SALT LAKE CITY — Robert A. McDonald has a dream for his company to touch 5 billion lives with its products. Since he joined Procter & Gamble in 1980, the current chairman, president and chief executive officer has envisioned an organization with that distinct purpose and direction.
"Isn't it better to lead a life more deliberately?" McDonald, a University of Utah alumnus, said Wednesday during the inaugural "Business and U." luncheon, sponsored by the Salt Lake Chamber and the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business.
From his roots as a Boy Scout to his time in the military, McDonald said that he is inspired by helping people. Procter & Gamble, he said, seeks to do that through each of its approximately 138,000 employees in 80 countries and its more than 40 recognizable brands.
The company is constructing a manufacturing plant in Utah's Box Elder County, which McDonald said is the first new plant in the United States in 35 years. The site was chosen, he said, "because you are a group that leads from values," a quality the Fortune 500 company embodies.
McDonald, who provided the keynote address for the event, also presented a 10-point plan for successful leadership.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, McDonald said he likely wouldn't have gotten into business, or become involved with Procter & Gamble, had he not received an MBA from the U. in 1978. He has since become one of the "most global" CEOs in the United States, according to business school dean Taylor Randall, having lived all over the globe. However, the businessman shies away from those kinds of distinctions.
"The right things are typically harder to do," McDonald said, adding that the mantra he learned from the cadet prayer has become part of his daily life as a leader. "You have to have ambition for the organization."
In the past 30 years, annual sales for Procter & Gamble have gone from $10 billion to nearly $80 billion, while its number of employees has more than doubled. Improved productivity, McDonald said, goes hand in hand with globalization and the rise of technology. But paramount to success are many other factors.
"The best companies in the world have a very strong purpose and values, and those never change," he said.
When you're the leader of a multi-billion-dollar, global corporation, people in the business world tend to pay attention to what you have to say — especially if you are discussing how to create a culture of success for your company.
"Leadership is important in all aspects of life," McDonald told the Deseret News. "It all starts with your purpose in life and then making sure you are living that same life congruently in all aspects.
"My individual purpose is congruent with the Procter & Gamble purpose … and the purpose of our brands, which is to touch and improve life."
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