Each year, 3M launches scores of new products, and the company generates significant revenues from those introduced within the past five years. It regularly ranks among the top 10 U.S. companies each year in patents received. 3M budgets roughly 5-6 percent of sales to R&D, totaling $1-$1.5 billion annually. The firm is able to consistently produce innovations in part because it promotes a corporate environment that facilitates new discoveries: