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Customer experience at Procter & Gamble
Nov 25, 2006
From a good profile in US News & World Report, Turning the Tide at P&G: A. G. Lafley:
"The consumer is boss," Procter & Gamble Chief Executive A. G. Lafley says simply of the business mantra he endlessly repeats to his employees.
It might seem a fool's errand to try to boil down the marching orders for 138,000 workers in more than 80 countries to a simple cliche. But those four words - which might as well be tattooed on Lafley's forehead - speak volumes about his keep-it-simple strategy for leading the world's largest consumer products company: Find out what the consumer wants, and give it to her.
It's an approach straight from the playbook of Lafley's mentor, Peter Drucker, the late management guru who argued that companies tend to overcomplicate their businesses, creating too many products, hiring too many employees, and generally distracting themselves from what made them successful in the first place: pleasing their customers.
Also worth reading is the profile of Warren Buffett, one of my and Phil's favorite people.
