A.G. Lafley P&G
A.G. Lafley
A “Rock Star” or “Just a Guy”
Alan George (A.G.) Lafley is the current Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive at Procter and Gamble (P&G) based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since his appointment in 2000, his leadership of P&G has been widely chronicled in the business press and this is how most people know Mr. Lafley. Many people who know him more closely describe him in a reverential manner as a “Rock Star” while also referring to him perhaps more importantly as “just a guy.” How can such a dichotomy exist for the same well profiled business leader?
Why do people say a Rock Star? Primarily, it is because of A.G.’s commanding presence whether he walks into a room of 3 people or addresses a company webcast of thousands, and his demeanor and style when he presides over a group of 2500 extroverted sales managers. How then can he also be just a guy? He is so personable, down to earth and pays so much genuine attention to the common person, people view him as just an ordinary guy who anyone could relate to when working, serving or socializing with him.
Over the course of two weeks, five members of a Xavier University MBA class met with six people who currently interact with or have worked closely in the past with A.G. Lafley in the Cincinnati area, to gather insight on Mr. Lafley’s leadership style and what contributes to his effectiveness of a multi-national Fortune 500 company. The interviewees included people that work closely with Mr. Lafley at P&G, as well as people who have been involved with Mr. Lafley in activities and functions throughout the Cincinnati community. Throughout all the meetings many common themes emerged, but one of the most prominent themes is that Mr. Lafley is extremely personable, and overall is a tremendous communicator. With all the positive comments mentioned about Mr. Lafley’s persona, as well as his leadership and management style, it left the members of the MBA class with the question, “Can Mr. Lafley really be this great?” After a brief biographical introduction of Mr. Lafley, an examination of his leadership traits skills, and style will be illustrated with a number of anecdotes that reinforce the consistently positive assessment of A.G. Lafley and tries to uncover what inspires several mature professionals to call him a ‘Rock Star” and some of the same people to admirably say ‘he’s just a guy’.
Biography
A.G. Lafley was born on June 13, 1947 in Keene, New Hampshire, and was educated at Hamilton University, receiving an Associate’s Degree in Business in 1969. Following his education at Hamilton University, Mr. Lafley spent five years in the United States Navy. Upon returning from his service in the Navy, Mr. Lafley attended Harvard Business School and received his Masters in Business Administration in 1977.
After Mr. Lafley graduated from Harvard he was hired at P&G in June of 1977, and has continued to be employed there ever since. Mr. Lafley has held a variety of roles within P&G starting as a Brand Assistant for Joy in 1977, continuing on to become a Brand Manager of several soap products during the early 1980’s, followed by becoming the General Manager and later Vice President of the Laundry Division at P&G. Throughout the 1990’s Mr. Lafley was an Executive Vice President in both the Asian and North American regions for P&G until 1999 when he became President of Global Beauty Care. In 2000, following the departure of Dirk Jager as CEO, Mr. Lafley assumed the role of President and CEO, and in 2002 assumed the additional title of Chairman of the Board for P&G.
Mr. Lafley’s local and national activities have included serving on the Board of Directors at General Electric, Dell, and General Motors. He is also heavily involved in many community activities serving on the Xavier University Board of Trustees, as Chairman of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (C3DC), on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees, Medical Center Fund of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and as Chair of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual capital campaign.
Leadership Philosophy, Traits, and Skills
Throughout the interviews that were conducted to gather information about Mr. Lafley’s leadership style, many characteristics continually resurfaced. Many of these ideas were related through representative examples from the interaction that these business and community leaders have had with Mr. Lafley. Common to almost all the described philosophies, traits, and skills was one common theme of consistency. Mr. Lafley possesses many positive philosophies, traits, and skills, and common to all of them is the consistency by which Mr. Lafley practices them.
The following paragraphs focus on a few of Mr. Lafley’s operating philosophies and capabilities. Examples are included for the following key leadership styles and behaviors:
Taking the complex and making it simple
Practicing Situational Leadership
Setting expectations, trusting people to deliver
Employing Integrated thinking
Investing in Leadership training and development
One of the unique skills that Mr. Lafley possesses in his leadership style is his ability to take a complex situation and simplify it for everyone to understand. Larry Games, Vice President of Research and Development in Pharmaceuticals and Personal Health Care at P&G, stated that Mr. Lafley has the ability to take what could comprise a two to three page vision statement and summarize it down into 5 to 6 words or phrases. Suzy Dorward, former leader of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual Capital Campaign, remarked in addition that Mr. Lafley can walk into a meeting with several pages of information distributed, listen intently to the meeting, and leave the meeting with two or three main points that summarize what was important without retaining the written summary provided in the meeting. These key points would be remembered for weeks to come as the information was needed for Mr. Lafley’s business dealings. Mr. Lafley’s ability to distill complex situations to simple, resonant key points, allows others to better understand and help solve complex problems.
Mr. Lafley also presents his skill at employing the appropriate situational leadership style for a given situation. He has the ability to talk to people on a level that will work effectively for the particular circumstance. Hence, when talking to his 200 member executive leadership committee, Mr. Lafley may be more blunt about the state of the business, and directive about the results that need to come about to achieve success than he would be with a webcast audience of the entire company. By tailoring his leadership style and message to different groups of people, Mr. Lafley can more effectively lead the organization and empower its employees to achieve the results that the company needs to deliver.
In addition to the situational leadership that Mr. Lafley provides, he is very effective in delivering his message and is very results driven. As Greg Icenhower, Director of Executive Communication at P&G related, “A.G. is not a micro-manager. He sets very clear and high expectations for people, and trusts that his people will deliver.” In effect, he holds people accountable, but he does not micromanage. Mr. Icenhower continued, “A.G. does not view the employees at P&G as labor capital, he views them as creative and knowledge workers.” As part of viewing people as creative and knowledge workers, Mr. Lafley believes that you cannot command and control these people as that will not produce results. Instead you need to inspire them, and allow them to determine how they will deliver the expected results. Larry Games added an insightful definition of leadership that, “success or failure as a leader is based on one’s ability to inspire other to do things they didn’t think they could do”. This appears very consistent with Mr. Lafley’s practice as a leader who empowers those who work with him.
Greg Icenhower continued to discuss Mr. Lafley’s leadership style and skills, and mentioned that one of Mr. Lafley’s key advisors is Roger Martin, the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. One of the key aspects that Mr. Lafley works with Dean Martin on is the concept or skill of Integrative Thinking. With integrative thinking there is a three step process to develop a solution to an issue or problem. First, a set of data needs to be analyzed that is often broader than the data directly related to the situation. Second, the data needs to be synthesized and connected in novel ways, and lastly a creative solution is generated beyond those originally or typically considered by non-integrative thinkers. This three step process does not seem revolutionary but the synthesis element is key to developing novel solutions, and Mr. Lafley has a demonstrated knack for coming up with solutions that are quite creative, those that no one else may have thought of in the past. In practical terms, the Shared Services structure developed by P&G with Hewlett Packard, IBM and other industry leading consulting and service organizations was a product of Mr. Lafley’s use of integrative thinking to solve what was considered an un-winnable dilemma – containing P&G costs while protecting the employability and career opportunities of thousands of P&G employees.
Mr. Lafley views effective leadership as key to the future and continued prosperity of P&G. Greg Icenhower relayed that Mr. Lafley is very knowledgeable of the top 500 emerging leaders at P&G. Amazingly, he knows what assignments they have had, what key projects they have worked on, and what the plans for these leaders are in the future. John Carney, Channel Human Resources Manager at P&G, explains that Mr. Lafley has supported the implementation of a leadership evaluation program, where all managers are directly evaluated by the people they manage in terms of how the manager interacts with and leads the employees. Mr. Lafley is dedicated to leadership and building the leadership within the company. Greg Icenhower continued to explain that about one third of Mr. Lafley’s time is spent on leadership development. This can range from personally attending internal “Colleges” at any level which P&G uses to train its people, or it could involve taking significant calendar time to mentor and develop the skills of his most senior managers to help them to lead better in the future. Larry Games added that Mr. Lafley was an integral training leader with Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi in 4 separate week-long Inspirational Leadership training seminars where top executives in P&G in groups of ten learned about this form of leadership in a close-knit and very personal atmosphere.
As we continue to explore Mr. Lafley’s leadership style, examples of his skills and those characteristics that allow Mr. Lafley to lead so well are examined. These key skills and characteristics are:
Sees things as they are
Leads by example
Master communicator
Self-Assured
Great listener
Humble
Another idea that was shared by almost all of the people we interviewed is that Mr. Lafley sees things as they are and how they exist, not how he would want them to be. This keeps Mr. Lafley very grounded and prevents him from falling into lofty aspirations that are unattainable. Greg Icenhower discussed how Mr. Lafley’s predecessor as CEO, Dirk Jager had very good strategic ideas about where the company needed to go, and what needed to change if P&G was going to succeed in the future, but he was unable to get the buy in of the people in the organization. When Mr. Lafley took over, he didn’t take these ideas and organizational changes and throw them away despite considerable pressure to do so. Instead he looked at these changes and realized they were important and necessary, and found a way to make the people in the organization understand and believe in them. Greg Icenhower said that Mr. Lafley took the changes that Mr. Jager wanted to take place and gave them purpose and meaning within the context of P&G’s strong internal culture. By giving purpose and meaning to these new ideas and changes, people bought into them, and in turn worked tirelessly to make them successful.
As described above, Mr. Lafley does a lot to promote leadership throughout the company, and throughout Cincinnati, but he doesn’t just do it through talking about leadership rather he leads by example. Suzy Dorward remembered when Mr. Lafley was raising money for the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign, he did not come to the meetings and dictate what needed to be done, but he also did not let people tell him what they needed him to do. Mr. Lafley was an active participant in listening to the experts who had experience in fund raising in the past, and he added his own insights and ideas to help the fund raising become more effective. He also worked with other business leaders in Cincinnati to not only come up with features to help the Fine Arts Fund be successful during the year he was heavily involved, but he also worked to set up a strategy for the Fund to be successful in the future. Suzy Dorward continued to explain that Mr. Lafley is probably the most influential person that she has worked with in the community. Ms. Dorward was involved in the Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign for over 10 years, and worked with many of the major community leaders throughout Cincinnati, and she commented that Mr. Lafley combined the aspects of respect, knowledge, and the ability to realize when he was wrong. These aspects demonstrated his humility, and gave him the ability to relate well with the people he was working with; hence, he was not only talking about leadership but leading by example.
What enables Mr. Lafley to lead as well as he does are his leadership traits and skills that he has mastered through the years. The most commonly referred to trait throughout the interviews was Mr. Lafley’s ability as a masterful communicator. Greg Icenhower, who works with Mr. Lafley on all the speeches and public engagements he has, stated that Mr. Lafley is never flustered or out of control. He is always composed, and can keep calm in almost any situation. Mr. Icenhower reflected on the first day that Mr. Lafley was to be introduced as CEO at P&G. Mr. Lafley had to fly back from California after being informed over the phone that he was going to be offered the position of CEO. Once he returned to Cincinnati, he spent most of the night at the office working with Greg Icenhower on the messages that were to be delivered the next day, then went home and had a couple hours of rest. The next day Mr. Lafley spent most of the day with financial institutions and analysts reassuring them the company was stable and was moving in the right direction. Mr. Lafley had been thrown into a situation where he found out he was going to be the CEO, and 12 hours later had to be in front of the world explaining the ins and outs of P&G’s businesses. He was never flustered and successfully navigated the day, so much so in fact that he was able to end the day by keeping his commitment to take his wife out to dinner for their 30th wedding anniversary.
Being a master communicator though is not done just through remaining calm. Mr. Lafley spends a lot of time with the people around him to get the best and most up to date information about what is going on in the company and in the external environment. Everyone interviewed commented on Mr. Lafley’s external focus and commitment to being ‘in touch’ with all of P&G’s stakeholders in the broadest sense. Through this extensive knowledge, and with the ability to synthesize this knowledge into key salient points, Mr. Lafley can be assured that he knows what is going on. This self assurance helps Mr. Lafley be confident when talking to virtually any group of people. The self assurance does not come off as arrogance, and in fact is often used with his deep knowledge to help personalize concepts for people. Suzy Dorward commented that Mr. Lafley has the ability to connect with people because he can make people understand why something is important to them, even if it does not directly relate to them. By personalizing situations Mr. Lafley is able to connect with people on an individual level, and help them to understand how their contribution makes a difference. This contributes significantly to the inspired following that supports the “Rock Star” moniker.
Beyond the skills and leadership traits that Mr. Lafley possesses and excels at, everyone we spoke to says they love working with Mr. Lafley and no one had a negative thing to say about him. Some might argue this is because they did not want to say something disparaging about their boss, but these people were quite sincere and candid in their discussions on all accounts. Some struggled for several minutes trying to find a flaw, but the only one that was related is that sometimes Mr. Lafley tries to be too available to too many people and over commits himself. This being said, Greg Icenhower noted that Mr. Lafley still does a lot to keep an admirable work life balance. He keeps commitments with his family, but still manages to run a Fortune 500 company while keeping community events in focus as well. All the interviewees clearly stated that Mr. Lafley was incredibly humble despite his position of power, and he is a great listener. They commented that he is not only a listener, but “listens with his eyes”. He is very observant of what is going on around him, and synthesizes this data to help better understand people and the situations that he faces. All in all, Mr. Lafley is portrayed as someone they love to work with, or even just be around. John Carney commented that he and his daughter were walking out of the Cincinnati Reds baseball game one evening, and they ran into Mr. Lafley. Mr. Carney introduced his college-bound daughter to Mr. Lafley, and for ten minutes Mr. Carney’s daughter was the only important person to Mr. Lafley. He is very sincere, understands the importance of people, and the relationships that are so important with people in business and more importantly in life.
Vectors of Leadership
During the conversation with Greg Icenhower, he shared Mr. Lafley personal definition of leadership – “…leadership (to A.G.) is the ability to continually transform organizations in an environment of unrelenting change.” With this in mind Mr. Icenhower also mentioned the concept that leaders often follow one of three principal ‘Vectors of Leadership’. These Vectors are:
Power
Relationships
Ideas
Mr. Icenhower stated that most leaders will relate to one of these vectors more so than the other two. As Director of Communication over the past 15 years, he has had a unique perspective on the CEOs of P&G and he explained this concept with respect to those CEOs with whom he had worked.
Edwin Artzt – CEO 1990 – 1995. Artzt was fiercely competitive and driven while at P&G. Often his leadership was characterized by a style of ‘command and control’. He was not trying to make friends at the company, rather he wanted the company to deliver results, and as a result was highly competitive.
John Pepper – CEO 1995 – 1999. Pepper was a relationships leader. He felt it was important for people to be valued in the work environment. Pepper was the first to commit the values and culture of P&G to paper which helped people better understand how the culture and the relationships built at P&G were what helped to build a better company.
Dirk Jager – CEO 1999 – 2000. Jager was very idea oriented. He tried to move the company to a stretch, speed, and innovation focus. He also worked to reorganize the structure of P&G. He felt it was necessary to make these changes to move the company into the 21st century.
A.G. Lafley – CEO 2000 – present. Lafley incorporates all three vectors in his leadership style. He comes up with new and innovative ideas to move the company in a profitable direction. He has sold off certain brands and acquired Gillette to help grow the company. At the same time he has leveraged his relationships with the old CEO’s to gain their perspective and come up with better ideas. While Lafley does not exude and overpowering personality, he garners power through the respect he commands from just being in his presence and his competence and skills as a leader.
Conclusions
Although our team never had the opportunity to personally meet with A.G. Lafley, we interviewed several people that came from very different perspectives, levels and degrees of exposure to Mr. Lafley, and yet they all communicated a very consistent message about him. All the panelists spoke so highly of Mr. Lafley that at times it would not have been believable if the messages they were relaying were not being corroborated by each other. For P&G the leadership and positive example that Mr. Lafley brings to the company gives the company a rallying figure, and the biggest worry that we heard from the people that work with Mr. Lafley, was the fear of who would be the person that will follow him as CEO of Procter and Gamble.
Mr. Lafley’s leadership does not follow a specific philosophy, other than to say it incorporates situational and inspirational leadership styles and he believes that leadership is learned and needs to continually evolve. This conviction can be seen through Mr. Lafley’s practice of spending almost one third on his time in leadership development since he feels leadership development is key to the organization’s future success.
Through his mastering of communication, active listening, synthesis of data, and consistency of message, Mr. Lafley has inspired P&G, as well as other community organizations throughout Cincinnati. Mr. Lafley has more than doubled P&G’s stock price since he took over as CEO in 2000. He has continued to grow the business consistently without interruption and has been at the helm for five consecutive years of growth each and every quarter for the company. He has also worked with organizations like the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund to meet and actually exceed its fundraising goals. He does all of this while continuing to be “just a guy” that anyone can talk to, and not forgetting to take his wife out to dinner on their anniversary, even if it is the most important day of his career.
Appendix 1 - Leadership Styles of Recent P&G CEO’s
CEO
Leadership Style
Leadership “Vector”
Defining Attribute
John Smale
· Less visible
· Ability to penetrate issues
· Good coach – not a dictator
· Planned for next 25-50 yrs
Ideas
Longest term strategist
“Best visionary”
Ed
Artzt
· No nonsense, dose of real medicine
· Intimidating presence
· More demanding to deliver
Power
Fierce Competitor
“The General”
John Pepper
· Very visible
· Articulated/codified P&G purpose/values/principles
Relationships
Relationships/Values
“Your favorite uncle”
Durk Jager
· Very short tenure
· Brilliant strategist/conceptual thinker like J. Smale
· Too much change too fast for strength of P&G culture
Ideas
“Right Ideas/ Wrong Style”
A.G. Lafley
· Faces reality
· Simplifies the vision
· Energizes and inspires people
· Even keel, remarkably calm,
· Leads by example (creates external focus)
· Commands respect (vs. demands)
A Mix of All Three?
· competitive with consumer focus
· affirmed PVPs
· precise strategic choices on core competencies
In Touch
“Just a guy”
or
“a Rock Star”
.
Appendix 2 – Biographical Sketches of Leadership Practices Interviewees
Nabil Sakkab, Senior VP, Corporate R&D, P&G July 26, 2006
Unique role with no direct reports – responsible for leading external connect & develop mission & strategizing how P&G can minimize volatility encountered in global operations
32 years with P&G, led R&D for fabric & home care (2300 people) for 9 years
Brussels-based, Palestinian-born, US-educated, expatriate manager, global citizen
Manager of R&D, Asia during 1995 Kobe earthquake after arriving 3 days before
Well defined personal leadership philosophy
Larry Games, VP R&D Pharmaceuticals & Personal Health, P&G July 28, 2006
· Current manager of R&D for Pharmaceuticals & Personal Health Care
· 29 years with P&G, Post-doctoral organic chemist
· Management/leadership experience in all P&G businesses except food/snacks
· Diverse roles as government lobbyist, product Health & Safety manager, baby care R&D manager, chief external relations leader for animal testing issue, led multiple divisional reorganizations within P&G
· Participated in Inspirational Leadership college for P&G VP leaders (taught by A.G. Lafley & Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi)
Bill Donabedian, 3CDC Managing Director August 2, 2006
· Leads the Fountain Square Transformation Project for 3CDC and interacts with 3CDC Board of Directors (chaired by A.G. Lafley)
· Sounding Sessions organizer for Cincinnati Young Professionals (YP)
· Co-founder, Mid-Point Music Festival
· XU MBA graduate
John Carney, HR Associate Director, P&G August 4, 2006
· HR manager (6 direct reports) of team supporting North American VP of Chain/Grocery/Retail operations (350-person organization)
· 29 years with P&G (14 yrs in HR, 15 yrs in Sales)
· Worked with A.G. Lafley since late 90’s (NA President role) & since 2000 as CEO
Suzy Dorward, Deputy Director, Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) August 4, 2006
Acting Co-Director of CAM, Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement
Former Director of Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign (10 years) working with multiple P&G and Cincinnati corporate leaders on capital campaign
Daily interaction with A.G. Lafley during his tenure as 2003 campaign chair
Previous non-profit and corporate experience (banking)
Greg Icenhower, Director, External Relations, P&G August 4, 2006
· Director of Executive Communication at P&G for 15 years
· Speechwriter for past 4 P&G CEOs including A.G. Lafley
· Never met A.G. Lafley until day he was named CEO, present throughout all critical moments of 2000 P&G CEO change-over
· Extensive network of colleagues in equivalent role with other Fortune 500 CEOs
· Political background as former speechwriter – Gov. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va)
Appendix 3 – Leadership Practices Interview
Sample Questions
· What is your background & history (with P&G)?
· How do you define leadership?
· If you could pinpoint one part of leadership that is most effective what would that be?
· Who is your favorite leader?
· Based on your experience, do you think Leaders are born or made, i.e. nature vs. nurture? In other words can it be taught?
· Is leadership a choice?
· Has your leadership style changed over the years? Does your style change from situation to situation?
· How do you lead in your role in (R&D, 3CDC, HR, FAF/Cinci Art Museum, Ext. Relations)?
· How would you characterize A.G. Lafley’s leadership style?
· What was your first impression of A.G. as a leader (within P&G)? What position did he hold at the time & how did he demonstrate leadership?
· How has A.G. Lafley’s leadership style differed from other leaders (at P&G)?
· How does A.G. Lafley’s leadership style compare with other CEO's over your career?
· What do you see as A.G.'s best attributes as a leader? Do you see any weaknesses? How does he compensate for these?
· Discuss any thoughts you have on A.G. Lafley’s “Lessons on Leadership” from the Xavier Univ. Distinguished Business Speaker Series luncheon speech.
· What have you learned from working closely with A.G.?
· Is your leadership style similar to AG's?
· What examples do you have of AG's leadership and his work with others?
· What are the biggest challenges that leaders face in the 21st century?
· Where do you see yourself, your boss, and A.G. Lafley on John Kotter's management-leadership grid? (not discussed with all interviewees)
Appendix 4 – Summary of Work Completed
Within the confines of the past two weeks, our group effectively communicated several times daily (one million emails) and organized dynamic interviews with several P&G executives and city leaders who have worked with and have thoughts on AG Lafley’s leadership style and abilities as well as their own take on leadership. Individual Contributions were made as listed:
1. Allison Tummon Kamphuis
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Developed questions for interviews
c. Worked with PowerPoint presentation
d. Provided background information on P&G executives, geese & materials on AG Lafley
e. Participated in interview of N. Sakkab, L. Games, S. Dorward, G. Icenhower, J. Carney
f. Setup Larry Games, Suzy Dorward, Greg Icenhower interviews
g. Attended group meetings
h. Proofread paper
i. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
2. Jeff Shaffer
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Set up power point for presentation
c. Developed questions for interviews
d. Participated in interview of N. Sakkab, L. Games, S. Dorward, G. Icenhower, J. Carney
e. Setup Nabil Sakkab interview for project
f. Attempted to schedule interview with Bob Castellini and others
g. Attended group meetings
h. Proofread paper
i. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
3. Dan Poole
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Significant amount of input on the paper
c. Enabled conference call communication between all group members on almost a daily basis
d. Participated in interview of Nabil Sakkab, Suzy Dorward, Greg Icenhower, John Carney
e. Proofread paper
f. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
g. Attended group meetings
4. Tom Compton
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Participated in interview of Nabil Sakkab, Bill Donabedian, Larry Games
c. Wrote work completed and works cited pages
d. Attended group meetings
e. Proofread paper
f. Attempted to schedule interview with Bob Castellini
g. Developed interview questions
h. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
5. Brian Siegel
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Setup Bill Donabedian interview and class speech
c. Participated in interview of N.Sakkab, L.Games, B.Donabedian, S.Dorward, G.Icenhower, J.Carney
d. Developed interview questions
e. Attended group meetings
f. Proofread paper
g. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
h. List of Quotes
Works Cited
Lessons in Leadership – “Follow these Leaders”. Christopher Tkaczyk. FORTUNE.
The Responsibility of Leadership, Acceptance remarks CEO of the Year award – A.G. Lafley. New York July 12, 2006.
The Lafley method: Face the facts, think like a consumer. Cliff Peale. Cincinnati Enquirer. June 9, 2002
Best Companies for Leaders. Dick Antoine. January 10, 2006
AGL remarks – Goldman Sachs Retail Conference – New York City. September 3, 2003.
A.G. Lafley – interview by Patricia Sellers
AGL remarks – Global Leadership Award – acceptance remarks. New York. January 13, 2005
Arts for Everyone – The fine arts fund has a major hit with its new ad campaign. Lucy May. Business Courier. April 25, 2003
The Leadership Lessons I Wish I had Known When I became a P&G Leader. AGL remarks. Xavier University Lecture Series. March 23, 2006
How A.G. Lafley turned Proctor Around- two years later, first crucial days are paying off. Cliff Peale. The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 9, 2002.
Connect and Develop – Inside Procter and Gamble’s new model for innovation. Larry Huston and Nabil Sakkab. HBR. March 2006.
A Man With a Mission – A.G. Lafley wants Procter and Gamble to server the world’s consumers. Yes, it’s more than lip service. He’s serious. William Holstein. CEO Magazine April/May 2006.
Leading Change: An interview with the CEO of P&G. Rajat Gupta and Jim Wendler. The McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, July 2005.
P&G: The un-CEO. Katrina Brooker. FORTUNE. September 16, 2002
Slaves to the Clock. Chief Executive. March 2004.
A “Rock Star” or “Just a Guy”
Alan George (A.G.) Lafley is the current Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive at Procter and Gamble (P&G) based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since his appointment in 2000, his leadership of P&G has been widely chronicled in the business press and this is how most people know Mr. Lafley. Many people who know him more closely describe him in a reverential manner as a “Rock Star” while also referring to him perhaps more importantly as “just a guy.” How can such a dichotomy exist for the same well profiled business leader?
Why do people say a Rock Star? Primarily, it is because of A.G.’s commanding presence whether he walks into a room of 3 people or addresses a company webcast of thousands, and his demeanor and style when he presides over a group of 2500 extroverted sales managers. How then can he also be just a guy? He is so personable, down to earth and pays so much genuine attention to the common person, people view him as just an ordinary guy who anyone could relate to when working, serving or socializing with him.
Over the course of two weeks, five members of a Xavier University MBA class met with six people who currently interact with or have worked closely in the past with A.G. Lafley in the Cincinnati area, to gather insight on Mr. Lafley’s leadership style and what contributes to his effectiveness of a multi-national Fortune 500 company. The interviewees included people that work closely with Mr. Lafley at P&G, as well as people who have been involved with Mr. Lafley in activities and functions throughout the Cincinnati community. Throughout all the meetings many common themes emerged, but one of the most prominent themes is that Mr. Lafley is extremely personable, and overall is a tremendous communicator. With all the positive comments mentioned about Mr. Lafley’s persona, as well as his leadership and management style, it left the members of the MBA class with the question, “Can Mr. Lafley really be this great?” After a brief biographical introduction of Mr. Lafley, an examination of his leadership traits skills, and style will be illustrated with a number of anecdotes that reinforce the consistently positive assessment of A.G. Lafley and tries to uncover what inspires several mature professionals to call him a ‘Rock Star” and some of the same people to admirably say ‘he’s just a guy’.
Biography
A.G. Lafley was born on June 13, 1947 in Keene, New Hampshire, and was educated at Hamilton University, receiving an Associate’s Degree in Business in 1969. Following his education at Hamilton University, Mr. Lafley spent five years in the United States Navy. Upon returning from his service in the Navy, Mr. Lafley attended Harvard Business School and received his Masters in Business Administration in 1977.
After Mr. Lafley graduated from Harvard he was hired at P&G in June of 1977, and has continued to be employed there ever since. Mr. Lafley has held a variety of roles within P&G starting as a Brand Assistant for Joy in 1977, continuing on to become a Brand Manager of several soap products during the early 1980’s, followed by becoming the General Manager and later Vice President of the Laundry Division at P&G. Throughout the 1990’s Mr. Lafley was an Executive Vice President in both the Asian and North American regions for P&G until 1999 when he became President of Global Beauty Care. In 2000, following the departure of Dirk Jager as CEO, Mr. Lafley assumed the role of President and CEO, and in 2002 assumed the additional title of Chairman of the Board for P&G.
Mr. Lafley’s local and national activities have included serving on the Board of Directors at General Electric, Dell, and General Motors. He is also heavily involved in many community activities serving on the Xavier University Board of Trustees, as Chairman of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (C3DC), on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees, Medical Center Fund of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and as Chair of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual capital campaign.
Leadership Philosophy, Traits, and Skills
Throughout the interviews that were conducted to gather information about Mr. Lafley’s leadership style, many characteristics continually resurfaced. Many of these ideas were related through representative examples from the interaction that these business and community leaders have had with Mr. Lafley. Common to almost all the described philosophies, traits, and skills was one common theme of consistency. Mr. Lafley possesses many positive philosophies, traits, and skills, and common to all of them is the consistency by which Mr. Lafley practices them.
The following paragraphs focus on a few of Mr. Lafley’s operating philosophies and capabilities. Examples are included for the following key leadership styles and behaviors:
Taking the complex and making it simple
Practicing Situational Leadership
Setting expectations, trusting people to deliver
Employing Integrated thinking
Investing in Leadership training and development
One of the unique skills that Mr. Lafley possesses in his leadership style is his ability to take a complex situation and simplify it for everyone to understand. Larry Games, Vice President of Research and Development in Pharmaceuticals and Personal Health Care at P&G, stated that Mr. Lafley has the ability to take what could comprise a two to three page vision statement and summarize it down into 5 to 6 words or phrases. Suzy Dorward, former leader of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual Capital Campaign, remarked in addition that Mr. Lafley can walk into a meeting with several pages of information distributed, listen intently to the meeting, and leave the meeting with two or three main points that summarize what was important without retaining the written summary provided in the meeting. These key points would be remembered for weeks to come as the information was needed for Mr. Lafley’s business dealings. Mr. Lafley’s ability to distill complex situations to simple, resonant key points, allows others to better understand and help solve complex problems.
Mr. Lafley also presents his skill at employing the appropriate situational leadership style for a given situation. He has the ability to talk to people on a level that will work effectively for the particular circumstance. Hence, when talking to his 200 member executive leadership committee, Mr. Lafley may be more blunt about the state of the business, and directive about the results that need to come about to achieve success than he would be with a webcast audience of the entire company. By tailoring his leadership style and message to different groups of people, Mr. Lafley can more effectively lead the organization and empower its employees to achieve the results that the company needs to deliver.
In addition to the situational leadership that Mr. Lafley provides, he is very effective in delivering his message and is very results driven. As Greg Icenhower, Director of Executive Communication at P&G related, “A.G. is not a micro-manager. He sets very clear and high expectations for people, and trusts that his people will deliver.” In effect, he holds people accountable, but he does not micromanage. Mr. Icenhower continued, “A.G. does not view the employees at P&G as labor capital, he views them as creative and knowledge workers.” As part of viewing people as creative and knowledge workers, Mr. Lafley believes that you cannot command and control these people as that will not produce results. Instead you need to inspire them, and allow them to determine how they will deliver the expected results. Larry Games added an insightful definition of leadership that, “success or failure as a leader is based on one’s ability to inspire other to do things they didn’t think they could do”. This appears very consistent with Mr. Lafley’s practice as a leader who empowers those who work with him.
Greg Icenhower continued to discuss Mr. Lafley’s leadership style and skills, and mentioned that one of Mr. Lafley’s key advisors is Roger Martin, the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. One of the key aspects that Mr. Lafley works with Dean Martin on is the concept or skill of Integrative Thinking. With integrative thinking there is a three step process to develop a solution to an issue or problem. First, a set of data needs to be analyzed that is often broader than the data directly related to the situation. Second, the data needs to be synthesized and connected in novel ways, and lastly a creative solution is generated beyond those originally or typically considered by non-integrative thinkers. This three step process does not seem revolutionary but the synthesis element is key to developing novel solutions, and Mr. Lafley has a demonstrated knack for coming up with solutions that are quite creative, those that no one else may have thought of in the past. In practical terms, the Shared Services structure developed by P&G with Hewlett Packard, IBM and other industry leading consulting and service organizations was a product of Mr. Lafley’s use of integrative thinking to solve what was considered an un-winnable dilemma – containing P&G costs while protecting the employability and career opportunities of thousands of P&G employees.
Mr. Lafley views effective leadership as key to the future and continued prosperity of P&G. Greg Icenhower relayed that Mr. Lafley is very knowledgeable of the top 500 emerging leaders at P&G. Amazingly, he knows what assignments they have had, what key projects they have worked on, and what the plans for these leaders are in the future. John Carney, Channel Human Resources Manager at P&G, explains that Mr. Lafley has supported the implementation of a leadership evaluation program, where all managers are directly evaluated by the people they manage in terms of how the manager interacts with and leads the employees. Mr. Lafley is dedicated to leadership and building the leadership within the company. Greg Icenhower continued to explain that about one third of Mr. Lafley’s time is spent on leadership development. This can range from personally attending internal “Colleges” at any level which P&G uses to train its people, or it could involve taking significant calendar time to mentor and develop the skills of his most senior managers to help them to lead better in the future. Larry Games added that Mr. Lafley was an integral training leader with Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi in 4 separate week-long Inspirational Leadership training seminars where top executives in P&G in groups of ten learned about this form of leadership in a close-knit and very personal atmosphere.
As we continue to explore Mr. Lafley’s leadership style, examples of his skills and those characteristics that allow Mr. Lafley to lead so well are examined. These key skills and characteristics are:
Sees things as they are
Leads by example
Master communicator
Self-Assured
Great listener
Humble
Another idea that was shared by almost all of the people we interviewed is that Mr. Lafley sees things as they are and how they exist, not how he would want them to be. This keeps Mr. Lafley very grounded and prevents him from falling into lofty aspirations that are unattainable. Greg Icenhower discussed how Mr. Lafley’s predecessor as CEO, Dirk Jager had very good strategic ideas about where the company needed to go, and what needed to change if P&G was going to succeed in the future, but he was unable to get the buy in of the people in the organization. When Mr. Lafley took over, he didn’t take these ideas and organizational changes and throw them away despite considerable pressure to do so. Instead he looked at these changes and realized they were important and necessary, and found a way to make the people in the organization understand and believe in them. Greg Icenhower said that Mr. Lafley took the changes that Mr. Jager wanted to take place and gave them purpose and meaning within the context of P&G’s strong internal culture. By giving purpose and meaning to these new ideas and changes, people bought into them, and in turn worked tirelessly to make them successful.
As described above, Mr. Lafley does a lot to promote leadership throughout the company, and throughout Cincinnati, but he doesn’t just do it through talking about leadership rather he leads by example. Suzy Dorward remembered when Mr. Lafley was raising money for the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign, he did not come to the meetings and dictate what needed to be done, but he also did not let people tell him what they needed him to do. Mr. Lafley was an active participant in listening to the experts who had experience in fund raising in the past, and he added his own insights and ideas to help the fund raising become more effective. He also worked with other business leaders in Cincinnati to not only come up with features to help the Fine Arts Fund be successful during the year he was heavily involved, but he also worked to set up a strategy for the Fund to be successful in the future. Suzy Dorward continued to explain that Mr. Lafley is probably the most influential person that she has worked with in the community. Ms. Dorward was involved in the Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign for over 10 years, and worked with many of the major community leaders throughout Cincinnati, and she commented that Mr. Lafley combined the aspects of respect, knowledge, and the ability to realize when he was wrong. These aspects demonstrated his humility, and gave him the ability to relate well with the people he was working with; hence, he was not only talking about leadership but leading by example.
What enables Mr. Lafley to lead as well as he does are his leadership traits and skills that he has mastered through the years. The most commonly referred to trait throughout the interviews was Mr. Lafley’s ability as a masterful communicator. Greg Icenhower, who works with Mr. Lafley on all the speeches and public engagements he has, stated that Mr. Lafley is never flustered or out of control. He is always composed, and can keep calm in almost any situation. Mr. Icenhower reflected on the first day that Mr. Lafley was to be introduced as CEO at P&G. Mr. Lafley had to fly back from California after being informed over the phone that he was going to be offered the position of CEO. Once he returned to Cincinnati, he spent most of the night at the office working with Greg Icenhower on the messages that were to be delivered the next day, then went home and had a couple hours of rest. The next day Mr. Lafley spent most of the day with financial institutions and analysts reassuring them the company was stable and was moving in the right direction. Mr. Lafley had been thrown into a situation where he found out he was going to be the CEO, and 12 hours later had to be in front of the world explaining the ins and outs of P&G’s businesses. He was never flustered and successfully navigated the day, so much so in fact that he was able to end the day by keeping his commitment to take his wife out to dinner for their 30th wedding anniversary.
Being a master communicator though is not done just through remaining calm. Mr. Lafley spends a lot of time with the people around him to get the best and most up to date information about what is going on in the company and in the external environment. Everyone interviewed commented on Mr. Lafley’s external focus and commitment to being ‘in touch’ with all of P&G’s stakeholders in the broadest sense. Through this extensive knowledge, and with the ability to synthesize this knowledge into key salient points, Mr. Lafley can be assured that he knows what is going on. This self assurance helps Mr. Lafley be confident when talking to virtually any group of people. The self assurance does not come off as arrogance, and in fact is often used with his deep knowledge to help personalize concepts for people. Suzy Dorward commented that Mr. Lafley has the ability to connect with people because he can make people understand why something is important to them, even if it does not directly relate to them. By personalizing situations Mr. Lafley is able to connect with people on an individual level, and help them to understand how their contribution makes a difference. This contributes significantly to the inspired following that supports the “Rock Star” moniker.
Beyond the skills and leadership traits that Mr. Lafley possesses and excels at, everyone we spoke to says they love working with Mr. Lafley and no one had a negative thing to say about him. Some might argue this is because they did not want to say something disparaging about their boss, but these people were quite sincere and candid in their discussions on all accounts. Some struggled for several minutes trying to find a flaw, but the only one that was related is that sometimes Mr. Lafley tries to be too available to too many people and over commits himself. This being said, Greg Icenhower noted that Mr. Lafley still does a lot to keep an admirable work life balance. He keeps commitments with his family, but still manages to run a Fortune 500 company while keeping community events in focus as well. All the interviewees clearly stated that Mr. Lafley was incredibly humble despite his position of power, and he is a great listener. They commented that he is not only a listener, but “listens with his eyes”. He is very observant of what is going on around him, and synthesizes this data to help better understand people and the situations that he faces. All in all, Mr. Lafley is portrayed as someone they love to work with, or even just be around. John Carney commented that he and his daughter were walking out of the Cincinnati Reds baseball game one evening, and they ran into Mr. Lafley. Mr. Carney introduced his college-bound daughter to Mr. Lafley, and for ten minutes Mr. Carney’s daughter was the only important person to Mr. Lafley. He is very sincere, understands the importance of people, and the relationships that are so important with people in business and more importantly in life.
Vectors of Leadership
During the conversation with Greg Icenhower, he shared Mr. Lafley personal definition of leadership – “…leadership (to A.G.) is the ability to continually transform organizations in an environment of unrelenting change.” With this in mind Mr. Icenhower also mentioned the concept that leaders often follow one of three principal ‘Vectors of Leadership’. These Vectors are:
Power
Relationships
Ideas
Mr. Icenhower stated that most leaders will relate to one of these vectors more so than the other two. As Director of Communication over the past 15 years, he has had a unique perspective on the CEOs of P&G and he explained this concept with respect to those CEOs with whom he had worked.
Edwin Artzt – CEO 1990 – 1995. Artzt was fiercely competitive and driven while at P&G. Often his leadership was characterized by a style of ‘command and control’. He was not trying to make friends at the company, rather he wanted the company to deliver results, and as a result was highly competitive.
John Pepper – CEO 1995 – 1999. Pepper was a relationships leader. He felt it was important for people to be valued in the work environment. Pepper was the first to commit the values and culture of P&G to paper which helped people better understand how the culture and the relationships built at P&G were what helped to build a better company.
Dirk Jager – CEO 1999 – 2000. Jager was very idea oriented. He tried to move the company to a stretch, speed, and innovation focus. He also worked to reorganize the structure of P&G. He felt it was necessary to make these changes to move the company into the 21st century.
A.G. Lafley – CEO 2000 – present. Lafley incorporates all three vectors in his leadership style. He comes up with new and innovative ideas to move the company in a profitable direction. He has sold off certain brands and acquired Gillette to help grow the company. At the same time he has leveraged his relationships with the old CEO’s to gain their perspective and come up with better ideas. While Lafley does not exude and overpowering personality, he garners power through the respect he commands from just being in his presence and his competence and skills as a leader.
Conclusions
Although our team never had the opportunity to personally meet with A.G. Lafley, we interviewed several people that came from very different perspectives, levels and degrees of exposure to Mr. Lafley, and yet they all communicated a very consistent message about him. All the panelists spoke so highly of Mr. Lafley that at times it would not have been believable if the messages they were relaying were not being corroborated by each other. For P&G the leadership and positive example that Mr. Lafley brings to the company gives the company a rallying figure, and the biggest worry that we heard from the people that work with Mr. Lafley, was the fear of who would be the person that will follow him as CEO of Procter and Gamble.
Mr. Lafley’s leadership does not follow a specific philosophy, other than to say it incorporates situational and inspirational leadership styles and he believes that leadership is learned and needs to continually evolve. This conviction can be seen through Mr. Lafley’s practice of spending almost one third on his time in leadership development since he feels leadership development is key to the organization’s future success.
Through his mastering of communication, active listening, synthesis of data, and consistency of message, Mr. Lafley has inspired P&G, as well as other community organizations throughout Cincinnati. Mr. Lafley has more than doubled P&G’s stock price since he took over as CEO in 2000. He has continued to grow the business consistently without interruption and has been at the helm for five consecutive years of growth each and every quarter for the company. He has also worked with organizations like the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund to meet and actually exceed its fundraising goals. He does all of this while continuing to be “just a guy” that anyone can talk to, and not forgetting to take his wife out to dinner on their anniversary, even if it is the most important day of his career.
Appendix 1 - Leadership Styles of Recent P&G CEO’s
CEO
Leadership Style
Leadership “Vector”
Defining Attribute
John Smale
· Less visible
· Ability to penetrate issues
· Good coach – not a dictator
· Planned for next 25-50 yrs
Ideas
Longest term strategist
“Best visionary”
Ed
Artzt
· No nonsense, dose of real medicine
· Intimidating presence
· More demanding to deliver
Power
Fierce Competitor
“The General”
John Pepper
· Very visible
· Articulated/codified P&G purpose/values/principles
Relationships
Relationships/Values
“Your favorite uncle”
Durk Jager
· Very short tenure
· Brilliant strategist/conceptual thinker like J. Smale
· Too much change too fast for strength of P&G culture
Ideas
“Right Ideas/ Wrong Style”
A.G. Lafley
· Faces reality
· Simplifies the vision
· Energizes and inspires people
· Even keel, remarkably calm,
· Leads by example (creates external focus)
· Commands respect (vs. demands)
A Mix of All Three?
· competitive with consumer focus
· affirmed PVPs
· precise strategic choices on core competencies
In Touch
“Just a guy”
or
“a Rock Star”
.
Appendix 2 – Biographical Sketches of Leadership Practices Interviewees
Nabil Sakkab, Senior VP, Corporate R&D, P&G July 26, 2006
Unique role with no direct reports – responsible for leading external connect & develop mission & strategizing how P&G can minimize volatility encountered in global operations
32 years with P&G, led R&D for fabric & home care (2300 people) for 9 years
Brussels-based, Palestinian-born, US-educated, expatriate manager, global citizen
Manager of R&D, Asia during 1995 Kobe earthquake after arriving 3 days before
Well defined personal leadership philosophy
Larry Games, VP R&D Pharmaceuticals & Personal Health, P&G July 28, 2006
· Current manager of R&D for Pharmaceuticals & Personal Health Care
· 29 years with P&G, Post-doctoral organic chemist
· Management/leadership experience in all P&G businesses except food/snacks
· Diverse roles as government lobbyist, product Health & Safety manager, baby care R&D manager, chief external relations leader for animal testing issue, led multiple divisional reorganizations within P&G
· Participated in Inspirational Leadership college for P&G VP leaders (taught by A.G. Lafley & Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi)
Bill Donabedian, 3CDC Managing Director August 2, 2006
· Leads the Fountain Square Transformation Project for 3CDC and interacts with 3CDC Board of Directors (chaired by A.G. Lafley)
· Sounding Sessions organizer for Cincinnati Young Professionals (YP)
· Co-founder, Mid-Point Music Festival
· XU MBA graduate
John Carney, HR Associate Director, P&G August 4, 2006
· HR manager (6 direct reports) of team supporting North American VP of Chain/Grocery/Retail operations (350-person organization)
· 29 years with P&G (14 yrs in HR, 15 yrs in Sales)
· Worked with A.G. Lafley since late 90’s (NA President role) & since 2000 as CEO
Suzy Dorward, Deputy Director, Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) August 4, 2006
Acting Co-Director of CAM, Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement
Former Director of Fine Arts Fund Annual Campaign (10 years) working with multiple P&G and Cincinnati corporate leaders on capital campaign
Daily interaction with A.G. Lafley during his tenure as 2003 campaign chair
Previous non-profit and corporate experience (banking)
Greg Icenhower, Director, External Relations, P&G August 4, 2006
· Director of Executive Communication at P&G for 15 years
· Speechwriter for past 4 P&G CEOs including A.G. Lafley
· Never met A.G. Lafley until day he was named CEO, present throughout all critical moments of 2000 P&G CEO change-over
· Extensive network of colleagues in equivalent role with other Fortune 500 CEOs
· Political background as former speechwriter – Gov. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va)
Appendix 3 – Leadership Practices Interview
Sample Questions
· What is your background & history (with P&G)?
· How do you define leadership?
· If you could pinpoint one part of leadership that is most effective what would that be?
· Who is your favorite leader?
· Based on your experience, do you think Leaders are born or made, i.e. nature vs. nurture? In other words can it be taught?
· Is leadership a choice?
· Has your leadership style changed over the years? Does your style change from situation to situation?
· How do you lead in your role in (R&D, 3CDC, HR, FAF/Cinci Art Museum, Ext. Relations)?
· How would you characterize A.G. Lafley’s leadership style?
· What was your first impression of A.G. as a leader (within P&G)? What position did he hold at the time & how did he demonstrate leadership?
· How has A.G. Lafley’s leadership style differed from other leaders (at P&G)?
· How does A.G. Lafley’s leadership style compare with other CEO's over your career?
· What do you see as A.G.'s best attributes as a leader? Do you see any weaknesses? How does he compensate for these?
· Discuss any thoughts you have on A.G. Lafley’s “Lessons on Leadership” from the Xavier Univ. Distinguished Business Speaker Series luncheon speech.
· What have you learned from working closely with A.G.?
· Is your leadership style similar to AG's?
· What examples do you have of AG's leadership and his work with others?
· What are the biggest challenges that leaders face in the 21st century?
· Where do you see yourself, your boss, and A.G. Lafley on John Kotter's management-leadership grid? (not discussed with all interviewees)
Appendix 4 – Summary of Work Completed
Within the confines of the past two weeks, our group effectively communicated several times daily (one million emails) and organized dynamic interviews with several P&G executives and city leaders who have worked with and have thoughts on AG Lafley’s leadership style and abilities as well as their own take on leadership. Individual Contributions were made as listed:
1. Allison Tummon Kamphuis
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Developed questions for interviews
c. Worked with PowerPoint presentation
d. Provided background information on P&G executives, geese & materials on AG Lafley
e. Participated in interview of N. Sakkab, L. Games, S. Dorward, G. Icenhower, J. Carney
f. Setup Larry Games, Suzy Dorward, Greg Icenhower interviews
g. Attended group meetings
h. Proofread paper
i. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
2. Jeff Shaffer
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Set up power point for presentation
c. Developed questions for interviews
d. Participated in interview of N. Sakkab, L. Games, S. Dorward, G. Icenhower, J. Carney
e. Setup Nabil Sakkab interview for project
f. Attempted to schedule interview with Bob Castellini and others
g. Attended group meetings
h. Proofread paper
i. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
3. Dan Poole
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Significant amount of input on the paper
c. Enabled conference call communication between all group members on almost a daily basis
d. Participated in interview of Nabil Sakkab, Suzy Dorward, Greg Icenhower, John Carney
e. Proofread paper
f. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
g. Attended group meetings
4. Tom Compton
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Participated in interview of Nabil Sakkab, Bill Donabedian, Larry Games
c. Wrote work completed and works cited pages
d. Attended group meetings
e. Proofread paper
f. Attempted to schedule interview with Bob Castellini
g. Developed interview questions
h. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
5. Brian Siegel
a. Gung Ho mentality
b. Setup Bill Donabedian interview and class speech
c. Participated in interview of N.Sakkab, L.Games, B.Donabedian, S.Dorward, G.Icenhower, J.Carney
d. Developed interview questions
e. Attended group meetings
f. Proofread paper
g. Provided motivation and encouragement to each individual member
h. List of Quotes
Works Cited
Lessons in Leadership – “Follow these Leaders”. Christopher Tkaczyk. FORTUNE.
The Responsibility of Leadership, Acceptance remarks CEO of the Year award – A.G. Lafley. New York July 12, 2006.
The Lafley method: Face the facts, think like a consumer. Cliff Peale. Cincinnati Enquirer. June 9, 2002
Best Companies for Leaders. Dick Antoine. January 10, 2006
AGL remarks – Goldman Sachs Retail Conference – New York City. September 3, 2003.
A.G. Lafley – interview by Patricia Sellers
AGL remarks – Global Leadership Award – acceptance remarks. New York. January 13, 2005
Arts for Everyone – The fine arts fund has a major hit with its new ad campaign. Lucy May. Business Courier. April 25, 2003
The Leadership Lessons I Wish I had Known When I became a P&G Leader. AGL remarks. Xavier University Lecture Series. March 23, 2006
How A.G. Lafley turned Proctor Around- two years later, first crucial days are paying off. Cliff Peale. The Cincinnati Enquirer. June 9, 2002.
Connect and Develop – Inside Procter and Gamble’s new model for innovation. Larry Huston and Nabil Sakkab. HBR. March 2006.
A Man With a Mission – A.G. Lafley wants Procter and Gamble to server the world’s consumers. Yes, it’s more than lip service. He’s serious. William Holstein. CEO Magazine April/May 2006.
Leading Change: An interview with the CEO of P&G. Rajat Gupta and Jim Wendler. The McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, July 2005.
P&G: The un-CEO. Katrina Brooker. FORTUNE. September 16, 2002
Slaves to the Clock. Chief Executive. March 2004.
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