3M Greater China President: reform drives innovation

There is no doubt that 3M is a global leader in air quality improvement and respiratory wellness. According to Stephen, the company has been developing the technology of respiratory protection for over 50 years.“Speed is a great part of the innovation model. But there're other areas, where there's a risk to speed.”

The company has to move fast to grow and to stay relevant to the very quickly evolving market and consumers in China, but when it comes to the health care space, 3M knows that success does not come overnight. For instance, before each respirator is introduced into the market, the R&D department will do a lot of tests, to ensure quality and performance. It also works closely with government regulators to meet the relevant standards. In addition, as Stephen said, “3M actually helps to develop those standards, because it's very important for us that we think the industry needs to live up to an expectation for what the consumers need, so if you go down to our R&D lab in Shanghai, we spend a lot of time working on testing and requirements.”