Reveries.com - 05/03
Going Home Again
BY: Chris Hoyt
There are two statements that always stick with me from my early career days at P&G:
“Training begins the day you are hired and does not stop until you die or leave the Company” and“Once you leave P&G, you cease to exist.”
Today, neither of these statements is true. Training continues even after you leave the Company and now, you not only exist but are acknowledged for your accomplishments even if you leave the fold.
One of the most rewarding and fun-filled experiences I have had in a long time was attending the first “official” P&G-endorsed Alumni Reunion in Cincinnati last weekend (April 25-27) - along with 300+ other “graduates” who thought enough of the impact P&G had made upon their careers to take the time and spend their own money to return to the mother lode. In typical P&G fashion, the weekend was filled with workshops, information sessions and awards ceremonies that not only extended the training I received at P&G but acknowledged the accomplishments of those who, for whatever reasons, decided to move on.
Along the alumni who attended are some of the most successful in business today (apologies in advance if I don't mention your name but obviously space would not permit):
Steve Case, founder and CEO of AOL
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric
Jim McNerney, CEO of 3M
Meg Whitman, CEO of Ebay
Scott Cook, founder and CEO of Intuit
Robert Beeby, retired President of Frito-Lay and Senior VP, Pepsico International
Jim Schadt, retired President and CEO of Reader's Digest, Cadbury-Schweppes USA and Electrolux
Bob Hiatt, retired President and CEO of Maybelline
Bob Herbold, COO and Chief Marketing Officer of Microsoft
Among the career P&Gers who attended were (of course) A.G. Lafley, current Chairman and CEO, former CEOs John Pepper and John Smale plus Charlotte Otto and a host of other current P&G executives who not only participated in the workshops but made themselves available for one-on-ones, not just in cameo appearances but throughout the entire weekend.
Aside from the opportunity to reconnect and exchange stories with the many people with whom I grew up in business, the weekend brought home the tremendous good fortune I had in deciding to join P&G in the first place. Because - as with all P&G new hires - I joined right out of school, I had no idea until I left P&G how its core business model differentiates it in so many ways from other companies. Specifically:
A recruiting and screening process that narrows offers only to the best and brightest and only to those coming right out of school. No bad habits to undo or correct here.On-the-job training administered by other line people who have already held the jobs for which they are training
Promotion only from within - never will one wake up in P&G to find one's new boss having come from some other company where processes and practices are different.
On-time performance evaluations that assess one's performance based on results vs. “impressions.”
An incessant emphasis on learning how to write (read: “think”), sometimes resulting in one's having to rewrite a memo (as I did) as many as eleven times before one gets it right.
An attention to detail and thoroughness that persists until one knows one has arrived at the core of the problem.
Patience - the willingness to retrench and start all over again if a current initiative or test does not project to volume or profits vs. anticipated objectives.
Leadership - no one in P&G is so above it that they will not sleep with the troops to ensure that objectives are met or the problem is solved.
Ability to work as a team - the reason why, in entry level positions, one is given huge responsibility (relatively speaking) but must collaborate to “sell” one's ideas upwards to get the authority to execute.
Focus on the consumer as the starting point for all initiatives. Get this right and everything will follow.
Flawless execution
Not that there weren't a few glitches along the way. There were a lot of laughs - in retrospect - of some of the promotional ideas that went badly awry. Like building fountains in retail stores to hold giveaway goldfish that floated up dead as doornails over the weekend and whose aroma wafted through the aisles on Monday morning. Or sending live turkeys to stores where they got loose, attacked customers (one attacked an 80 year-old lady), ate through the produce section and left droppings from one end of the store to the other. Or the tigers that were touring as part of a “Carnival of Savings” who died because someone forgot to feed them. Or my own questionable attempts at forecasting soap consumption based on long-term weather forecasts of the number of days over 90° where people (presumably/hopefully) would shower more.
Despite the glitches, all of these lessons - and more - repeatedly came back in many different ways during the various presentations made by A.G. Lafley, John Pepper and again during the workshops and at the P&G awards dinner on Saturday night. The words “Leadership,” “Character” and “Values” punctuated every phrase but this time with a special meaning to those who had lived and breathed the experience but who in the intervening years had acquired the wisdom to put it all in perspective.
Of all of my own business experience - and this includes working as a consultant with over 100 large and small CPG and consumer goods companies - the one memory that always stands out are my days at P&G. To succeed in P&G, one has to grow personally as well as professionally. I credit much of who I am today to the many at P&G who patiently put up with my mistakes, my attitudes and, at times, my stupidity. For me and the 300+ others who felt it was worthwhile to attend this event, P&G was not just a stop-off; it is “The Corps and the Corps and the Corps.”