Lessons from Procter & Gamble – Focusing on the Important and Cutting the Clutter of Emails and More

Are you inundated with emails, meetings and other less productive intrusions in every day?  What can you do about it?

     

         

Clearly the Executives at P&G do not completely eliminate emails or meetings and neither should you.  But how can you handle these in the most effective manner?

As you will quickly see, these recommended actions apply to meetings as well and both can significantly clear up time for more in-depth thinking about the business.

1.   

1.     # As in all areas, start with the right focus.  This will come from the strategic business plan.  You will find emails on many different subjects in your files.  You can quickly identify the ones that that are based on the plan.  Eliminate all other emails that don’t come from the actions on the plan.  This supports the focus.  If anything is REALLY important, it will show up again.

# Insist that all emails be action oriented, either as a recommendation or a summary with conclusions.  There are just too many “nice to know” or “thought you might be interested” emails.  Stop them.  If they don’t have action to drive business growth, they are a waste of your time.

# Eliminate almost all of the “Reply to All” emails.  They just clutter everyone’s Inbox and encourage others to hit the “Reply to All” tab, thereby further adding to the clutter.

# Don’t start the day with an email review.  You have important activities to perform and they must demand your best time and not be cut short at the end of the day.  Set aside a specific block of time later in the day and hold to it.  Too often “just 10 minutes” turns into two hours.

# Be judicious.  Don’t take the emails home with you to spend the evening in front of the computer.  If you have something really important, do it.  The rest will wait until the next day.     

  

 c) Scott Adams

Meetings, meetings, meetings.  So much time is wasted in meetings.  Several years ago there was a book titled, “If you want shorter meetings, don’t have chairs”.  There is some truth to that.  Many of the recommendations about emails apply to meetings as well.  With the right plan and effective delegation meetings can be focused and very productive.  Get the right plan.

Hopefully you will not view this article as just another workflow improvement message.  It is designed to help your productivity and that of your teams.  It is recognized that generally while you and your team have the abilities, you have neither the time currently nor the procedures to be able to implement this plan. 

Unfortunately, many companies do not make the necessary changes and just keep trying to wade through all the various clutters. 

Don’t do that.  Bring in an experienced consultant to help you work the plan and establish the right focus and priorities.  While the business will prosper, your peace of mind and freed time alone is worth the effort.

Thanks.

John

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble – The Next Step

What is your next step to drive profitability as you start 2015?  What worked last year and what will you continue?  What markets and customers will you pursue and what needs to be put in place to be successful?

 

 

What is your next step for the right plan that all in your company know and can follow?

As we have written in earlier articles, Procter & Gamble devotes considerable time and effort to creating the specific strategic plan for their overall business and under that plan for each of their business units and brands.

 

During these early weeks of 2015, P&G has a clear next step.  It is an in-depth review of their plans to insure that they still are on target and will achieve the required results.  This is very important work since it will direct corporate effort and resources.  Once the plan is vetted, they will move quickly to put it into action.  It is understood across the company, the roles and responsibilities of all.  The focus is clear and the next steps known.

 

How will they accomplish this work?  It involves top management and then as it cascades down, directors and managers.  It is facilitated by professionals with the experience to guide the required data collection and the subsequent reviews.  These professionals are required so that the executives can concentrate on developing the right plans.  Most companies do not have these skills on staff but hire experienced consultants to assist the company.  It provides a very positive ROI on the relatively small amount of funding required.

 

What are you doing?  If you need help in either creating the right plan to start or refining an existing plan and committing it to written form so that all can follow, please contact us.  We have a wealth of experience both at Procter & Gamble as well as with companies in a broad range of industries.

 

Thanks 

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

What’s the issue? Business planning or just doing?

The recession continues and more and more businesses are failing - failing and being forced out of business, failing enough to have significant losses despite large layoffs and a desperate focus on cost cutting or failing through having little idea of how to turn the business around and keep a meaningful cash flow.

What’s the issue? Is it too much planning or too much action?

Are they failing because they have spent so much time creating the mission, vision, objective, goals and measurements for their strategic business plan that the opportunities have passed them by? Or are they locked in to outdated plans, programs and spending? Or is it more a case of having leadership that is unable to cope with the realities of today’s dynamic marketplace?

On the other hand, is it because they do not have a basic business plan that they are following and are just winging it? In this case, everyone is going full speed, but not in the same direction, no matter what you may think and certainly not toward a specific goal.

Or worse still, is it because they are faced with analysis paralysis and actually doing nothing? This cause a company to seize up and the organization grinds to a halt.

Actually, the failing may be the result of some or all of these elements. Business plans are a MUST for every company. However, they need to be actionable. And they need to be acted upon, adjusted and acted upon again. They shouldn’t be binder thick. In fact, we recommend that they be kept to one or two pages. Otherwise, they are not read, used properly or followed.

What are you doing in your company? If your company is struggling, is it due to over-planning for the business with concentration on the theoretical plan and not taking the appropriate action? Or is it all action and no known overall plan. Clearly, it can’t be an either/or if you are going to survive in today’s economy. It is a reasoned combination of both planning and action.

Do you have a written business plan? Is it simple and understandable to all? Has it been communicated to others?

Are they taking action on it? Are you adapting the plan based on the ever new market feedback? Do your customers know what you are trying to do and the benefit in it for them? Are they supporting your direction?

What are the results and what needs to be changed?

So many companies are focused on cost cutting that they are not generating revenue that is desperately required for cash flow and support and also undermining all future efforts. Now, and when the economy turns, it is going to be the company with the successful plans put into action and market honed that will prosper.

Managing in today’s turbulent times isn’t easy so don’t think you can do this on your own. Get some help from experts who have been there before and can help lead you through the problems.

This can be a time for you and your company to actually prosper but you have to do it smartly.

Thanks.

John

John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from P&G - False reasons for not doing strategic planning

Procter & Gamble spends a considerable amount of time and effort in gathering the appropriate data and developing the right strategic plans that can be followed to maximize effectiveness in the market.  As a result, they have a significant number of billion dollar brands from their world-wide effort.  Yet, as we have studied many other companies across a broad range of industries, we find that many companies are reluctant to undertake the simple strategic planning process and thus are not achieving the results that they should.

Here are the 7 most common reasons given for not doing strategic planning.  You can see why these could be considered to be false reasons and just stand in the way of the company’s success.  The lessons from Procter & Gamble show how these may be false.

1 The CEO believes they already have a plan in their mind.

 Too often the CEO believes that there is already a strategic plan because they have a rough plan in their mind.  The difficulty is that this plan is generally not data based and worse still is not communicated well or understood by the rest of the organization.  As a result, the organization does the best that they are able but seldom in line with the CEO’s vision or plan.  Valuable resources in people and finances are not focused and wasted.  If you want the plan to work, write it down and share it broadly.  This only makes sense!

2  A belief that funds for planning are not available. 

This is a great misunderstanding and is based on a short term view.  The investment of funds to do a strategic plan properly is generally minimal. The ROI is generally considerable.  Once the expenditure is made, the benefits start quickly and the business and profitability grow.  This is an investment that will pay big dividends in so many ways.

3 Focusing on too many other projects.

One of the reasons that there are too many other projects is that there is no well-known and followed plan.  A strategic plan is not only what the company will do but what it will not do.  Focused effort leads to fewer false starts with less wasted effort and rework.  Productivity increases.  The employees are happier and have less stress, thereby reducing turnover.

4 A Belief that the market will change

Many companies put off strategic planning because they expect the market will change.  Of course, the market will change!  But the purpose of the plan is to manage that change and not be managed by it.  The right plan can help companies to take advantage of market changes and gain a competitive advantage over competitors who have done no planning.  Develop the plan and review it, altering it to capitalize on market changes.

5 Not sure how to proceed

Executives at companies are smart.  They clearly have the intelligence to do strategic planning.  However, in many cases they just don’t have the training in strategic planning and should be active participants instead of facilitators.  Having a simple process like the one that we use at Moon & Stars allows the executives to lead the planning without disrupting the daily business.

6 Team doesn’t want to do it

Teams generally do not get involved in strategic planning.  They are just provided with new ways of doing business and of course there is always a resistance to change.  They need to be “pulled” into executing the plans.  At Procter & Gamble, all are involved and so they believe that they have a vested interest in the plans and an understanding of the benefits.

7 Takes too much time/ Waste of time

Actually, the strategic planning process can be built upon current data and knowledge and accomplished within normal work effort.  Almost immediately, it will become clear as to the activities that can be eliminated due to negative or low returns.  This frees up the time to do the planning and the activities which will have a long term positive effect.

Conclusion

Strategic planning is generally misunderstood and as a result these and other false reasons are held that prevent companies from getting the benefit of the planning.  We at Moon & Stars have had the opportunity to learn, not only how to do strategic planning, but to assist clients to develop plans that are specifically tailored to their situation.  The time and investment are minimal and the results are significant.  Procter & Gamble makes this process a common activity in which everyone participates.

What is holding you back from getting the business results that you might achieve?

 Thanks,

John

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble on Strategic Planning

Are you leading your company in effective strategic planning?


A Difference

There is a difference between strategic planning and business planning.  Business planning is developing the plan of action to accomplish specific goals over time.  Strategic planning is understanding how the environment will change and how to best capitalize on it.  It is based on Core Principles of Purpose and Values.

 

 

 

 Procter and Gamble has made a number of changes in their strategic planning process and as a result has developed global brands of more than a billion dollars each.  They have harnessed resources and focused efforts.  It hasn’t been easy and they have had a number of personnel and process changes.

 Planning pitfalls

Here are some of the learnings that they have had so that you can be successful in your efforts.

 

1.     Not taking the time, energy or resources to secure the right factual information.  Too often companies rely on bad or no information.  Factual decisions are critical.

 

2.     Being resistant to change and ignoring what your planning process reveals.  Don’t toss out the good strategic planning work just because it doesn’t fit preconceived notions.

3.     Being unrealistic about your ability to plan.  This should be led by someone with the expertise to guide the team to make sound strategic choices.  It also will take time and follow up effort.  Create the time and give it the attention it requires.  The payoffs in doing so are significant.

4.     Not making sure that all major conflicts are clearly understood before you start to plan.  Don’t just ignore them and hope that they can be settled later.

 5.     Copying and pasting from old plans.  Strategic plans are “live” documents and are meant to take into account the changes in both the internal and external environment.  The old plan is just that – the old plan.

Every Senior Executive and most Directors and Managers agree that having an effective strategic plan is critical to business success.  We had that drilled into us at Procter & Gamble and the first basis for any recommendation was always the strategic fit.  We recommend that you adopt that philosophy in your company, too.

 Tips

·       Get the right process and leader.

·       Get the right team.

·       Get the required factual information.

·       Get the quality time set aside for the work.

 

Let us know how we might help.  We have a simple process developed and used by a number of top Fortune 500 companies, including Procter & Gamble.  And we have used that process effectively with many companies across a broad range of industries.

 Thanks.

John

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from P&G – Making the Number

How’s business?  Are you and your company on track to deliver the promised results for the year? 

 

Do you require a boost in performance?

While this is written to address the companies who are not at desired levels, the basic message holds true for those that are doing well and want to continue the progress.

We are entering the last quarter of the calendar year and incremental effort may be required.  At Procter & Gamble, this was the time to call in the experienced help.  It wasn’t just the senior management.  It was getting advice and assistance from others who had fresh ideas and could identify opportunities.  They had the experience to know what would work and what could deliver the number without increasing the resources.

In today’s world companies generally have the financing required and of course the product ideas.  It is the experienced management talent that is often missing. That was a big difference compared to Procter & Gamble where there was an abundance of highly trained and experience management.

So what can a company do today?  In some instances, the C level executive has the skills but not the bandwidth.  In others both the skilled experience and the bandwidth are missing.  In either case, there is just something missing and there is a gap between the required result and the ability to deliver it.  How does a company close this gap without the time and great expense of searching for and hiring full time the required expertise?

 

That is why I am writing this article!

The reason that we created Moon & Stars Consulting was to assist other companies to have access to the management experience that can be used in the short term to quickly fill this gap and be able to make the number.

How do we assist companies?  Working with the company team, we determine the key challenges and opportunities to deliver the number.  Then using our experience and perhaps that of other consultants with the strong Procter management training, we create the strategies, plans and the execution that will drive the marketplace results.

We know that this works because we have had success with hundreds of clients in addition to our Procter & Gamble businesses.

It is also very cost efficient, since you are getting significant expertise and only need use it in the short term until the plans are in place and generating success.  Not only are we really skilled at what we do, we are fun folks with whom to work.

For some of you, this may seem simplistic, but the ideas are important.  We would just like to support your efforts.  Let us know how we can help.  In any case please stay in touch.  We value our friends.

John Maver
Founder & Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble – Branding

 

 All companies and executives know about branding but many are not familiar with how to use it or how it can affect the bottom line.  Over the years P&G has become a master of this and has many multi-billion dollar brands as a result.  A strong branding strategy can increase the awareness of a company’s products in such a way that establishes strong feelings and reactions and a favorable view towards the company as a whole.  Successfully out-branding your competitors is a continuous battle for the hearts and minds of your customers.  The proposition your brand strategy makes must be very compelling, attractive and unique among competitive offerings.  Done correctly, branding is that extra margin that companies achieve over generics or even store brands.

 

Building on the inherent values of a brand should be the core of any branding strategy.  Winning brand strategies starts with top-notch research.  Your target customer will determine your success.  Research with consumers will identify needs and then it is up to your branding to make the fit of your offerings fill those needs.  Consistency is a key here, since all aspects of the branding must fit together.

Make it your mission to get as detailed information as possible on their age, gender, income, shopping habits (online and off) and anything else of relevance you can determine. If you’re targeting a business market, these criteria will differ, depending on the industry. Understanding your target market and what they want is key to developing a winning brand.

 
The research will lead to the brand promise.  It states the benefit of buying and using your company’s products or services.  A great deal of time and effort at Procter & Gamble is spent on finding the right promise and making it competitive so that it stands out in its industry or category.   They know that it must be specific because specific is exponentially more memorable.

Creating a positive emotional association in your market for your product or service is key. It can create want and desire by the mere mention of your brand, product or service name. Needless to say, that’s powerful. For instance, the mere mention of Tide detergent makes buyers think of clean clothes. 

To create a brand promise that creates such emotional connections, it should be:

1. Grounded in the brand’s core values.
2. Clearly relevant and engaging to your target market.
3. Able to create some sort of positive emotional attachment beyond just being “good”.
4. Adaptable to the business climate in terms of how the basic promise is presented although the promise itself does not change.
5. Continually reinforced and consistent across advertising and marketing.

 

It is clear that branding can make a significant difference in the success of a brand and a company.  Without intentional effort, unintentional positioning will occur and that can spell disaster.

 

The Moon & Stars team have had long experience and great success over the years with branding and have developed solid procedures to help clients.  We are happy to share these with you.

 

Thanks,

 John

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble – Creating The Vision

Do you have 20/20 vision? How clearly can you see? How clearly can you see into the future?

Does your company have 2020 vision? That is to say, does your company have a clear view of what it wants to accomplish by 2020? You may see this as just a clever play on words. However, it is much more than this. Without a clear vision that is known and understood throughout the company, chances are that your company will not maximize its success. It is like trying to operate without your own 20/20 vision. Things just get blurry. Since it is all about sight and that is best from high up, not surprisingly, it is commonly the responsibility of the CEO to articulate and lead activities toward achievement of the vision.

A well-conceived vision consists of two major components: core ideology and envisioned future. Core ideology defines what the company stands for and why it exists. It is made up of core values and core purpose. We recently wrote about core values, both in general and in specifics, for Procter & Gamble. We also wrote about core purpose, “why do we exist”, the second part of the core ideology. These two elements are unchanging and complement the envisioned future. The envisioned future is what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create.

Vision captures both of these elements and does so in terms of defining a future state. A vision is a picture of what success will be at a particular time in the future. It encompasses answers to an array of questions: What does your organization look like? How big is it? For what are you famous? Why does anyone care about what you do? How do people who work there feel about their jobs? A great vision is inspiring. It gets you and everyone in the organization excited to come to work. This is not mere wishful thinking. A vision must also be strategically sound. You have to have a reasonable shot at getting there. Vision provides guidance about what core to preserve and what future to stimulate progress toward. But vision has become one of the most overused and least understood words in the language, conjuring up different images for different people of deeply held values, outstanding achievement, exhilarating goals, motivating forces, or raisons d’etre.

Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices adapt to a changing world. The dynamic of preserving the core while stimulating progress is the reason that companies such as Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Sony, Motorola, and Nordstrom became elite institutions, able to renew themselves and achieve superior long-term performance. In Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, the authors found that these companies have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of 12 since 1925.

The second primary component of the vision framework is envisioned future. At Procter & Gamble in their strategic planning process, this is called the Objective. It is a qualitative statement of what the company targets to accomplish. In some ways Objective is somewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, it conveys concreteness, something visible, vivid, and real. On the other hand, it involves a future time with its dreams, hopes, and aspirations.

Procter & Gamble and other visionary companies use bold mission statements as a powerful way to stimulate progress. These serve as a unifying focal point of effort and act as a catalyst for team spirit. They have a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal.

supports the envisioned future with an engaging and specific description of what it will be like to achieve the Objective. It translates the vision from words into pictures, of creating an image that people can carry around in their heads. Passion, emotion, and conviction are essential parts of the vivid description. Perhaps the most dramatic statement of a vision was President Kennedy’s announcement that the US would put a man on the moon within ten years. Not only was this a rallying cry but it also guided action and resource allocations. They made it happen!

We have found that many executives struggle with mission statements and vision statements. They overanalyze or underallocate effort to the process. These statements turn out to be an ill-defined mix of values, goals, purposes, philosophies, beliefs, aspirations, strategies and descriptions. They are usually a boring, confusing, stream of words that evoke the response “True, but who cares?” They fail to preserve the core and stimulate progress. A true vision simply provides the context for bringing this dynamic to life.

This may seem like a simple process. It isn’t. As you can see, it combines the analytical with the creative and then necessitates alignment across the organization, if it is going to be successful. We have had experience both at Procter & Gamble and with many other companies in our consulting business. We know the powerful results that can come from the investment of time and energy in creating a sound vision for the company.

How is your foresight? Does your company have 2020 Vision? Do you need help with your 2020 Vision?

Thanks

John

John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble –Focus for Market Leadership

Getting profitable and staying profitable is what it’s all about for companies. Being the market leader, while not an easy task, is certainly one way to help make that happen. P&G has the largest lineup of leading brands in its industry, with 22 brands with over $1 billion in annual sales and another 19 brands generating about $500 million or more in annual sales. In 2000, there were 10 brands over a Billion; today, they have 22. During this period, the company’s revenue has doubled from $40 Billion to $80 Billion.

As you may have read in our last article about Core Values, Procter & Gamble is very clear on their objective to have superior products, not just in performance, but in consumer preference. They have sharpened their focus on how to deliver this. This sharpened focus has meant selling off or discontinuing a number of very successful brands, but brands that did not fit with an opportunity for global market leadership.

The company used to market a stable of brands and achieve market leadership through the combined sales. For example, when I joined P&G in the early seventies, in laundry detergents, the company marketed Tide, Cheer, Bold, Gain, Duz, Dreft, Era, Liquid Tide, Ivory Snow and the first detergent, Oxydol. There were probably several others as well that just don’t come to mind. Combined, this provided market leadership.

However, it resulted in increased costs. The brands competed against one another for sales force time, retailer promotions, shelf space, advertising, media time slots, in-store offers and most importantly, Procter & Gamble management attention. As a Brand Manager, my task was to get a larger share of company effort so that I could increase my brand’s impact with consumers. It was not uncommon for a great idea to be expended on one of the smaller brands and thus dilute its impact. The company realized that it would be far better served to focus its efforts on the lead brands and make them clear market leaders. The billion dollar brands are the result.

Today, Procter & Gamble has a very clear path for its mega brands to achieve market dominance. All of the very best people, ideas, support and processes are given to one brand and not spread across multiple brands. In fact, there has been an increasing tendency to “borrow” from one mega brand in one category to assist another in a separate category.

There are many benefits to being the market leader and we will highlight some in a separate article.

But what is the value of the Procter & Gamble experience for your business if you do not have a stable of billion dollar brands or are not the market leader?

Here are 5 tips I learned from my time at Procter building the smaller brands or opening up new categories and industries for the company.

1. Be choiceful in selecting the market / industry / geography in which you will compete. Make certain that you have an opportunity to be able to gain a leadership position in the arena that you select, perhaps not immediately, but within a reasonable time frame.

2. Focus your resources to build a solid base in one area and become successful before you move to additional areas.

3. Hire and use “A” class people. Your best investment will be in your people. Skimp in other areas if needed since the great people will be able to over compensate.

4. Take good care of your customers. You would be surprised at how many companies we see that overlook their current customers in the drive to get new ones.

5. Take advantage of consulting and contracting help to both capitalize on their expertise and keep your costs down overall. This may sound self-serving, since we are consultants, but there is no substitute for experience.

Market leadership brings with it many benefits that help companies get profitable and stay profitable. Look for our next article that highlights some of those benefits.

Thanks.

John

John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble – P&G’s Core Values

We recently wrote about the importance of Core Values as an integral part of strategy for companies. A book written by ex-senior Procter & Gamble management, “When Core Values are Strategic” has just been released. Given my 23 years with the company, the values I espouse for Maver Management and for our clients are among those covered in detail in the book. We were all grounded similarly. The book tells personal stories of how the basic values of Procter & Gamble transformed leadership at Fortune 500 companies. The track record for most senior P&G executives, both with P&G or subsequently with other companies, has been outstanding.

Adherence to Core Values, such as the ones below, has been instrumental in that success. Here are the Procter & Gamble Core Values:

People - We attract and recruit the finest people in the world. We build our organization from within, promoting and rewarding people without regard to any difference unrelated to performance. We act on the conviction that the men and women of Procter & Gamble will always be our most important asset.

Leadership - We are all leaders in our area of responsibility, with a deep commitment to deliver leadership results. We have a clear vision of where we are going. We focus our goals to achieve leadership objectives and strategies.

Ownership - We accept personal accountability to meet the business needs, improve our systems, and help others improve their effectiveness. We all act like owners, treating the company's assets as our own and behaving with the company's long-term success in mind.

Integrity - We always try to do the right thing. We are honest and straight-forward with each other. We operate within the letter and spirit of the law. We uphold the values and principles of P&G in every action and decision. We are data-based and intellectually honest in advocating proposals, including recognizing risks.

Trust - We are determined to be the best at doing what matters most. We have a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo. We have a compelling desire to improve and to win in the marketplace.

Passion for Winning - We respect our P&G colleagues, customers, and consumers and treat them as we want to be treated. We have confidence in each other's capabilities and intentions. We believe that people work best when there is a foundation of trust.

Do Procter & Gamble’s Core Values help you understand the base upon which P&G has built a multi-billion dollar global business? Interestingly, if you review the histories of the company, you will find that these Core Values, stated in some form, have been consistent throughout the 150 years that the company has existed.

Do these values trigger opportunities or ideas for you with your company? If we can help you define your Core Values and make them a sound basis for your strategic planning, contact us. We have had great success with companies from Fortune Top 10 to startups.

Thanks

John


John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Social Media Award

AVG just won the Best Use of Social Media award from Computer Weekly Social Media Awards. James Garner accepted the prize in the picture above. They have been clients of ThoughtLabs, a social media strategic company that brings customers closer to companies through technology. They have been working together for three years.



Why are we posting this news item on our blog? Two reasons. The first is that it indicates how important the right social media strategy and plan can be to companies today to give them a competitive edge. That competitive edge can drive business acceleration and increased profitability in a number of ways. The second is that one of the founders and partners is John Maver Jr. and we are very proud of him, awards or not.

If you are looking for business acceleration analysis and plans, contact us. If you are looking for business acceleration social media efforts contact ThoughtLabs.

Thanks

John


John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble – Downsizing, Rightsizing, RIFs

Most companies have been faced with the need to cut costs over the past several years and many people and jobs have been eliminated from the workforce. You will note that we have the highest level of unemployment as one of the impacts. The personnel reductions have come under the heading of downsizing, rightsizing or just reductions in force (RIFs). The net result in addition to lower costs is a substantial change in the way that companies have to operate.

At the same time, technology has made tremendous progress and we now have available significant capabilities that never existed before. The idea has been that companies can do much more with much less. Believe it or not, when the first computers were being introduced, there was an expectation that the work week would shrink to less than a day a week. Computers would do the rest. You know personally from your now extended work weeks that this was not the case and was, at best, a wild dream. And yet companies expected that technology could overcome the impact of the lost personnel.

Procter & Gamble is no exception. In 1993, well before this became common practice, P&G undertook a worldwide cut back in personnel under the heading of strengthening global effectiveness. SGE was designed to streamline work processes, drive out non value-added costs, eliminate duplication and speed productivity through a leaner organization. Initially, it was directed at the manufacturing operations but the idea quickly spread to the rest of the company. Up to 10,000 people/jobs were eliminated. The objective, just as it has been the objective of most companies, was same or greater productivity with less cost.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. It didn’t happen at P&G and it isn’t happening with many other companies. Certainly, some aspects worked as expected. But in many cases, the people and jobs were eliminated, yet the work required remained.

This did produce a short term profit bump after the reorganization costs were passed through as a “one time hit” to earnings. However, as Stephen Covey outlined in his book the 7 Habits of Effective People, the golden goose was maimed if not killed outright. The reductions in force often targeted the higher salaried, longer term employees. Companies lost years of very valuable experience and expertise. As a result many companies faced substantial redesign, slower process, business and profit losses.

What made it worse for many companies is that the personnel reductions came on a “chain saw” basis and not a “surgical” basis. This means that cuts were made across the board. The result was reductions in one department greatly affected what was left in other departments or functions, to the detriment of the business. This has led to renewed needs for reorganizations and then further rightsizing. In fact, that is exactly what has happened at Procter. They have had several full company reorganization plans. They have offered several waves of early retirement and outplacement packages to employees around the globe.

What’s the lesson? Clearly it is taking the long view. It is an in depth understanding of what is really required to operate profitably and then providing the technology and human resources required to deliver the objectives. Short term solutions just don’t work. Second, it means focus. It means being choiceful on what activities are really required to operate profitably and to achieve the corporate goals. Other activities that are just nice to do, have to be eliminated. Finally, it is deciding on what data is required to operate. Most companies are buried under an overload of information. Layers of the organization are employed to develop the data, analyze it and interpret it and then try to find meaningful actionable conclusions. The loss of the experience and expertise caused by the cuts has led to much of this wheel spinning over-analysis.

If your company is experiencing “sludge” in your operations and slower speed to market, you might consider relooking at some of the experience that was cut out in the rightsizing. Interestingly, many companies are hiring back ex-employees as consultants at a higher cost to do the same job that they originally did.

Since we have had experience both at Procter & Gamble with SGE and similar programs at other companies, we can help you. Just contact us.

Thanks,

John

John Maver
President
Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management

Lessons from Procter & Gamble - What is a brand?

Procter & Gamble is well known for its brands. As we have said in earlier articles, many people mistakenly believe that a brand is a product. While that is in part correct, it isn’t the whole story. A brand is an image in the customer’s mind. The thoughts customers have about products are brand impressions. These brand impressions are the major influences on the purchase decision. Customers form impressions of products every time they come in contact with them. Once products or companies are out in the market, you already have a brand, whether you want it or not. The only issue left to consider is what kind of brand you want to have.

Brands are inferred, not implied. Branding isn’t something companies do to customers. After experiencing a product or a company, a customer has an impression of that product and decides how to "brand" that product in their own mind. In other words, a brand isn't what a marketer says it is. It is what a customer thinks it is.

However, companies can do a lot to influence the impression that customer/consumers have about them and their brands. Often we think of brands from big companies like Nike and Coke who use the brute-force of mass marketing to "impress" their message on people. Brute force is becoming a less and less effective method for branding, because it's gotten harder and harder to tell today's discerning customers how to think.

Only a very few companies, like Nike and Coke, can afford to brand with brute force. Now the method of choice seems to be primarily via some form of social media in addition to the traditional advertising/marketing vehicles. Companies like ThoughtLabs specialize in bringing customers closer to their clients.

Branding isn't just something that applies to big, national companies with large advertising budgets. For all types of persuasion, thought is always a prelude to action No matter how the product is marketed; it all must start with positioning. It is in this effort that companies attempt to set their desired image in the minds of the customer. This is key!

People's thoughts and beliefs drive their actions. The goal of the interactions with a customer is to encourage them to create a brand impression in their mind that motivates them to act in a way that helps my product. By focusing on what they think, I am forced to pay attention to everything I do that affects what they think about me and my product. I can't just make an independent decision about what I want my brand to be and create beautiful advertising that "declares" what my brand is -- I have to orchestrate all of the experiences they have with my product in a way that encourages them to create the right brand impression in their mind.

So . . . what do you want your customers to think about your products . . . and you?

If you have not clearly defined the positioning for your company or its products or the results are not meeting expectations, we can help. Contact us.

Thanks

John

This is one of a series of articles that share some of the learnings from twenty three years in marketing at Procter & Gamble.

John Maver
President
Maver Management Group(
925) 648-7561
Maver Management