Motivation, Objectives, and Business Challenges of Procter & Gamble

Assignment: Case Analysis #1
—Procter & Gamble—
Student name:______________________________
Student ID: @____________________________
* CASE SUMMARY
Provide a summary of the Procter & Gamble (P&G) case, with a focus on the following two aspects:
(a) motivation and objectives of P&G's analytics program, and (b) business challenges that P&G has faced during its transformation to become a data-driven company. [20 points] Note: In total, answer table may not exceed 1 page.
Motivation & objectives

The P & G objectives for the analytics program include; the need to have an in-house Information and Decision Solutions (IDS) system that involves the company's executives who understand its business. The second objective was to use IT for the company data analysis and a design that would act as a central repository for tools that would support analytics. The central repository would promote teamwork and innovation by sharing ideas and analytic techniques by managing the team (Davenport et al.). There was also the need to standardize, integrate and automate systems and data to create an environment that would support real-time decision making and operating. Such a program would also ease the task of data retrieval and standardization of data visualization across P&G business units.
The motivations included; making the company a leader in technological enablement. Business analytics had the potential of assisting the company in gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Moreover, intelligent and real-time decisions would effectively run the business units despite regional disparities.

Business challenges

Embracing the IDS analytic program came with some challenges. For instance, there was a sudden change in the organization's culture concerning the data approach. The program made raw data accessible to all levels of management at the same time and indicated the performance review of an individual to everyone.
There was duplication of roles during the implementation of the analytical program prompting the elimination of more than 15% of senior management positions. Some suggestions from the analyzed data, for instance, concerning the introduction of compacted products, lead to reconfiguration and shutting down of plants, resulting in expenses and revenue loss during downtime. The cost of reconfiguring the production equipment was high and eliminated their flexibility to produce non-compacted detergents.
The analytic program was incompatible with the data collected from large-scale retailers to estimate customer response to new products. Most large-scale retailers that sold P&G still had non-compacted detergents while it required the compacted detergent data. The data inconsistency imposed additional costs incurred by sending teams to the ground to find more cleared data. The company also faced stiff competition while experimenting with its data-driven products in the markets(Davenport et al.).
Lastly, incorrect prediction of market disruption caused by introducing compacted products placed the procurement, manufacturing, and supply chain under intense pressure to meet the retailers and customer demands. On the other hand, there was a probability ...