Name: Procter & Gamble CEO David Taylor reflects on lessons learned from 2020, company's path moving forward
Uploaded: 2021-03-01
Duration: 9 min 16 s
Description: Taylor says P&G's products are more viable than ever as consumers spend more time at home.

Taylor says P&G's products are more viable than ever as consumers spend more time at home.

Procter & Gamble CEO David Taylor reflects on lessons learned from 2020, company's path moving forward

Leadership

Taylor says P&G's products are more viable than ever.

P&G CEO on company's path moving forward

Procter & Gamble CEO David Taylor reflects on lessons learned from 2020

David, thank you so much for joining us to talk about Procter and Gamble. As you know, we've just passed the one year mark on the Covid 19 pandemic, and we all remember how people a year ago were scrambling to buy Tide detergent and bounty paper towels and, of course, Charmin toilet paper. And these are just a few of the many products that Procter and Gamble itself. How do things look for this year for 2021? Susie First, it's a pleasure to be here. To have a chance to talk with you is I think, about our business right now in the situation. Right now. It's very different than it was back in March, when the fear was so high that people were holding products. Today, broadly, almost all categories are available. Certainly the categories we produce. We're not having as much of an issue to keep up and broadly. You're seeing all of them in stores today, so I think consumers can find the bounty and the charming and the tide that they're looking for if they go to their favorite store. You know, it's interesting that people were willing and still are, uh, to buy premium products made by Procter and Gamble. Why is that? And do you see that trend continue? Or do you think that people are going to go back to looking for discounts? No, I think in many ways what happened because of the pandemic. And it has happened even before the pandemic is. People were reaching for trusted brands that deliver superior quality. And in many cases, price is a combination of performance and the value it provides. And so when we can provide superior performance that's meaningful to the consumer, they feel it's a great value and the price becomes less of an issue. Uh, so I and I believe many of these changes that we have the habits that are formed over a year will continue post pandemic. I understand that you regularly go into grocery stores to watch shoppers to see what they're buying, and now, during the pandemic, you're actually doing virtual visit to check in on your customers. What kinds of things are you learning about your customers? And what are the takeaways for Procter and Gamble? Susie? One of the ways that I've always worked is to try when we go in market to start out going in homes so pre pandemic could actually go in. Homes have visited homes across the world, probably been in homes of people from 25 different countries. And you listen to the consumer. It's their home field advantage, and they'll tell you how they use the product, how they interact. The consumer is the Boston this, and if we can listen and learn from him or her, we're going to understand how to better server. I can't believe as the chief executive of Procter and Gamble, you're going into people's homes and talking to them how they use product. Think about it. If you really want to understand how our product is used, you can bring something to a central location. But at times, then they're going to feel like they're being interviewed. If you go in their home, they're comfortable. And by doing that, what happens is you can see how they dosed a product, how much they use, whether it's under under dozing the packages, there's frustrations and out of that we learn, and we've got many of the insights for advertising by watching consumers in home, observing them and ask them questions to learn and and really valuing the consumer, valuing them as a person, understanding how our product's fit with their family. You reported solid financial results just a few weeks ago, and you're now predicting that P and G will have sales growth of 6% for 2021. Why are you so optimistic? What are the trends that you're seeing? If you think about it, the home is now where you live. The home is where you exercise. The home is where you work. The home has become more and more of the center of life for people during the pandemic, and in that world, consumption of premium trusted products has increased and PNG has been there for the consumer. At the same time, though, it wasn't even around the world. We got hit and many other markets where consumers were very different places. If you go in the developing world, there's a very different experience than what the US has had because they don't have the same fiscal stimulus or healthcare systems so across the world that we've been able to do pretty well at meeting the basic health, hygiene and cleaning needs. And I believe for most of us. The importance of health, hygiene and cleaning will continue Post pandemic. Therefore, I believe PNG is well positioned to serve consumers and meet their needs as they go forth. Mm. Well, you know, we've been seeing surveys showing that consumers are feeling a little more confident thanks to vaccinations that are going on. But at the same time, health care experts are warning that there are still a lot of risks with this covid virus, and economists and policymakers are warning that the U. S economy still has a long way to go to recover. How are you preparing for these different scenarios at PNG? The way we're positioning is to make sure our brands have a full lineup available at different price points and different performance levels. The key for us is to be available to consumer whatever tier they want to compete in with the superior performing product in that tier. And if we have a range of products, a range of price points and all of them superior and delivering value to the consumer will be well positioned. That, coupled with the habits that have been formed on health cleaning and hygiene position, the company well to continue to serve consumers well, despite all of that, what concerns you most right now that we let our guard down too early that we start to see progress and then we relax and we try to go back to where we were before. We need to learn from what's happened, leverage the tools and the skills that we've learned and then move forward in a way that can be very different. I think post pandemic well, given all of those issues and the uncertainty that you just meant to mention, what has been the most important thing you're doing differently in the way you run the company from the factory floor to the checkout counter at the grocery store. I think the number one thing is to empower people at the place. They are trusting the individuals. The tremendous leaders that we have in our company and people we have in our company to do what is right and to recognize the reality they face on the ground is so different than what I may be experiencing here in Cincinnati. I think that's a powerful point from a leadership standpoint, which is to have a clear strategy that people understand and that empower and trust them closest to the consumer and the customer to do what is appropriate and right. You've talked about PNG s reach around the world. I mean, you sell products in about every single country in the world. I'd like to just zero in on China because it is the biggest market outside of the United States, where you sell how they're doing. China's recovered very fast. China had a very severe damn turn around Chinese New Year last year. They locked down and certainly was widely covered in the media. And then within a few months, you saw the virus got under control and the economic activity increased. And after a very difficult January February March of 20 the business responded very well. And we've been double digit growth the last several quarters. So our business in China is doing well and broadly, the economy in China is progressing. David. I mean, what a remarkable year this has been. You've been working at Procter and Gamble for 40 years your entire career, you've been through many business cycles and crises. But what was it about of this past year? The most important leadership lessons that you've learned, I think a couple of words. Clarity, crystal clear strategy Number two Listen, listen to your people around the world, makes you understand, and then act on what they learn and then support and trust them to do the right thing by having a very clear strategy, listening to people and inputs to come in and then empowering them to act. We've been able to deliver excellent results through the pandemic, and I think we're well positioned coming out where people feel empowered to be able to deliver excellent results. Post pandemic. So how is this influencing the way that you're leaving now? Are you doing things differently? We're taking advantage of technologies in ways that I wouldn't have imagined before and that before I would plan trips for a week. Now I'm able to meet with 15 different people in a day in 20 minute increments and meet with each of my general managers in the region. Listen to them, and then you get really the full tapestry, the full picture of a region in a short period of time. So I believe we're gonna have the best of both worlds post the pandemic the ability to go and do things in person and listen and learn from them. And also the ability to leverage these tools that we have to do short connects to get critical information and then act with certainly much more agility and speed than we did before the pandemic. And how has this whole covid experience, uh, changed your views on what it takes to be a great leader? There's a saying that I really love, which is often excellence is delivered by doing common things uncommonly well. What has happened to the pandemic is we've done common things, keep safe, make packed ship and listen and take care of people uncommonly well. Because of that, our results have been very strong, and our people feel empowered and connected to the company in pride in our company.