Ed Shirley, one of Procter and Gamble’s most well-rounded executives, was the featured guest speaker at Cosmetic Executive Women’s (CEW) Newsmaker Forum on September 15.

As vice chair, global beauty & grooming, Mr. Shirley is leading an organizational and cultural breakthrough designed to better serve women and men throughout the world through holistic beauty and grooming solutions.

“Using a much more holistic view of the consumer has identified all sorts of business opportunities for us [P&G],” Shirley said.
One of the key topics that he discussed was the concept of “innovation beyond product.” He conveyed that although the products may not be new, the ideas are new. “Innovation is the critical driver of growth and the lifeblood of the industry,” Shirley said. “We are putting
the brand in front of the consumer in a meaningful and relevant way with the use of commercial innovation.”

Another topic of conversation was the importance of Internet blogging within the industry, and the immense amount of product awareness that can be spread through social media. “The business model is changing with smaller brands having more success because of the Internet,” Shirley said. “Social media affects P&G’s communication strategy because we can create a buzz by pre-launching a product with social networking.”

Mr. Shirley spent most of his career making major marketing decisions for Gillette, where he was responsible for developing common brand-building capabilities across all business units. After Gillette’s integration into P&G, he drove the implementation of P&G’s new go-to market capabilities behind a primary focus on in-store execution. “A lot of consumer choices take place right at the shelf,” Shirley said. “We have restructured around the consumer and we [as an industry] have a chance to help and educate consumers on the products.”

Making the move to P&G opened many new doors for Mr. Shirley, greatly expanding his capacity for ground-breaking success. “Our fierce competitors make us better,” he said. “I fear no one.”