Previous page: Shared services insights from P & G's CIO
They were wrong, says Scott - noting that in less than two years "96 per cent of Gillette's operations have been fully integrated into P&G."
He cited a few numbers to provide some idea of the magnitude of that accomplishment.
The Gillette acquisition, he said, brought to P&G: 144,000 new customers; 113 new distribution centres; 68,500 new products; 12,000 additional PCs; 23,000 new employees; 4,600 employee relocations and 112 office consolidations.
Scott attributes at least part of the success of the integration - in a remarkably short time period - to a well-designed enterprise architecture, and a clear definition of platforms.
"This was an acquisition, not a merger. There wasn't a debate about which technologies or architecture we were going to use."
The fact that - in the years prior to the acquisition - P&G had already consolidated, standardized and linked most of its key global business operations - made the integration that much quicker.
Yet another cornerstone of innovation, according to Scott, is the "outsourcing partnerships" P&G's IT organization has forged with three companies - HP, IBM and Jones Lang LaSalle.
While HR services have been outsourced to IBM, and facilities management to Jones Lang LaSalle, IT infrastructure management - including network management, desktop support and applications development - has been turned over to HP, Scott said.
However, P&G has retained areas it considers critical - intellectual property, including data management and enterprise architecture.
The company signed a 10,000-page, 10-year, US$3 billion partnership contract with HP. "When we cough," said Scott, "HP gets a cold, and we think that's wonderful."
Months after the massive HP contract, P&G forged separate alliances with IBM and Jones Lang LaSalle, and signed yet another deal, expanding its relationship with HP by also having the latter provide transactional accounts payable services.
Within a year P&G had entered into four contracts collectively worth nearly US$4.2 billion.
Company executives emphasize that win-win alliances have been part of the P&G's culture from it's very inception.
As Passerini pointed out in an article, a smart alliance, 169 years ago, between a candle-maker and a soap-maker on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, was the start of the company that has now grown into the largest manufacturer of packaged consumer goods in the world.
Scott says these alliances are directly tied to the company's vision to foster innovation. "Our CEO, A.G. Lafley has declared that moving forward P&G will get at least 50 per cent of its innovation from outside the four walls of our company."
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