The pandemic has only accelerated disruption in what was already a rapidly changing world. We’ve found that the best way to deal with disruption is not just to accept it, but to lead it in a way that creates positive outcomes.
We use the term “constructive disruption” because it implies a bias towards positive action — changing in a meaningful way that leads to competitive advantage and creates value for retailers, investors, employees and consumers alike.
We’re innovating how we innovate, moving faster by combining over 180 years of expertise with the entrepreneurial spirit of a startup. Our Oral-B iO power brush is a terrific example. Oral-B iO combines a linear magnetic drive system with an embedded 3D tracking technology that learns how users brush to guide them across highly personalized brushing modes for their best clean.
In our supply chain, we’re developing a generation of new, digitally enabled technology platforms, like the Minimum Order Quantity platform (MOQx), a scalable, multi-SKU manufacturing capability. MOQx offers significant flexibility in modularity and scalability and can produce new SKUs in less than a week, from ideation to production.
We’re also reinventing brand building, starting with reinventing media, to achieve mass reach with greater precision. For example, we’re accelerating automated, programmatic media buying. In China, 90% of media spending is digital, and more than 65% is bought through programmatic media. In the U.S. and Europe, we’re shifting from generic demographic-based audiences to “smart audiences” with profiles that enable reach with greater precision through programmatic buying.
With the increasing shift to e-commerce and the use of digital for commerce with omni-retailers, we’re strengthening our in-house search capability to ensure our brands are seen first in key search terms and to serve content that clearly demonstrates the superiority of our brands versus competition.
Leading constructive disruption drives sustainability as well. For example, we’re creating and investing in digital watermarks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the recycling value chain. Digital watermarks are imperceptible to the naked eye, yet scannable with digital tools. They turn ordinary packages into “intelligent objects,” allowing for more accurate sorting at recycling
centers. This improves the quality and quantity of recycled material, leading to more value and less
waste. This P&G-initiated effort is positioned to benefit the entire value chain and help address the critical sustainability goal of achieving a circular economy, and it has applications that extend far beyond recycling.
The constructive disruption we’re leading in all areas of the value chain is critical to succeed in the dynamic world we live in today and tomorrow, and the work we’re doing to lead constructive disruption throughout P&G shows that we’re agile and willing to change anything and everything needed to win, except our Purpose, Values and Principles.
Constructive Disruption at P&G
LEAN INNOVATION
While over 90% of U.S. consumers are concerned about having bugs in their home, almost as many have concerns about traditional insecticide spray products. Our internal start-up studio P&G Ventures developed Zevo with a powerful blend of active essential oils inspired by plants’ natural defenses against bugs, for an effective way to control insects in the home using ingredients consumers know. Initially direct-to-consumer, Zevo has quickly expanded to several major U.S. retailers, helping us enter a new consumer segment — and generated organic sales growth over 50% in fiscal 2021.
BRAND BUILDING
As one of the world’s largest advertisers, at P&G we’re reinventing brand building — disrupting the advertising industry to drive innovation and deliver superior experiences for consumers. We’re creating new tools like “smart audiences” to reach consumers with greater precision and to serve them with more useful, relevant content at the right frequency; supporting efforts to help eliminate hateful content online; and promoting equity through investment
in multicultural marketing and media and accurately portraying all people in our communication.
SUPPLY CHAIN
We’ve developed digitally enabled technology platforms for a more advanced supply chain, such as our Minimum Order Quantity platform, or MOQx. It helps us customize manufacturing capability and change between SKUs more efficiently, for new levels of responsiveness and flexibility
in serving our retailer customers, and a more resilient
P&G supply network.
DIGITIZATION & DATA ANALYTICS
We’re building data and analytics capability outside our IT organization. By giving IT-developed analytics tools to P&G people in supply chain, sales, media, product innovation and others, these Citizen Developers can create models and custom applications that are helping us better meet business needs. In Latin America, our sales team is creating low-code solutions to automate work and adjust our field sales and merchandising priorities to better serve retailers and consumers — helping drive superior retail execution
and contributing to double digit Latin America
organic sales growth in fiscal year 2021.
