William Brown

Money Moves

Leading 3M's corporate transformation

3M bought its Scott Safety breathing-apparatus business for $2 billion in 2017. Nine years later, it's merging the unit with rescue-tool maker Madison Fire & Rescue in a $1.95 billion joint venture with Bain Capital, keeping 50.1% ownership and getting $700 million in cash. The new entity will sell breathing gear, hydraulic rescue tools, suppression nozzles, and portable wildland pumps under brands like Holmatro, Task Force Tips, and Waterax.

Updated May 30

New Capabilities

Directing company's innovation strategy

For a century, developing new materials meant years of trial and error—mixing compounds, testing formulations, discarding failures, and starting over. Now PPG, 3M, and Procter & Gamble use AI to explore millions of chemical combinations simultaneously: development timelines drop from years to weeks, and the AI surfaces solutions human chemists missed.

Updated May 23