Innovation at Procter & Gamble

Résumé du document

To innovate is to create something; it is necessary to distinguish innovation from invention because an innovation need not necessarily always be an invention.

Innovation can assume four forms:
•Marketing plan for a new product launch or the improvement of a product that already exists
•A new method of production
•A new outlet for the industry
•The conquest of a new source of raw materials

Innovation can be radical or incremental:
Radical innovation - Innovation is radical when it deeply modifies the conditions of use of a product by the customers. Eg: from the steam engine to the gas engine.

Incremental innovation
Incremental innovation does not upset the usual terms but facilitates a noticeable improvement. It often arises from the will of the company to preserve its technological projection from its competitors. Eg: the transition from the ball computer mouse to an optical mouse.

P&G caters to a broad definition of innovation: what it is, from whom it originates, the person responsible for it. Innovation comes into play when companies like P&G set out to improve the quality/price ratio perceived by the consumers when they consume P&G products. Innovation includes the creation of the products, packaging, and communication campaigns to reach both consumers and suppliers.

Extraits

[...] Innovation at Procter & Gamble Presentation Procter & Gamble Co. is an American multinational specialized in consumer goods (hygiene and beauty product). P&G's headquarter is located in Cincinnati in Ohio. In 2005, the company employed 110.000 people for a turnover of more than 50 billion dollars Definition of Innovation To innovate is to create something, it is necessary to distinguish innovation from invention because an innovation is not always an invention. Innovation can take 4 shapes: Marketing plan for a new product launch or the improvement of a product that already exists A new method of production A new outlet for the industry The conquest of a new source of raw materials Innovation can be radical or incremental: Radical innovation Innovation is radical when it deeply modifies the conditions of use of a product by the customers. [...]

[...] In addition, it proposes with the sale patents or results of non-exploitable research likely to interest of another company. This step enables P&G to profit today from a setting in easy and fast liaison with world wide subcontractors or inventors who have technologies that can meet P&G's needs. Moreover, due to the sale and licensing of its technologies or patents to companies that are not in competition with the company collects additional financings. This program is thus the base of P&G's strategy to apply the Open Innovation and to optimize its intellectual property The innovation process a. [...]

[...] For every one of the 9,000 top-notch scientists inside there are another 200 outside. That's 1.8 million people and P&G wants to collaborate with these enterprising scientists and innovators around the globe to find solutions to its toughest innovation challenges. P&G is continuing to focus on identifying collaboration opportunities with individual innovators, small and medium sized business partners, universities, spin-offs, corporations, capability and service providers, government funded R&D organizations, venture capital firms, and angel fund partners CEO / CIO skills According to an interview of A.G. [...]

[...] He is supposed to have the courage to hire people, and to nurture and reward talent Sustainable development In 2008, P&G France launched its “Solidarity Program” which allows the all collaborators who are interested to carry out missions of voluntary help and patronage of competence near the associative partners of the company. These missions, realized during or apart from the working time, make it possible to each voluntary employee to take part directly in the cause "Live, Learn and and Blossom". is designed to Grow A.G. [...]

[...] To Launch and to Exploit Lastly, an innovation is presented to the consumers and the distributors. P&G has a strict system of responsibility for the result as regard to innovation, but P&G encourages all its employees to innovate. They all are mobilized to discover new means of offering a better experiment of their brand to a lower cost, which in the final analysis supports a better quality/price ratio To innovate with partnerships A partnership aims to get a know-how that P&G does not have, it acts to combine the resources of the two parts, knowledge of the two parts to be able to reach an innovation of quality: something that only one of the two parts could not make by itself. [...]