Where Curiosity Meets Purpose: How Inventors Thrive at P&G

At P&G, we continue to raise the bar on how we innovate and deliver superior products, packaging and experiences. To do so, we start with a consumer-centric approach: deeply understanding people’s needs and getting clear on the jobs to be tackled and leveraging our broad areas of expertise to design and deliver solutions that delight the people we serve and drive market growth.

It’s a place where inventors solve complex problems and bring big ideas to life, where teamwork is valued over individual credit, and where inventors can carve out unique career paths based on their skill sets and interests.

From Scientific Expertise to Real-World Legacy: Meet Mark Sivik

Invention starts with a problem to solve, a job to be tackled. “We're always looking at what are the opportunity spaces? What are the consumer needs that are not met? What are the emerging trends?” said Mark Sivik, Vice President, Victor Mills Society Fabric & Home Care Strategic Innovation and Technology Division.

Sivik has spent the past 33 years pioneering scientific advancements across many brands and businesses in technology development and product formulation. He recently received the honor of induction into our Victor Mills Society, which recognizes prolific inventors and transformative work, grounded in the great privilege and responsibility we all have to serve our consumers with superior products that improve their lives every day.

Sivik’s most notable work has left a legacy on some of P&G’s most popular household brands like Downy Cascade Automatic Dish Action Pacs and Dawn dish soap. He’s even worked on innovation to serve consumers on Earth and beyond by collaborating with NASA on detergent formulations and systems for deep space missions under constrained use conditions like low water, leading to learning reapplication possibilities for consumers on Earth.

Mark is one of the minds behind the next generation of laundry detergent – Tide evo, a groundbreaking innovation that leverages patented functional fiber technology to create a laundry detergent with no fillers, no extra water and no plastic bottles.

“While I’ve been recognized with more than 250 patents for innovation, what has always remained constant is P&G’s relentless focus on the consumer,” Sivik said. “I’ve met with consumers and gone into their homes to observe their cleaning and laundry habits, learned what is meaningful to them, and talked about their needs. This has led to insights that help us continue to innovate. P&G has always provided the resources, opportunity and support needed for my colleagues and me to innovate and make a meaningful difference in consumers’ lives and that is what is the most rewarding.”

Combining Consumer Insights and Technical Creativity: Meet Tina Glahn

Tina Glahn, Director Corporate Function R&D, didn’t set out to be an inventor. An engineer with an MBA, she spent the first half of her 26-year career at P&G in marketing. Her passion for consumer insights fueled her to pivot from Marketing to R&D in 2011 because she saw the importance of translating consumer needs into technical solutions. “I made that career switch very intentionally because I believe innovation is the lifeblood of the Company", she said. "Having the opportunity to impact our products and packages by keeping what consumers want at the heart of the solution is a privilege.”

Glahn’s career transition was made possible by a culture that allows employees to explore roles across functions and think innovatively to make the best use of their skill sets. “When you have talented people who come together at the seams, bringing together what’s needed from the consumer and what’s possible from the technology platform, that’s where the magic happens,” she said.

Glahn first brought her unique consumer-driven perspective to the Baby Care business where she helped build the innovation plan for a new technology platform for Pampers pull-up pants. The innovation was a collaboration that delivered the fit, look and feel and performance parents wanted for their children. Add from here, she has been leading consumer learning for new technologies. Glahn holds more than 30 patents.

“I think at P&G we do our best innovative work when we take a multifunctional approach, where everybody brings their skills and subject matter expertise — including process development, formulation, design, consumer understanding — and everybody comes together to solve a problem the consumer has,” said Glahn.

Transformational Leader and Partner: Science-Digital/AI Innovation: Meet Faiz Sherman

Faiz Sherman, Vice President, Victor Mills Society Technology Development believes P&G’s focus on innovation and investment in its people are keys to the Company’s success. "Innovation happens because somebody's investing in me,” he said.

A 27-year veteran of P&G with over 140 published patents, Sherman is also a part of the Victor Mills Society, the Company’s highest technical honor. His work focuses on AI and sensor-enabled smart devices applied to drive consumer delight and value creation across multiple P&G business units. In Oral Care, Sherman’s technical thought leadership and collaborative spirit enabled Oral-B electric toothbrushes to improve consumers’ oral health by providing real-time feedback on their brushing habits. This transformational work is changing consumer behavior and leading to better health outcomes — but Sherman doesn’t take all the credit. “The recipe that I’ve taken throughout my career is always to be humble and inclusive,” he said. “I don’t think I have a single patent where I am named as a sole inventor; there’s always somebody else somewhere that can make the invention I am part of better and stronger.”

On his journey at P&G, Sherman takes pride in mentoring & helping the next generation of technologists and teams. “One of the things I’m most proud of is the Corporate Smart Products Organization,” he said. “Building the team to get all of us to a point where we collectively have the technical mastery, the trust and the relationships to be able to drive breakthrough innovation for P&G. I get to work with amazing people on breakthrough work learning every day and each Monday when I come back to work, I'm excited because of that.”