Rick Tocquigny - When Core Values Are Strategic: How the Basic Values of Procter & Gamble Transformed Leadership at Fortune 500 Companies

How the Basic Values of Procter & Gamble Transformed Leadership at Fortune 500 Companies

Vice President, Publisher: Tim Moore
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Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig

2012 by P&G Alumni Network, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

FT Press offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more information, please contact U.S. Corporate and Government Sales, 1-800-382-3419, .

Company and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Procter & Gamble and P&G are trade names of The Procter & Gamble Company and are used pursuant to an agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company. P&G Alumni Network is an independent organization apart from The Procter & Gamble Company.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America
First Printing January 2012

ISBN-10: 0-13-290533-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-290533-6

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Tocquigny, Rick, 1955
When core values are strategic : how the basic values of Procter & Gamble
transformed leadership at Fortune 500 companies / Rick Tocquigny.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-13-290533-6 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Procter & Gamble Company--Management. 2. Executives--Case studies. 3.
Leadership. 4. Values. 5. Customer relations. 6. Organizational
effectiveness. I. Title.
HD9999.S74P768 2012
658.4012--dc23
2011038704

I served at Procter & Gamble (P&G) from 1977 to 2010more than half my life. One of the great benefits of my tenure was being immersed in, and surrounded by, the core values and purpose of a nearly 174-year-old company. P&Gs purpose focuses externally and strategically on consumers needs and wants...and on brands, products, and innovation to improve consumers lives. The values are important because they guide our behavior with all stakeholders...and each other.

R.R. Deupree, who led the company through the 1930s depression and through World War II, used to say that if you leave P&Gs money, its buildings, and its brands but take away its people, the business will be in real jeopardy. But if you take away the money, the buildings, and the brands, but leave the people, it will rebuild a comparable new business in as little as a decade. Mr. Deupree knew what he was talking about, because thats what P&G peopleled by purpose and guided by valueshave essentially done throughout their history. As a rule, each generation of P&G people has, in fact, built the equivalent of a new business the size of the previous, existing business in about a decade.

Our sales today are roughly double what they were 10 years ago, and those sales are roughly double those of the decade prior. P&G business portfolios have outperformed the market during up and down cycles alike, and were one of only 10 companies that have remained on Fortunes top 50 American-based companies since the ranking began in 1955.

P&Gs core purpose and values have served as the foundation for our success, generation after generation. They have allowed us to adapt quickly and strategically, which, in turn, has promoted consistent and sustainable growth. This is the fabric of our company. It is our culture. And it is, in part, why P&G is uniquely specialfor its core values and for the number of world-class leaders that have come through this culture, touching and improving the lives of consumers around the world and enhancing the welfare of employees and share owners.

Through the quite varied individual voices, with stories that span over five decades, you will hear how the purpose and values of P&G became a strategic point of difference for the company and other organizations these leaders went on to manage. The stories reveal the DNA of a P&Gerthat innate, values-driven commitment to make consumers lives a little bit better...every day.

You will read the intriguing story of Bryce Harlow, P&Gs legendary head of Government Relations, and how he influenced Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Carter. You will learn about P&Gs initiatives, such as Live, Learn, and Thrive, that represent P&Gs core values at work. You will hear from colleagues and friends like Charlotte Otto, who, during the 2000s, helped me restore the confidence of P&G people by reinvigorating our values and strategically leveraging P&Gs purpose.

There are many inspiring stories that illustrate former Chairman and CEO Ed Artzs observation...how amazing it was to think of all the different people who have worked for P&G, all so different, yet who have perpetuated a common standard of excellence across businesses of all kinds, across continents, across cultures, across decades. With P&G as the thread, you explore how core values can promote clarity of thought, in both professional and personal settings. It is a relevant, timely, and insightful message for students, small business owners, community leaders, corporations, and their leadership.

The stories in this book celebrate the gift we were all givencore values that really work. And they show how robust focus on core values adds great enterprise value and value to your personal life. Core values at work can bring out more engagement, more fulfillment, better work-life balance, and long-term business and financial success for your organizations, yourself, and the communities in which you live and work. May you be inspired to embrace your own core values and have the courage to live by them. They will serve you well over a long and successful journey.

A.G. Lafley

To have released a book on core values at this point in time seems, on reflection, to have been fortuitous. Companies across the world are searching for their own values and cherishing leadership that steps up with a belief system that employees and shareholders can trust and build upon.

To Rick Tocquigny and Andy Butcher, your thought construction, interviewing, and writing of this book will ultimately help our Alumni Network achieve its mission to give back to the communities in which we live and work.

To the more than thirty contributors, we are grateful for your special voice and stories that made this book truly unique. Your chapters represent the thousands of dedicated employees who make core values a part of their daily lives.

Tim Moore, who is Vice President and Publisher of FT Press, provided access to the resources of Pearson, the worlds largest publisher. Michael Vaccaro, Director of Pearsons Business Development, provided an energetic, can-do attitude behind this project. Both supported When Core Values Are Strategic along every step of the way.