P&G: Using the Past to Invent the Future

(page 2 of 2)

With his carefully nurtured capacity for originality, though, Lafley focused on what was potentially unique about the situation that might call for a novel response from P&G. He saw that, unlike the majority of product upgrades, this one had the potential for massive cost savings for retailers since the smaller boxes would take up half the space in warehouses and on store shelves for the same dollar of sales. In addition, P&G's manufacturing and logistics operations would reap the same cost benefits as the retailers. And the voluntary comments that some of the consumers added to their quantitative research forms revealed that while consumers weren't wildly enthusiastic about compact detergents, few were actively hostile to the idea.

Lafley totted up the data points. Retailers saw compact detergent as a big win, and so did P&G manufacturing. Consumers were neutral at worst. So despite the lack of conclusive consumer evidence, Lafley argued for a huge investment to convert all powdered detergents to compact. It turned out to be a big win for P&G. "We ran and we won the race," Lafley says. "It was huge, absolutely huge."

As Lafley illustrates, the great ones utilize their experiences to build and deepen their mastery while maintaining and expressing their originality. Mediocre leaders do one or the other. Some deepen their mastery over time but never learn to trust their ability to express originality. They keep the proverbial trains running but will never invent the future. Others express their originality but do not develop their mastery. They are sought out as "ideas people" but aren't trusted to run organizations of size and endurance because they can't or won't cultivate the multiple masteries that large-scale leadership demands.

By the same token, originality without mastery is flaky if not entirely random. Mastery is required to distinguish between salient and unrelated features, to understand what causal relationships are in play, and how to architect a complex problem. Without such mastery, the creative resolution is likely to be a random guess. It might succeed once, but there's little chance of repeated and consistent success.

At its core, integrative thinking requires the integration of mastery and originality. Without mastery there won't be a useful salience, causality, or architecture. Without originality, there will be no creative resolution. Without creative resolution, there will be no enhancement of mastery, and when mastery stagnates, so does originality.

Reprinted from The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by arrangement with Harvard Business School Press. Professor Roger Martin is dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He holds the Premier's Chair in Competitiveness & Productivity and serves as director of the AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship at Rotman.