...product innovations but also from leveraging what your business does best to create a competitive advantage.”(Lafley, 2008) COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION AT PROCTER & GAMBLE CASE STUDY Prepared by: xxxxxxxxx Lawrence Technical University Management Information Systems, MIS-6013 Professor Patrick Mach Evans February14, 2012 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Analysis 6 Conclusion 16 References 17 Introduction When the typical consumer hears the name Procter and Gamble they might think of Ivory Soap, Tide, Pantene, Pampers, or possibly Swiffer. The reason being is that these are a just a few of the everyday household products that have been contributors to the huge success of Procter and Gamble. But when another consumer product company hears the name Procter and Gamble – they think of innovation, leaders on the cutting edge of technology, and one of the front runners in globalization. Procter and Gamble, also known as P&G, has been a key element of American business for over 150 years. In 1837 a small soap and candle company formed in Cincinnati, Ohio. This little business, named after brother-in-laws, Procter and Gamble, has since grown to a global giant with 138,000 employees working in more than 80 countries. (P&G Revolutionizes Collaboration with Cisco, 2008) P&G is the largest manufacturer of consumer products in the world and one of the top 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization. (Laudon & Laudon, 2012)...
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...Collaboration and Innovation at Proctor & Gamble Proctor & Gamble is the largest manufacturer of consumer products in the world. P&G has a reputation for developing successful brands and maintaining their popularity with unique business innovations. Beauty Care, Household Care, and Health and Well-being are the three main units of business operations at P&G. Each of these business units are further subdivided into more specific units. P&G has three main focuses as a business in each division. First, it needs to maintain popularity of its existing brands. Second, it must extend its brands to related products by developing new products under those brands. Third, it must innovate and create new brands entirely from scratch. Much of P&G’s business is built around brand creation and management. To effectively run P&G’s business operations, it is critical that they facilitate collaboration between researchers, marketers, and managers. This is the reason that P&G has been actively implementing information systems that foster effective collaboration and innovation. In early 2000, P&G was in disarray and the company’s share price had fallen by nearly 50 percent, wiping out $85 billion in market capital (Lash, 2012). Despite spending heavily on research & development, productivity had plateaued and the company’s innovation success rate was around an unsatisfactory 35 percent (Lash, 2012). When A.G. Lafley became P&G’s CEO in 2000, he recognized that collaboration would be the key...
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...features of a business that are important for understanding the role of information systems? A business is a formal complex organization producing products or services for a profit. Businesses have specialized functions, such as finance and accounting, human resources, manufacturing and production, and sales and marketing. Business organizations are arranged hierarchically into levels of management. A business process is a logically related set of activities that define how specific business tasks are performed. Business firms must monitor and respond to their surrounding environments. 1.1 Define a business and describe the major business functions. A business refers to a formal organization whose aim is to produce products or provide services for a profit. Every business, regardless of its size, must perform four functions to succeed. It must produce the product or service; market and sell the product or service; keep track of accounting and financial transactions; and perform basic human resources tasks, such as hiring and retaining employees. 1.2 Define business processes and describe the role they play in organizations. A business process refers to a logically related set of activities that define how specific business tasks are performed. Business processes are the ways in which a business collaborates and organizes work activities, information, and knowledge to produce their products or services. 1.3 Identify and describe the different levels in a business firm and their...
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...Research Paper: Enterprise Collaboration Systems Introduction Enterprise Collaboration Systems or ECSs are systems that create team and workgroup collaboration. They enhance communications, productivity and provide support in business operations. Some basic examples of ECSs are e-mail, chat, and videoconferencing (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011). As we dive into this research paper more detailed explanations will be made of what the systems are and how they help organizations collaborate and enhance quality of work. ECSs also include applications that are sometimes called office automation systems, which are systems that create workflows to get rid of paper and create a smoother experience for users (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011). Organizations have many systems and ECSs are not ones to be left out. Information systems perform three vital roles in business firms. They support organization’s business processes and operations, give users more valuable information to help with good business decision making, and create strategic competitive advantages. Information technology, with the help of the Internet, provides us with the avenues to communicate ideas, share resources, and coordinate our cooperative work efforts. The goal of ECSs are to enable us to work together easily and effectively by helping us to, communicate, by sharing information with each other, coordinate, by helping us organize our work efforts and use of resources, and collaborate, by helping us work together cooperatively...
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...Making the Shift to the Next-Generation Enterprise (a multi-part series) Future of Work Enabler: Virtual Collaboration Cloud-powered social and mobile tools can help break down traditional hierarchies and enable employees across disciplines to easily locate and share business-critical insights with experts inside and outside the organization’s four walls. This report is an installment in our multi-part series that explores the shifts necessary for future-proofing your company. | FUTURE OF WORK ation Executive Summary In today’s knowledge economy, virtual teams are the norm. With expertise distributed around the world, teams “swarm” to complete a task and depart when finished. Knowledge work is not performed in linear, production-line fashion; it involves idea-sharing, iterative discussions and real-time modifications. In traditional business, change was first agreed upon, then planned and executed. But in today’s world, change happens organically, thanks to the interconnectedness afforded by social networks and the Web, otherwise known as “wirearchy.”1 Roles and responsibilities — once carved into the org chart — are fluid and ever-changing. The most valuable contributor to a project may turn out to be someone you don’t even know. Leaders aren’t appointed or anointed by management; they’re recognized by the community based on the perceived strength of their contributions. Leadership is dynamic and changes during the lifetime of a project; the way forward is often...
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...Case Study Collaboration and Innovation at Procter and Gamble (Chapter 2) 1: What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? Procter and Gamble strategy is to maintain the popularity of its existing brands and in developing new products by extending existing brands and by creating new brands from scratch via innovation. It innovation is at the top of Procter and Gamble’s strategy and collaboration is a critical part to attaining this innovation. In order to constantly come up with new lines of products, Procter and Gamble must incorporate innovation in every aspect of its business. All objectives and business processes must be aligned in a way to foster and generate innovation. And the most critical tool in attaining such alignments is collaboration. Procter and Gamble is one of the top 10 largest companies in the world, operating in over 80 countries so it is very important to attain successful innovation, to develop a cooperative and collaborative environment so as to encourage sharing of ideas and resources and avoid duplication of efforts. Better collaboration results in faster and more efficient brainstorming across locations, and faster generation and sharing of ideas and feedback, this in turn leads to savings in Research and Development costs. Collaboration helps maximize efficiency, encourage communication across locations and ultimately foster innovation. 2: How is P&G...
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...Four Reasons for Innovation Organizational leaders are always looking for a way to grow their business. Successful leaders understand the business world is changing quickly and often. In this competitive business world, leaders need to get moving on their innovation strategy. The following will list a few reasons why organizations look to innovate. 1. To Survive Organizations need to stay ahead of the competition in order to survive or they will go out of business. It is important for a business to stay at the top of their industry and be the “go-to” innovator for clients. A willingness to think big and think differently is vital to stay afloat. In order to survive, changes are needed. Subtle changes would be best to reap the rewards. Drastic changes can scare clients into the competitions lap. Transforming how an organization thinks is the key to surviving. 2. To Make a Profit The top reason most organizations are in business is to make money. It is a competitive market and if you want your clients to open their wallets, they need a reason to buy from you. What does your product offer that your competition does not? Does it add value to your client’s vision and what they are trying to achieve? Whatever your product is, make sure it is different and your company can do it well. Where there is distinction, there are profits. 3. Culture and Core Values Changing the culture within an organization gives everyone responsibility for innovation. Employees will thrive in an environment...
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...Case Study 1 1. What is Proctor & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? Proctor & Gamble’s business strategy seems to be to find creative ways to maintain the popularity and marketability of their current products as well as to continue to progress and cater to the needs of the “Facebook Generation” by creating newer, more modern brands. Collaboration and innovation play an integral part in that business strategy. As stated in the case study, Proctor & Gamble is a huge company with over 100,000 employees. This means that there are over 100,000 ideas for how to maintain and improve the marketability of the current product line and just as many ideas for new products. This seems that it would present an issue in sharing ideas quickly and efficiently. According to the text, Proctor & Gamble employees were using email to communicate and essentially share these ideas. That means over 100,000 emails were being sent at any given moment, multiple times a day. Email is the way most companies prefer to communicate but when you have thousands of them coming every day, it becomes a very ineffective communication method because I’m quite sure that most of those emails don’t get read. So finding better ways for employees to communicate and collaborate to share those hundreds of thousands of ideas and be able to provide feedback. Eventually those 100,000 ok ideas will become 20 or 30 great ideas that Proctor & Gamble...
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...GM 591 Final Paper Communication and Collaboration In Today’s Air Force: The 561st Network Operations Squadron A Case Study 1. Introduction The 561st Network Operating Squadron, with about 200 personnel divided between military, government civilians, and contract personnel, operates one of the two primary network nodes for the Air Force data network. The dynamic of the organization is defined by the relationship between the military, nominally in charge but highly transient with constant rotations and deployments, and the Operations and Maintenance (O & M) contractors, who have the knowledge base and the continuity but are on edge due to contract issues and tenuous job security. Added to that tumultuous mix is my small contract of twelve people who are implementing a methodology of best practices for managing a complex Information Technology (IT) organization. This methodology, known as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), provides a framework of processes that give shape and order to an IT operation. These three teams, the military, the O & M contractors, and the ITIL improvement team work together to provide network services for the greater Air Force, striving to maintain network availability while keeping the data secure from intrusion or compromise. 2. Problem Statement In the last four or five years collaborative computing and social networking have rapidly increased both in the business environment and in people’s personal lives....
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...<3<3<3 FOR SULTANA DYALI <3<3<3 The recent improvement in technology has provided the world with high speed internet, wireless connection, and web-based collaboration tools like blogs, and wikis, and has as such created a "mass collaboration. People from all over the world are efficiently able to communicate and share ideas through the internet, or even conferences, without any geographical barriers. The power of social networks it beginning to permeate into business culture where many collaborative uses are being found including knowledge sharing and transfers. Here I thought of an idea that will improve business collaboration; this idea comes from the idea of Facebook, but in a professional manner. It’s a website similar to Facebook that’s uses the Internet as a common meeting and work space, and it will enable companies to raise their informations and their profile which will serve to identify these companies at their country and even at the international level. In this site we will know all about these companies such as name, financial capital, legal status, field of activity, workforce and skills working in these companies, projects carried, future plans and experiences. It is a way of coordinating different ideas from numerous people to generate a wide variety of knowledge. Collaboration in business can be found both inter- and intra-organization and ranges from the simplicity of a partnership and crowd funding to the complexity of a multinational...
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...We are in dynamic world, where geographical borders won’t stop the world from coming together. Industrialization brought globalization, however with the advances in technology and information the world has occurred together. With this change, it is vital for individuals to change and adapt to the changing environment and that is achieved by learning to collaborate in different cultures. Michael Blanding (2012) author of the article Collaborating Across Culture highlights the significant cross-cultural challenges and the issues that we face in today’s work environment. He has explained us with the example that has presented in the article of the $30 million project on the historic Chinese epic which did not impress the target audience. The problem with the project was that it was Chinese history, and the western audience was least bothered. The reason this happened was that of the cultural difference. Then came the creativity from the director of the movie to tell the story through the eye of a foreign man, but it did not work out because the Chinese censors had a problem with the type of script it had. The entire struggle expresses the challenge of a Hollywood business man, as he tries to break the billion-dollar market from his home country. Foreign markets are very significant, but the example here tries to point out that even in such big...
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...B COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX COM/526, SPRING 2010 DR. LA TRIC CAMPFIELD, FACILITATOR ABSTRACT The term collaboration and its concept has become a keyword in the infrastructure of corporate businesses, small businesses, higher education, and workplaces. "In today's process-driven workplace", as authored by Evan Rosen (2008), "collaboration is king". As the remnants of the in-the-box and old-school traditions are becoming more and more obselete, the out-of-the-box culture of collaboration is being born across the globe. Introduction and History of Collaboration in the Workplace An Overall View The term collaboration and its concept has become a keyword in the infrastructure of corporate businesses, small businesses, higher education, and workplaces. "In today's process-driven workplace", as authored by Evan Rosen (2008), "collaboration is king". While remaining in-the-box and old-school traditions are becoming more and more obselete, the out-of-the-box culture of collaboration is being born across the globe. According to Webster’s New Dictionary (2001), the definition of collaboration is the gathering of resources, data, and information, especially in literature. This combined collection of information and workplace activity constructs a general, specific plan or purpose which is to be executed or produced within the workplace while working with others as a team. The history of collaboration began...
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...Kudler Fine Foods states that they are “Shopping the world for the finest food” (Kudler Foods, n.d.). Current food items offered by Kudler include bakery items, meat, seafood, produce, wine, cheese, and dairy. To be successful the organization incorporates mission, vision, collaboration, and stakeholder ideas. For this paper the team analyzed Kudler Fine Foods and the primary reasons for the company’s existence, the organizational structure, the collaborative process, lateral collaboration, vertical collaboration, and the key stakeholders in achieving organizational goals. Primary Reasons for Kudlers’ Existence Kudler Fine Foods is a forerunner in the restaurant business with creating and serving first-class foods. Kudlers’ business foundation is serving consumers exceptional foods, cheeses, and wine. The objective for Kudler Fine Foods is to contribute elegant foods and wines to clientele in a superior environment. Kudler Fine Foods has three different locations, La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas. The three stores are in elegant neighborhoods, which is an enjoyed by customers. Each store is roughly 16,000 square feet that providing a wholesome environment to consumers. Kudler Fine Foods stocks each store with the highest quality of foods both imported and domestic to satisfy customers. The position of Kudler Fine Foods in the food industry is to provide specialty food stores with upscale products from around the world to customers seeking elegant tastes. Kudlers’ mission...
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...Chapter 2 Global E-Business and Collaboration 75 Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble CASE STUDY L ook in your medicine cabinet. No matter where you live in the world, odds are that you’ll find many Procter & Gamble products that you use every day. P&G is the largest manufacturer of consumer products in the world, and one of the top 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization. The company is known for its successful brands, as well as its ability to develop new brands and maintain its brands’ popularity with unique business innovations. Popular P&G brands include Pampers, Tide, Bounty, Folgers, Pringles, Charmin, Swiffer, Crest, and many more. The company has approximately 140,000 employees in more than 80 countries, and its leading competitor is Britain-based Unilever. Founded in 1837 and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, P&G has been a mainstay in the American business landscape for well over 150 years. In 2009, it had $79 billion in revenue and earned a $13.2 billion profit. P&G’s business operations are divided into three main units: Beauty Care, Household Care, and Health and Well-Being, each of which are further subdivided into more specific units. In each of these divisions, P&G has three main focuses as a business. It needs to maintain the popularity of its existing brands, via advertising and marketing; it must extend its brands to related products by developing new products under those brands; and it must...
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...1. Profile the U.S. Market in terms of “Consumer Trends” and the effects of “Competitive Rivalry in the retail sectors”. Identify the specific and general driving forces behind these trends. Due to the credit-crunch many commentators point out that the global consumer mindset is tuned to recession-spending.The main point is that US consumers who used to be very materialistic,now tend to spend less money on their purchases.And there are some consumer trends that support this issue. “The Lipstick Effect” is the phenomenon of the rise of small self-treating on make-up and gadgets when people forego extravagant purchases such as cars and holidays in times of recession. This tendency is all about consumers' sustained need to enjoy consumption and express their identity despite their pressured lives. Overall, consumers may scale down on purchases and live with delayed gratification by saving and investing more in retraining and putting more energy into getting better value. But the definition of value will be different for different products. For instance, consumers will seek the lowest price for products that serve basic needs such as food, whereas in self-treating and small luxuries, the value of feeling indulged is given precedence. The Lipstick Effect endures. Consumers still appear willing to splurge on prestige items. This has led to a huge wave of websites on how to be frugal but also keep up appearances. . Commentators, journalists and bloggers are certainly signalling...
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