P&G

Work has been exhausting lately. After a while, a never ending to-do list just gets plain ol' tiring! Plus I've been spending a bunch of time lately on fundraising. One thing I've learned - fundraising is SO not for me! It's awesome when you get some money for your organization but inevitably it also includes rejection after rejection - how do you not take it personally?

But fortunately, there are also some really cool parts to my job. Today's highlight? I got to chat with the CEO of Procter & Gamble, Robert McDonald. Just me, my boss and one of my colleagues sitting in a conference room with him chatting for about a half-hour.

That man runs a $79 BILLION dollar in sales a year company and is boss to ~135 THOUSAND staff members around the world. He made $2.125 MILLION DOLLARS last year (and we're just talking P&G annual salary/bonus here, not even thinking about stock options or any other income which I bet at least double that figure).

And there we were talking to him about the importance of corporate leadership in social impact. Not that we had to tell him anything ... P&G actually does pretty well on their own. They have all sorts of innovative programs that have 2 goals in mind - (1) sell more product!, and (2) improve people's lives and have a positive impact with those products.

I love that Bob (yup, I'm on a first name basis now :) really gets the dynamic of doing good by doing well. Earn more money and sell more products all day long, but if you can find opportunities where, by doing good, you can also sell more product and earn more money - rock on!

Don't get me wrong, I know that companies try to make money and make as much of it as possible. That is the incentive structure that they are working under - I paid a whole lot of money to learn all about that in b-school. :)

But I also believe that there are times when companies can pursue socially impactful projects that still help their bottomline. There are a plethora of examples of companies doing good things and those good things lead to opportunities to grow their markets, increase awareness about their brand, increase loyalty and retention rates from their employees (one of the bigger issues keeping execs up at night), attract the creme de la creme of recruits because you are a company that they can believe in, and avoid that unwanted negative attention from the NGO and advocacy world (which can be quite expensive dealing with!).

P&G is really putting that in to action. I met with their Tide marketing team a few months back to talk about one of their programs called "Loads of Hope". You've probably seen their commercials - when a major disaster strikes in the US (e.g., Hurricane Katrina), Tide sends out a huge truck full of washers and dryers (and lots of Tide product!) and helps families wash their clothes and sheets, etc. Certainly, they are not solving all the issues of that community but they are helping the families start to get a sense of normalcy back in to their lives. In return, the Tide brand gets a ton of free advertising and wins over new customers to their product line. And if you buy a bottle of yellow-cap Tide in the supermarket, a % of the proceeds go to help families affected by disasters.

P&G is working to run similar programs with other product lines ... the Pampers brand partners with UNICEF and for every pack of Pampers purchased in the US, P&G donated 1 tetanus vaccine for newborns around the world. During the 2009 campaign, 45 million vaccines were provided by P&G and, in return they got a ton of great press (including Salma Hayek hocking Pampers and breastfeeding some random child in Africa on one of the trips to raise awareness about the vaccines - now that story got some press!).

Anyway, you get the point. These win-win situations don't always exist but it certainly is inspiring to get to talk to leaders who believe in the power of doing good and are making their companies find those opportunities wherever they exist!