The Book Report - March 2009
by Rolf Crocker 

The Game-Changer- How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A. G. Lafley, Ram Charan (©2008 Crown Business)

I'm finally getting back on my 'Recreation Reading' track.  This is a book that I actually obtained in June of last year, but hadn't been able to get back to it until now.  It is amazing how timely this has been for me in my new role - I trust it will be for you as well.  In perilous economic times (see Julie's lead article), this subject is more timely and important than ever.  As you will see, the concepts don't necessarily entail expenditures.  Huge strides can be made just be making connections between 'silos' - the various departments within your shop that need to talk to each other in more meaningful and relevant ways.  Innovation can be as simple as just connecting the dots…

The Game-Changer - How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan (©2008, Crown Business).  Another great book from co-author Ram Charan and a newcomer to authorship, A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO of Proctor and Gamble.  There are few companies that touch the lives of everyday Americans to the degree that P&G does.  If you bathe, shave, color, wash, brush, have babies in your home and in so many other ways, you've used P&G brands.  So how did this company come back from the brink of losses so devastating that, in 2000, their stock price dropped in half?  This book will tell you.  With a phone call and 24 hours of notice, Lafley found himself at the helm of this venerable company that was quickly going into what some had termed a death spiral.  He knew he needed a 'game-changer' - a way to "flip the script" and change things for the better in short order.  He had to lay out his vision, get key leaders on board and execute in a very compressed timeframe.  His 23 years at P&G gave him the fundamentals, but as he says, "While I now see more clearly, when I started, I didn't have all the answers…the sequencing and actual execution evolved by 'muddling through.'"  Lafely opens up by laying out what they had to do - put consumers first, have an 'open' shop, taking in ideas from sources outside of P&G, creating sustainable, organic growth - pretty straight-forward stuff.  But the key to making it all work was not relying on their 'venerable' status, but to put innovation in play as the driver for sustained growth.

In the book, they set forth the following premise: "An innovation is the conversion of a new idea into revenue and profits."  Among great quotes from Jeff Immelt of GE and Peter Drucker, I like this quote from Thomas Edison best:  "Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent.  Its sale is proof of utility and utility is success."  Of course, innovation doesn't necessarily mean invention.  In fact, within the context of this book, the most important component of innovation is the ability to "connect the dots" - getting folks across all departments in the company to make innovation happen:  "…innovation is a social process.  And that process can only happen when people do that simple, profound thing - connect to share problems, opportunities and learning.  To put it another way, anyone can innovate, but practically no one can innovate alone."

Full of the usual stories from large companies, the concepts are graphed and outlined in such a way that they are both accessible and applicable, regardless the size of your shop or your position on the org chart.  If you want to take what you have to the next level, get this book.  5 Stars

[In May 2009 you can find this book online at www.amazon.com under the $27.50 list price. Click on the book above or here for a link to amazon.com book price. The Editor.]

Rolf Crocker

Rolf Crocker is a Vice President of Associa and he can be reached at .