SUPERIOR PRODUCTS

~~~~~~~~~ $8 BOOK LAUNCH COUPON ( # CRF9UK)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 Do you recognize products like TIDE, PAMPERS, ALWAYS, BOUNTY, CHARMIN, CREST, PANTENE, SWIFFER, FEBREZE, PRINGLES, & OLAY. The stories of these highly innovative products of Procter & Gamble, the skilled inventors behind them, and the challenging development paths they faced provide truly engaging reading.

 SUPERIOR PRODUCTS is a unique, FIRST-EVER coverage of the technical innovation behind the world’s greatest leadership consumer brands……as well as the systems, culture, and leadership principles that produced the products and sustained innovation.

 Jon Moeller, current P&G Chairman-CEO in the book’s Forward indicated - Gordon Brunner and William James have “captured very valuable learnings on the product innovation process and unique and first-time historical documentation behind development of many of our great company products.”—

 Everyone pays lip service to the importance of product superiority. But words won't cut it. Product superiority must be demanded. It must be rewarded. It must be celebrated. And organization structures and processes need to be conceived and implemented to achieve it. This has to be led by senior line and R&D leadership, but importantly starting with the CEO and Board of Directors.

 Brunner and James spent their entire careers encompassing 75 years in active research and top level management of Research & Development at P&G. They were colleagues from their career beginnings, and crossed paths throughout the decades ahead. Brunner was a highly regarded head of R&D under four CEO’s, the first and only R&D employee on the Company’s Board of Directors, and recounts their individual influence on product innovation. The essential role of the CEO on product innovation, and the importance of R&D having a “seat at the table” are vividly clear.

 The authors established the Company’s first recognition society for researchers, as well as a widely acclaimed technologist career path. Both had major influence on acquiring, retaining and motivating top researchers to pursue careers focused on major product innovations.

 This book with its engaging stories of products we all use will have broad consumer appeal, but also of particular interest to company executives wanting to establish an innovative culture, researchers developing superior products, and technical and business students gaining real-life understanding of product development.

 Most of P&G’s products have lasted forever through continued innovation and most discussed in the book will also. The stories of these major superior products and the fundamentals of how superior products are created suggests that SUPERIOR PRODUCTS will also have lasting impact.

GORDON F. BRUNNER

Gordon Brunner is a well known and admired R&D leader, having spent a 40 year career at Procter & Gamble, and credited with accom- plishing the launching of dozens of new and improved superior prod- ucts, as well as major advances in systems, culture, reward systems, and leadership principles for a global R&D organization. He was the Chief R&D Officer for 13 years, worked for four CEO's, and was the first and only R&D employee to be appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, where he served for 9 years. Gordon Brunner was an avid golf caddie which led to an Evans Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin. He graduated in biochem- ical engineering, and later obtained an MBA from Xavier University. During his career, he was involved with five new-to-the-world multi-billion dollar brands, all behind major technology achieve- ments. This included Liquid Tide & Ariel, Pantene, Febreze, Swiffer, and Actonel for osteoporosis.There were some fifteen other multi-hun- dred million dollar successful innovations and superior brands. P&G's outstanding technical accomplishments were recognized in being awarded the US Medal of Technology in 1995, and where Brunner accepted the award for the Company. GORDON BRUNNER i He was a student of R&D organization culture, structure, and effectiveness, and instituted major changes which have become global benchmarks. This included researcher reward systems and career path structure, "open" innovation, global internet innovation communication, and an internal "new venture" project structure. His achieve- ments and perspectives were broadly recognized, and among many awards, he was named the YEAR 2000 MEDALIST by the Industrial Research Institute. His perspective and experience were applied in a variety of large and small company boards, external new venture companies, academic research commercialization, and entrepreneurial product launches. He lost his dear wife after 44 years of marriage, but is blessed over the last eleven years with a fantastic & loving partner, Mary Ellen, and the joy of three daughters, and eight grandchildren.