Procter & Gamble: From Top to Bottom – A Consultant’s View

Not only does P&G demand an outside the box thinking model, but they also demand collaboration inside and outside the Company. This is in addition to strict project management guidelines and the desire to be in communication with consumers, retail customers and outside stakeholders. (Leadership Development, 2014) Recommendation 1 – One recommendation here is to involve employees on a greater level. The mission statement itself covers everything an employee should take to heart. However, involvement at the local level may increase the publics awareness to the firm's existence.Employees being more involved in going to local retailers and attempting to market P's products, giving away products to local homeless shelters and charities, providing charity work in the local communities by P&G employees can take a company to another level in this area. P&G is heavily concerned with improving the lives of others around the world. It is this author's opinion that integrating a greater h ands-on approach an help accomplish this. P holds a lot of strength in its organizational structure. P feels the organization's structure is an important part of its continued growth.With products touching the lives of nearly 2 billion people every day, it combines its strength of product benefits and a local focus to win consumers and retail customers in all the countries where the products are embedded. There are four major portions of the organization, all embedded neatly in the company's Selling & Market Operations sector. These include – Beauty, Hair and personal Care Baby, Feminine and Family Care Fabric and Home Care Health and Grooming (Corporate Structure, 2014) Specifically, the division of that delivers products to market is the Selling and Market Operations division.The division name was changed from Market Development Organizations because of the intense pride it takes in bring its products to the people of the world. The name change was not just a name change, i t clarified the work the firm does and the work they do best. This division handles every portion of marketability including superior, effective and efficient selling, distribution, shelving, pricing execution and rescheduling – every day, every week – in every store and in all its markets.Markets include Asia; Europe; India, the Middle East, and Africa (MIME); Latin America and North America. (Corporate Structure, 201 4) Recommendation 2 could likely benefit from a stronger focus in where it does not hold a strong enough market share. For example, in Personal Health Care, which is considered a $240 billion market, P is a market leader, but with only a 5% share. Another area is Beauty and Grooming, and while leads the consumer market, it only holds 13% of the share. (P – 2014 Annual Report, 014) Organizational management is key to a business' growth opportunities.It has a number of billion-dollar and half-billion-dollar brands that cover a number of markets. P&G is certainly not lacking in performance. However, it is possible that it could build in certain areas. It has strong relationships with retailers, suppliers and a competitive advantage where innovation is recognized. Recommendation 3 – It is possible that could reach its hands into undeserved and unseeded consumers. There are a number of markets where consumers are not reached such as those watching a lot of television.With Digital Video Recorders (DVD) available for every home in the world, it is possible that is not reaching these consumers because people typically fast-forward through commercials. If these consumers were targeted in other areas such as highway billboards, mobile app advertisements, and e-commerce, P&G may see a rise in its consumer markets. Employee performance management is not the only concept that creates an effective firm like Procter & Gamble. Another tightly held idea is their efficacy in the use of partners and suppliers. P&G's network of partners and suppliers is critical to our long-term success ND in our purpose inspired growth strategy to touch and improve more consumers' lives, in more parts of the world, more completely. † (Partners and Suppliers, 2014) P&G's supplier diversity goes deep and is historical. Since the sass's, there has been a strong focus on its ability to diversify its supplier strategy. P&G holds a special pride with minority and women-owned businesses around the world, investing more than $2 billion in the last six years.This figure has placed P&G on a short list called the Billion Dollar Roundtable, which specifically invests more than a billion dollars a year with a minority or woman-owned business. Recommendation 4 A recommendation to be considered might be the insertion of deeper rooted supplier networks. Possibly delving into more privately owned businesses for their product sales. One of P&G's greatest weaknesses is its inherent ability to rely on â€Å"big box† retailers such as Wal l-Mart for revenue generation.With P product insertion into stores like Wall-Mart, the world-wide retailer is at an advantage with potentially greater bargaining power. With this comes less profit for Procter & Gamble. Spreading the market share to smaller entities could help level the playing field with these large retailers. Chuan, 2010) Investing in a number of partners, P has not only generated awards for its partnership strategies, it has also helped to better the lives of the people who work in these companies. With well-treated employees comes greater confidence in the products created.P has set a very important standard in its desire to be a trusted company. P's goal, where its products are concerned, is family safety. They need the consumers that purchase their products to come back and purchase more. The organization considers its commitment to safety as a part of its heritage and future. There are more Han 700 experts that work for P&G globally, specifically to ensure the safety of its products with respect to environmental safety, human safety and the various regulatory compliance agencies around the world. Product Safety, 2014) Recommendation 5 Where product quality is concerned, P&G is heavily involved. For example, in 2007, there were a number of product recalls in its pet food division. With keeping its powerful brand name, P&G eventually sold off its pet division. This is an example of a recommendation that was followed and came out on top. With fast moving product, which is what P&G relies on, having re-stocked rodents is important. Generating sales is heavily reliant on new and innovative products.There is a possibility of having greater product quality if third party assets assisted in quality management. With so much product oversight on the inside of P&G, this leaves room for bias. Outside experts, working independent of P&G, and not under financial collusion, could assist in bringing greater product value to the market. (Chuan, 2010) Con sidering the size and reach of P&G, their use of technology plays a significant role in its daily operations. They are reliant on IT systems for internet sites, data costing, processing facilities for tools and other hardware.The use of these IT systems includes services such as ordering and managing materials from suppliers; converting materials to finished products; shipping products to customers; marketing and selling products to consumers; collecting and storing customer, consumer, employee, investor and other stakeholder information and personal data; (P&G – 2014 Annual Report, 2014) The firm has clearly stated A breach of information security, including a cyber-security breach or failure of one or more key information technology systems, networks, processes, associated sites or service providers could have a material adverse impact on our business or reputation. (P&G – 2014 Annual Report, 2014) Recommendation 6 It is recommended that instead of relying heavily on its own employees for security management, to consider moving to a third party company and outsourcing its security.Ideally, with the extensive product development and its classified nature (until necessary patents are obtained), it is recommended that the firm receive the same level of security as the Department of Defense receives. Additionally, while the following details are likely classified, P&G's yester should be regularly hacked by white-hat hackers to determine potential security holes and assist in having them plugged. The culture at P is very strong. They lend the strength of their culture to its powerful innovation Structure. Is constantly displaying their formidable position on the planet as a leading innovator. A well-known process of moving the innovation from idea to prototype, to development, to qualification, to centralization is in place for the product launch model.Bob McDonald (2008) stated â€Å"Innovation requires a certain kind of culture, one that is curio us ND courageous, connected and collaborative culture, and open-minded – a culture in which people want to take risks to identify game changing, life enhancing innovations. † McDonald went on to say that culture is not something that can fall under a mandate or be imposed. Good culture is grown on an organic level and while it cannot be demanded, it can be shaped and influenced. Recommendation 7 – Change management exists in all companies around the world, big and small. Dealing with the change comes down to working with employees in the firm to ensure the smooth transition. With constant changes in laws and isolations around the global, a global organization like Procter & Gamble should consider a Change Consistency department, whereby change is predicted and the firm can then get ahead of it.Working with regulatory agencies around the world, it is possible that P can obtain potentially conflicted items based on ingredients. For example, in China, a number of pr oducts were found to have banned substances in them. Had there been a department designed to specifically combat these issues, P could come out on top and release products that do not interfere with a country regulatory efforts. With the above stated Change Management, there comes number of issues involving power, politics and conflict. With that in mind, everything comes down to quality leadership and effective communication. Without these two ingredients, it is too easy for a firm of this size to fall into complete disarray.