Being a visionary in the consumer goods (CG) industry is all about seeing the big picture. The job title comes with a long list of requirements, like setting long-term goals and direction, getting buy-in from leadership and employees, and so on. Each year, CGT honors a small group of industry thought leaders who not only see the big picture, but have executed business and technology initiatives that will help their companies to paint it. For this reason we call them “visionary”. The 10 executives profiled this year were selected from a pool of more than 50 glowing reader nominations that explained how each challenged the boundaries of their organization — whether it be a Fortune 500 firm or an innovative mid-market company. Here, CGT’s 2011 Visionaries reveal their biggest wins in the past year and the changes they have in store for their respective companies. First up, a farewell tribute to one of the biggest CG industry visionaries of all time: P&G’s Keith Harrison, who will retire this year.
Keith Harrison
Global Product Supply Officer
Supply chain visionary Keith Harrison will enter retirement at the end of August after a long and very successful 41-year career with The Procter & Gamble Company. As an industry that has been impacted greatly by his many accomplishments, we would be remiss if we let him go without paying proper tribute for leading one of the largest product supply organizations in the world.
In his current role as Global Product Supply Officer, Harrison directs a supply chain organization with more than 70,000 employees worldwide — that’s more than half of the enrollment of the total company.
Throughout his career, he went by many other titles, from Team Manager at a Pennsylvania plant (1970) to Brand Manager (1984) to Vice President-Product Supply for P&G Europe (1991) and so on. In each position, Harrison played an instrumental part in P&G’s long history of supply chain innovation.
He was one of the first to understand the changing nature of the CG industry, including an amplified need to respond to shortened innovation cycles as well as supply chain agility to provide growth in competitive market conditions. In line with that theory, he took P&G’s Integrated Work System design to new heights — leveraging the past but providing an external view and agility that is now the standard in today’s global supply chains.
Harrison continued to build a legacy with the development of an “outside in” focus to the supply chain. This came to be known within P&G as Consumer-Driven Supply Networks and externally as Demand-Driven Supply Networks.
He’s stretched the boundaries of a traditional supply chain organization over the past five years to include collaboration between the Product Supply and Research & Development organizations via a “Seamless Technical Community”. And he applied this same logic to culturally shift the Product Supply organization to be shopper and customer-centric in design and approach. Under his watch, the supply chain organization has delivered high service levels as well as more than $4 billion in cost savings and $1 billion in incremental cash and Net Outside Sales.
His impact goes far beyond process and technology as he is an active champion of diversity, multi-ethnicity leadership development and sustainability.
P&G Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President Bob McDonald says Harrison’s “passion and vision to create an industry leading supply organization has been instrumental in the company achieving its goals for both growth and global expansion. His impact at P&G has been significant and his contributions will continue to serve the business well into the future.”
Here, Harrison shares career highlights, retirement plans and words of wisdom for future visionaries:
CGT: Looking back on your career, what do you consider your biggest accomplishment?
Harrison: Looking back over my 40-plus year career with P&G, I think the results I achieved in my current role are what I feel best about. During my tenure, the size of P&G doubled, our global footprint expanded dramatically, we’ve taken billions out of cost and cash, and we’ve created a supply network that’s world class, offering the company a demonstrable, competitive advantage. I’d like to think that’s my legacy.
CGT: Looking ahead, what will be the biggest CG industry challenge over the next three to five years?
Harrison: Generating growth in a world of flat markets, commodity increases and unpredictability. My advice to business leaders is to create an organization that is agile, resilient (a term we don’t normally use), and driven by principles and vision, which will be increasingly important in the volatile environment we’re likely to face.
CGT: Whom do you admire most in business?
Harrison: If I had to pick just one, it would be A.G. Lafley, the former CEO of P&G. A.G. became CEO when P&G was in a very difficult situation, and he provided focus, clear strategic direction and an energizing, engaging leadership style, all of which were a big part of the terrific results that P&G achieved during his tenure.
CGT: What are you most looking forward to during retirement?
Harrison: I’m looking forward to having time to determine where I want to invest my passion, energy and knowledge as I develop this next phase of my career. I want to stay active in the business world, likely through some board work, but I have a number of hobbies and interests that I want to explore as well.
CGT: Can you share one parting piece of advice?
Harrison: One of P&G’s plant sites in Asia coined the phrase, “Today’s best will not be good enough for tomorrow”. I think this nicely sums up the need for continued improvement across the board.
