hates him. I worked for him and it was horrible. Are you MD??
Global product stewardship was also reorged late last week. So far I’ve only heard of one manager being position eliminated but I don’t think for one minute this is where they stop
I was a colleague of MD. Always thought of him as a model leader. Would have been happy to work under him.
@ms Retired now but MD was my manager 25 or so years ago. Exceptional in every way. A definite plus for any group he leads.
How does the CTO still have a job ?
Yes, he may come across as a nice guy, but under his leadership, CRL has drastically shrunk. There have been no breakthrough products or significant innovations, no new technology platforms have been developed, and the R&D budget has been slashed drastically.
On top of that, Dude is not even a good motivational speaker.
What gives ?
Again, you must be thinking of someone else with the initials MD. Mike definitely didn't have political connections at 3M. He came in as a lab guy. Formerly worked in a gov't lab doing actual science.
He was never at Solventum. You must be thinking of someone else.
MD got a job in 3M because of his high political connections
@kd MD is ok. Was prior to his tenure that CRSL made 50% of their team redundant and what remains would fail a high school coding class.
Before I went to Solventum I watched him fight to grow the team only to be shutdown by “she” that can’t be named. Trust me, MD is a superstar compared to what we have in Solv.