Procter and Gamble Case
Situation Analysis William Procter, a candle maker, and James Gamble, a soap maker, formed this global and Fortune 500 Corporation in 1837 (corporate profile). Procter and Gamble (P&G) is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. These two entrepreneurs and inventors were immigrants from England and Ireland respectively; who have chosen for some reason to settle in the Cincinnati area. The company manufactures a wide variety of consumer goods including beauty, household, health and wellness products.
According to CNN Money, “in the early parts of 2007,P & G was the 25th largest U. S Company by revenue, 18th largest by profit, and 10th in Fortune’s Most Admired Companies list”.
“Touching Lives, Improving Life” is the corporate motto which is exemplified in their 138,000 employees and loyal customers orldwide. The worldwide demand for P&G’s products and services has forced management to focus on global marketing and innovation.
This worldwide marketing and innovation success was achieved by making sure that what they produce is of highest quality and most importantly is what customers need. P&G is very adaptable to changing customer demands by carefully and clearly defining its innovative strategies; however, it almost lost its market dominance to competition in the mid 80’s had it not been its aggressive play-to-win strategy. “Senior P;G management admitted that they had not had a breakthrough innovation since 1985, nd the company’s continued market dominance in the years ahead was in question”.
The play-to-win innovation strategy had helped P&G to regain its industry leadership as stated by in the company’s case study: Management had planned to create a more nimble organization and to increase the speed and quality of innovation. They also focused on improving the speed of commercialization of new products. In addition, they wanted to move the company’s focus to higher growth, higher margin businesses such as health care and personal care. Another innovative play-to-win strategy that P&G management had adopted was the cquisition of its domestic and foreign competitors.
P&G acquired a number of other companies that helped diversified its product line and increased profits significantly. In order to foster this aggressive strategy, management had integrated and reorganized all the manufacturing processes of the companies they acquired.
Manufacturing processes of companies like Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, Richardson-Vicks, Noxell, Shulton’s Old Spice, and many others. “Innovation must be encouraged, carefully implemented within an organization at all The pre-dominant leadership or management style in P&G is that of times”.
