Procter & Gamble

A Problem-Solver's Guide to Copycatting

Dan & Chip Heath — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Your business has a big problem. You've thought about it, but you can't seem to crack it. So you consult your colleagues -- to no avail. Then you turn to the big guns -- your industry's top experts. They've got nothing. (Well, to be precise, they've got 40 PowerPoint slides worth of nothing, and you've got $225,000 less of something.) Now what?

Why Mr. Clean Wants to Wash Your Car

Kate Rockwood — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0400

Nicole Malcolm
Brand Manager, Mr. Clean Car Wash
Procter & Gamble
Cincinnati, Ohio

Nicole Malcolm, 30, guides the Mr. Clean Car Wash brand as part of FutureWorks, P&G's new-business incubator that's also testing Tide-branded dry cleaners. Fourteen car washes opened this past summer.

Introducing Guest Blogger Dev Patnaik: Innovation Meets Empathy

Alissa Walker — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:22:44 -0400

If you should need any evidence that Dev Patnaik, the CEO and founder of Jump Associates, is marching to the beat of a different drummer, consider what he does when he's not in the office. Since 1999, Dev has been teaching a popular course at nearby Stanford University called Needfinding. In it, students draw upon methods from anthropology, design research and business planning to discover new insights about ordinary people and create new products for them.

Old Spice Smells Like a Billion Bucks

Evan West — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:00 -0400

If you ever think about how your job stinks, remember the researchers at P&G Beauty. In a building overlooking the leafy, pastoral campus of the Sharon Woods Innovation Center in suburban Cincinnati, they are intently focused on what can only be called armpit science. Some scientists spend the better part of each day talking to men of average attractiveness about how they sweat and smell.

Where In the World is P&G's Jim Stengel?

Danielle Sacks — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:51:34 -0400

Last fall, Jim Stengel, arguably the most powerful person in marketing, left his post as P&G's Global Marketing Officer with no trace of where he'd be heading to next. Today, Stengel revealed to Fast Company that he's now taking his own brand on the road.

Ideo's David Kelley on "Design Thinking"

Linda Tischler — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:46:08 -0500

The smell of ramen noodles wafts over the Stanford d.school classroom as David Kelley settles into an oversize red leather armchair for a fireside chat with new students.

P&G's Sustainability Initiatives -- Not So Sustainable

Melanie Warner — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:35:38 -0400

On a prematurely springlike day in Cincinnati, Len Sauers's workday begins as it often does -- with a meeting. On the 11th floor of Procter & Gamble's corporate offices, seven members of its Sustainability Leadership Council huddle around a table in a small conference room. Ten others listen in by phone from P&G offices around the world. The topic at hand is the company's commitment to develop $20 billion worth of "sustainable innovation products" in the next five years, a significant addition to P&G's current $76 billion in annual sales.