 Procter & Gamble Company, The Interview Surveys
Procter & Gamble Company, The Workplace Surveys
Procter & Gamble Company, The Salary Surveys
Procter & Gamble Company, The Business Outlook Surveys
Job Title: Manager
Location: Various
Submitted on: 16-Jan-04
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Workplace
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I recently left P&G after five and a half years in management, with
experience in Snacks & Beverage, Beauty Care, and Health Care. I
joined the company with an MBA and 11 years' work experience in the
military and with other Fortune 500 companies.
POSITIVES: The company is extremely principle-based, and the people
are for the most part incredibly sharp. Things are typically very
structured and orderly -- there is often a documented system/process
for everything under the sun, with an assigned owner. The culture is
very data-based and metrics-driven. The company is in the midst of an
impressive turn-around from a few years ago, and it's a great place to
be right now, with the CEO's clear and crisp focus on a fairly basic,
simple strategy. P&G is a great name to get on your resume. Few
companies have performed as well as P&G has during the economic
downturn. P&G pays pretty well, although there is no incentive
component to your compensation until you've been with the company for
many years (typically 8-12 years). P&G's benefits are second to none.
NEGATIVES: With over 100,000 employees, it's not a surprise that the
organization is very bureacratic. There is a culture of "levelism," in
which people pay unhealthy, blind (and sometimes undeserved) homage to
senior managers - and lower level people and their contributions are
overlooked or de-valued - simply because of their level in the
organization. I once heard, "That is a great idea, but you're not
allowed to have those at your level"; when the same idea came from
someone higher, it was considered brilliant and was implemented. There
are numerous examples of P&G taking a fairly simple process or concept
and complexifying it beyond its usefulness (also known
as "Procterizing" it). Very strong entry-level-promote-from-within
culture - the first thing people tell you when you meet them is how
long they've been with the company, and the older style security badges
are worn like badges of honor and are revered. Not surprisingly, the
culture can be very insular and internally focused with a "not invented
here" mentality, despite one of the company's posted and preached
principles of external focus.
P&G can be overly paternalistic, and given the systems, bureacracy, and
conservative nature of the company, it takes FOREVER to get rid of non-
performers. The company says that it pays and promotes for
performance, but in reality career progression is time-based, except
for the select few who have spent their time cultivating the right
political relationships rather than delivering substance and results.
There is a heavy emphasis on diversity, and I know people (okay, white
males) who were told that despite their exceptional performance, their
race and gender is not what it takes to get ahead right now. Senior
managers are now being held accountable for diversity progress, but the
initiative suffers from too much focus on the visible, measurable
differences and "getting the numbers," rather than true inclusion and
valuing of all differences, both visible and invisible, like different
thinking or different styles ("different" here meaning "non-Procter,"
or non-conforming). The Health Care business unit has made much more
progress in "true diversity" than any others, from what I can see.
If you are a freshly minted, top-tier school MBA looking to get into
marketing/brand management, this is clearly the place for you if you
are willing to work insane hours, not have a social life for a few
years, and jump on in with the rest of the sharks. Only tippy-top-tier
b-schools grads need apply. For someone coming out of undergrad,
you'll be taken under someone's wing and molded into the nice Proctoid
that P&G wants you to be and you'll be just fine (if that's what you
want).
If you have an advanced degree and/or previous work experience,
however, I strongly encourage you to think twice about P&G. Your
career will reset to "time = 0" in the P&G system, you'll start at the
bottom of the totem pole, you'll be treated like you don't know
anything and strongly encouraged to learn "the P&G way" and to check
your advanced degree and previous experience at the door, and it will
be difficult to convince anyone that you need to be on a faster track,
despite your clearly superior results and your maturity as compared to
your peers.
To put the "t = 0" in perspective: I left P&G to join another Fortune
500 firm in a different sector. I jumped three levels to an executive
position that would've taken me another 12-15 years to attain at P&G,
and I increased my total compensation package by 45%. I learned a lot
about organizations and about myself at P&G, and I'm profoundly
grateful for the opportunity to have worked with so many fine people...
and it was time to get my career on the right track where I can
leverage all the strengths I bring to the party and be rewarded
accordingly, and not be judged primarily on the basis of my tenure with
the company.
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