The Tide is Just Starting to Rise

Yesterday I received, in the mail direct from Amazon.com, the book Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Proctor & Gamble by Davis Dyer, Frederick Dalzell, and Rowena Olegario (Harvard Business School Press).



The book was recommended to me by Mr. Dennehy and my initial impressions are that it will be a very interesting read given I am employed in the consumer products and foodservice industry, albeit in the finance department. My intention is to chronicle some of my impressions from reading the book in this learning journal.

                To this point, because I had to complete my marketing research paper for class, I have only been able to read the preface, acknowledgements, and prologue of the book. Already the book has captured my interest. The prologue establishes the foundation for the entire book. According to the authors the book is intended to be a hybrid corporate history and management book about brand building, a “learning history of a company that has prospered for more than a century and a half by getting better at building brands that satisfy customers”. Both of these components are introduced in the tale of the 165 year history of Proctor and Gamble. Proctor and Gamble (P&G) is the manufacturer, distributor, and marker of a number billion-dollar brands, literally ‘household names’, such as Pampers, Tide, Charmin, Crest, Pringles, Downy, and Folgers . . . to name just a few.

                The prologue of this book is crucial because this is where the authors introduce five overarching themes that existed at the founding of the company and are still cherished in the present day.

The five themes are

1.       A focus on branded consumer products

2.       A broad approach to creating and building brands

3.       A commitment to rigorous experimentation

4.       Tenacity in execution

5.       An ability to balance opposing pressures

What I would like to do in future journal posts is comment on some of the more interesting parts of the book in the context of the five themes listed above and as well as some of the concepts introduced in class. This should be a great read!