Word: lafley
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Things looked very different little more than two years ago, when Lafley, 55, took over P&G, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. His gruff predecessor, Durk Jager, had launched a crash course to shake up the notoriously insular, slow-footed company but was forced out after just 17 months of expensive product launches that left consumers yawning. P&G had repeatedly failed to deliver expected earnings, and its stock tumbled 50% in six months. With most of the company's resources and best people focused on developing the next blockbuster new product, sales for the established brands were stagnating, market share...
...Under Lafley, P&G has stopped swinging for the fences and is once again playing small ball, dreaming up countless "new and improved" versions of its classic brands like Tide, Charmin and Folgers, and developing line extensions like Pampers baby clothes and the forthcoming Old Spice body spray. "We had gotten into a mind-set where innovation had to flow into new categories and new brands exclusively, and all I did was open people's minds to [the possibility] that it could also flow through our established brands," Lafley says in his typically self-effacing style...
...core brands are the foundation of P&G's makeover, its faster-growing, more lucrative beauty and health-care businesses--once considered the company's poor stepchildren--are providing the shine. That's why Lafley last year made P&G's biggest acquisition ever, paying $5 billion for Clairol's hair-care business. The beauty and health-care sectors together account for about a third of P&G's $40 billion in annual sales and could reach 40% within the decade. Most of Procter's next generation of billion-dollar brands will probably come out of this area, which includes...
...John's and its invention of an ingenious battery-powered toothbrush that could be sold at a profit for roughly $6, Crest bought the firm at the beginning of last year and, by applying its marketing and distribution muscle, has turned it into a $200 million category killer. Lafley hopes it can be a model for the future. "I'd love to see a third to half of 'discovery' come from outside," he says. "I really want the doors open...
...anybody can keep them that way at P&G, it's Lafley. Though he has been with the company for a quarter-century, he didn't sign on fresh out of college, as many of his cohorts did. After studying history at Hamilton College in upstate New York, he joined the Navy, where he gained his first merchandising experience as a supply officer during the Vietnam War. He made his mark at P&G overseeing the successful launch of Liquid Tide in 1984, and made an even bigger impression during his three-year stint in Asia...