The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation (Hardcover)

by A.G. Lafley (Author), Ram Charan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Blessings to Procter & Gamble—or, more exactly, its chairman and CEO, A. G. Lafley. Together with Charan, author of Know-How (2007) (and the most probable successor to management guru Peter F. Drucker), he defines, describes, draws examples of, and delineates how innovation became a part of not only the behemoth consumer-packaged-goods company but also part of Lego and Nokia (among others). Lafley is remarkably candid; the story of his “surprise” ascent to CEO-dom in 2000, taking over from Durk Jager, is the story of transformation. A number of commandments accompanied the company’s innovationcentric strategy: the consumer is boss, inside and outside cocreation is encouraged, the innovation process is tangible (and must be followed), and risks can be managed. Most important is his emphasis on human interaction as the key; even better, the last section focuses exclusively on developing a culture of innovation, from promoting the rules of brainstorming to the desired attributes for employees and leaders: courageous, connected and collaborative, curious, open. Sidebars are worthy of posting on a bulletin board; in fact, this is a sustainable reference on innovation that will be hard to beat. --Barbara Jacobs

Review
“A. G. Lafley has made Procter & Gamble great again.”
—The Economist

“Of all the firms on the 2007 ranking of the ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies,’ few are more closely associated with today’s innovation zeitgeist than . . . Procter & Gamble . . . now famous for its open approach to innovation.”
—BusinessWeek

“Lafley brought a whole lot of creativity and rigor to P&G’s innovation process.” —Fortune magazine

“A. G. Lafley has reenergized a venerable giant . . . with a style and energy that will be the subject of business school cases for years to come.” —Chief Executive magazine

“The proof of Lafley’s approach is plain enough. . . . P&G has not only doubled the number of new products . . . but also more than doubled its portfolio of billion-dollar brands and its stock price.”
—U.S. News & World Report

“Ram Charan is the most influential consultant alive.”
—Fortune magazine

“Ram has this rare ability to distill meaningful frommeaningless.”
—Jack Welch

“Among the world’s most sought after CEO advisers.”
—BusinessWeek

“Ram Charan is my ‘secret weapon’ . . . constantly providing depth to issues, not just answers.”
—Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications

“Ram Charan knows more about corporate America than anyone.”
—Dick Harrington, CEO of The Thomson Corporation


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1 edition (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307381730
• ISBN-13: 978-0307381736
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,980 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Game Changer: The Next "Big Thing" in Operational Excellence?, April 8, 2008

By	Thomas M. Loarie (Danville, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Authors A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan in "The Game-Changer" make the case that innovation - the conversion of a new idea into revenue and profits - does not have to follow conventional wisdom that small companies are better innovators because they are nimbler and have a more coherent sense of purpose. Lafley and Charan alternate throughout the book with Lafley, the operating executive, providing the "how' in how he turned around Proctor & Gamble by operationalizing innovation, and Charan, the organizational and business researcher, providing the "why" of its spectacular success.

Lafley admits to some truth in the small company stereotype but he believes larger companies can be just as innovative as small companies, if not more so. Big companies have significant advantages - scale, management capability, and resources to take risks - that should facilitate innovation. But these advantages are wasted due to layers of management that stretch decision cycle times, internal vested interests to maintain the status quo, and the lack of a growth-through-innovation process.

"Game-Changers" outlines the principles(1) of innovation Lafley developed, the how and why innovation changed P&G's game, and the steps Lafley took to operationalize innovation which has led to the consumer-industry's leading organic sales growth rate. He believes that a disciplined innovation process, like that at P&G, can be central to growth for any company, in any industry. He cautions, though, that one size does not fit all, and each company must adapt the principles to their unique circumstances.

Having spent the past 20 plus years in Silicon Valley shepherding innovative medical technologies to the market, I can personally attest that the acceleration of change today is unprecedented. There are many more opportunities today for teams like mine to disrupt and create obsolescence for larger companies. It appears that Lafley and Charan have got the principles right, and P&G appears to have gotten their application right. The remaining questions are: Will this be sustainable? Transferable? Will game-changers(2) become the next "big thing" in operational excellence?

Footnotes:
1. The principles of innovation include: motivating purpose and values; stretching goals; choiceful strategies; unique core strengths; enabling structures; consistent and reliable systems; a courageous and connected culture; and inspiring leadership.
2. A game-changer is: a visionary strategist who alters the game his business plays or conceives an entirely new game; a creator who uses innovation as the basis for sustaining profitable organic growth and consistently improving margins; a leader who understands that the consumer or customer - not the CEO - is boss; a catalyst who uses innovation to drive every element of business from strategy to organization, and from budgeting and resource allocation to selecting, rewarding, and promoting people; an integrator who sees innovation as an integrated end-to-end process, not a series of discrete steps; a breaker of chains of commoditization who creates differentiated and value-added brands and businesses through innovation; and a hardheaded humanist who sees innovation as a social process and understands that human interaction - how people talk and work together - is the key to innovation, not just technology.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK but not the cure for everything, May 14, 2008

By	Ken Shortt - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased the audio CDs to listen to in the car. It's a four or five CD set. I stopped after the second CD as it got very repetitve.

Most of it is Business 101. Get close to the customer, enable your org to innovate, leverage the existing brand when innovating.....that's about it. The rest of the book is a good run down on Proctor and Gamble. If you want to learn a lot about consumer marketing and branding then there is some good stuff in it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read but every case discussed may not be innovation, June 18, 2009

By	J. Cheema "JC" (Farmington Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading his every book, one can observe that Ram Charan is a very passionate advocate of organic growth of businesses through operational efficiency and healthy cash flow. Each one of his books takes up a specific management concept to explain how excelling in that area can lead to profitable growth. For example in "Execution" (Co-authored with Larry Bossidy & Charles Burck), Charan has very eloquently explained the role of flawless planning and execution of strategy in healthy business growth. In "The Leadership Pipeline" (Co-authored with Stephen Drotter, and James Noel), Charan spotlighted the role of leadership in making businesses profitable. Similarly, "Know-How" described how a business can make efficient use of knowledge to stay ahead of competition and witness faster and profitable expansion. Charan's book "The Game Changer" (Co-authored with A G Lafley) focuses on innovation as a core competency in the business world. Reading the book twice and hearing it a few times, I have optimistically mixed feelings about different aspects of this book.

"The Game Changer" is a well-written, well-narrated and well-organized book in describing the academic concepts of innovation and correlating them to the success cases from leading companies like 3M, Nokia, and Allied Signals. The most appealing phrase to me in the whole book had been the description of difference between performance review meeting and innovation review meeting; the former being "a review of past" while latter being "a review of future". If someone wants to promote and manage a cutting-edge innovation program in his / her organization, then this is the book to read, especially the second half. The authors explain every aspect of innovation management from risk & reward to sources of funding, to selling the idea to top management and at marketplace; it covers the whole gamut of innovation in a very articulate way. "The Game Changer" is a book worth reading (or listening).

On the miniscule downside of "The Game Changer"; the boundaries of innovative concepts have been stretched too far citing Proctor & Gamble cases. I had a few soliloquies listening to this book on "a dark desert highway" and asked myself several times if feature enhancement or repositioning a product to attract younger population could be considered innovation.

In a case of innovation at P&G, disinfectants were added to feminine hygiene products to protect against infections, but is it true innovation? If I were to judge this change by Akao's standards (Dr. Yoji Akao of Voice of Customer - VOC fame), it is simply fulfilling an unmet customer need. That reminds me of a very similar case from Toyota; when Toyota introduced ionic breezer in Toyota Camry's air-conditioning system in 2006 and touted it to be an innovation in automotive architecture; they were vehemently rebuked by Asahi Shimbun (leading Japanese Daily) on the grounds that use of a better air treatment system in a car could not be considered innovation.

In another case of innovation about a skincare product, the "Oil of Olay" or the "Oil of Old Lady" as the authors call it. P&G redefined Oil of Olay to appeal to younger women and enlarge the population of women using it. I wondered again if repositioning the product to appeal to more people could be called innovation. Ironically, a very similar example can be cited from Toyota again. Historically, Toyota Avalon is considered an AARP car and the median age of an Avalon buyer in US had been 62 years. In 2003, the Chief Engineer of Avalon program Shigeki Terashi was asked to add some flare to Avalon styling and bring the median age of Avalon buyer down to 46 years. When Toyota ran the ad about re-birth of 2005 Avalon through "innovation" they faced very harsh criticism from Yomiuri Shimbun (another respected Japanese Daily) for misusing the term "Innovation".

VERDICT - "The Game Changer" is worth buying and reading / listening book when you have time!