"Growing together by sharing"

More than 150 selected guests were able to experience the dynamism and competitiveness of one of the world's foremost branded goods producers for themselves at the beginning of April. With an event unique in the firm's history and given the ambiguous title "Inside out", P & G surprised even critics who regarded the mighty multinational as a secretive, introspective organisation.
P&G's European, Middle Eastern and African headquarters at Geneva.
"The world in which we live today expects more than just brands from P&G", explained Paul Polman, president of P&G Western Europe. "People expect companies to be responsible and transparent. We cannot survive in isolation." Polman described P & G as a company that was reacting to the demands of globalisation and had created a network of business units operating at global and regional level. The primary objective was to remain in constant contact with the consumers. In the previous year, Procter & Gamble had invested over 20 mio euro in opinion research and had thus canvassed the views of almost half a million consumers. "Sharing this data brings real innovations in the store, so we, our partners and the consumer can win."
The differences between various countries are huge when it comes to washing.
However, Polman also made it clear that Procter & Gamble could not gain the trust of people if the company wasn't prepared to impart more information regarding the brands, the group and its innovations. "By opening our doors and listening to you, we can learn and improve to face the future challenges with confidence", said Polman, inviting his listeners to engage in dialogue. In this regard new media such as the Internet should also be used in a targeted manner to improve global communication.
"We can only gain trust by sharing more", Paul Polman, president of P&G's business in Western Europe, focuses on an open door policy.
The opportunities and prospects for opening up more to the outside world were outlined with reference to examples in various talks. The talk given by Nabil Sakkab, senior vice president with global responsibility for research and development of cleaning products and detergents, was particularly impressive. He described the positive effect that close cooperation with renowned research institutes and other companies had on the development of innovations. "Innovation is no longer a matter of in-house innovations only, but is increasingly driven by partnerships with other…