This post is a re-print of the review found at my book review website – Letters On Pages.
Title: The Game-Changer
Authors: A.G. Lafley & Ram Charan
Publisher: Crown Business (2008)
Bingo!!!
You know that IBM commercial where they play buzzword bingo before they go into the innovation meeting? If not…watch the ad here. Go ahead. I’ll give you a minute. Done? Good.
That’s pretty much what it felt like to read The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan. Lafley is the CEO of Procter & Gamble. You should already know what P&G is…but basically it is a giant company that makes everyday use products (like Swiffer, Thermacare, Mr. Clean, Tide, Herbal Essence, etc…). It is a massive company with 2007 revenues over $76 BILLION and 138,000 employees world wide. Living in Cincinnati, it also, in the spirit of full disclosure, employs my father-in-law, a lot of family friends, and hopefully my wife in a few years!
A.J. Lafley has done a lot to turn around P&G in a pretty short period of time. The company lost it’s way for a little while and Lafley came in and fixed it all. He says he did it mostly through innovation, hence the book.
In the book he tells a lot of really interesting stories about the myriad of brands P&G has (including 23 billion-dollar brands). He (and uber-consultant Charan) explain their many methods of innovation and how to implement innovation process into your company. They also have a few reminders at the end of each chapter where they give you things to think about “Monday Morning”. All that is fine and interesting. Certainly, the P&G CEO is someone to listen to reagarding business practices.
The problem is that the book is filled with so many business buzzwords it becomes distracting. From what I understand, P&G is famous for their buzzword usage…and this book is no different. Lines like:
Regular business strategy and brand equity reviews that focus on innovation as the competitive advantage and game-changer
and “sustaining organic growth.” I understand what he is saying. Context clues and all that jazz. But I just hate business buzzwords. It seems so pretentious.
Putting aside the fact that it could have been written more clearly, the book was pretty interesting and had some excellent tips on creating innovation in your company.
Plus it gets bonus points because it is Cincinnati related. I cheered whenever he mentioned Cincinnati…like what people do at rock concerts when the band says, “HOW ARE YOU DOING CINCINNATI!!!!” Everyone goes…”YEAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!” That’s what I did.
Rating: 3 out of 5
