There's something about champions that sets them apart from the rest of us. They never stop challenging themselves to grow, to become better, to get to the next level of performance.
Walter Payton, the Chicago Bears running back standout was a true champion. In his book - The New Dynamics of Winning - Denis Waitley tells the story that during off-season Payton would train by running up a steep hill in a Chicago suburb. Sometimes other pro-footballers would join him, but Walter would go a few more times, after they had stopped totally exhausted. And then when he felt he had enough, he would go, one more time.
One more hill, always one more hill.
Procter & Gamble is a very durable champion; they've been around for over a hundred years. And rather than toot their Hall of Fame status, they continue to challenge themselves. Not satisfied, even after all these years of stardom and glory. This time the company is challenging itself to understand and master the emerging world of on-line social media.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, P&G will host a meeting of digital minds next month at its downtown headquarters. Senior executives from the emerging world of online social media will meet with marketing executives from the Cincinnati-based company.
Early reports indicate that executives from major online companies - Google, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter - will be attending the March 11 event.
In classical P&G style, the company is in no hurry to divulge the full guest list. Martha Depenbrock, the company's spokesperson informs us that about 100 marketing and media professional from the worlds of advertising, branding, and technology are expected to attend. About 20% of the attendees are from digital companies.
The event will provide senior marketing executives from P&G a first-hand opportunity to gain familiarity and hands-on experience with understanding and using social-media tools; the most rapidly growing form of online communication in the US. According to a Forrester Research study, about 75 percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. now use social tools such as Facebook to connect with each other. This number, up from 56% in 2007, is expected to continue to increase.
The increase in social media users presents a potentially attractive opportunity for advertisers, like P&G, to connect with consumers. However, questions concerning ROI, effectiveness metrics, and best-in-class strategies to leverage the power of this medium still need to be figured out. P&G's executives want to figure all that out and more. But first the basics - learning how to use digital forums to advertise the company's category topping brands - at the March 11 meeting of minds summit.
P&G wants to be ahead of the curve, it wants to get there early. One more hill, this time before the others wake up and get their act together.
This is not new thinking at P&G. Earlier, we learned that Google and P&G swapped employees to learn from each other. In a networked world, where not just consumers but companies are connected as well, value creation occurs differently than in a traditional, bounded world. It is co-created. And this co-creation takes place when businesses engage any relevant part of their ecosystem, not just when they engage with their consumers.
In today's world no company can go the distance alone. Value chains have long given way to value constellations. Not for all companies though. Some companies still live by the maxim - Not Invented Here. And like all markets, this market for B2B collaboration and co-creation is segmented as well. At least three types of companies come to mind:
- Asleep and Unaware - indigent both in concepts and imagination
- Aware but Catatonic - attached to rhetoric; immobilized by the thought of living differently
- Active Seekers - ready to jump on a ship and set sail, because they are convinced that answers lie somewhere else; where, they are not sure, but they are willing to travel far and wide to find them (a very workable definition for out-of-the-box thinking and action).
The question to challenge the little grey cells: Google + Facebook + Twitter + P&G = ? We don't know yet, we'll find out soon. However, this we do know - definitely, more than what P&G could have created alone.
Thank you P&G! For searching, for pushing your executives to learn, and for starting yet another lab for customer-driven innovation.
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