Managing with Analytics at Procter & Gamble

Thomas H. Davenport; Marco   Iansiti; Alain  Serels

Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2013

Managing with Analytics at Procter & Gamble

by Thomas H. Davenport, Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels

Abstract

Senior management at P&G has put a strong emphasis on using data to make "better, smarter, real-time business decisions." The Global Business Services (GBS) organization has developed tools, systems and processes to provide managers throughout P&G with direct access to up-to-date data and advanced analytics. In addition, GBS has embedded analysts within the business units to work alongside leaders and managers in driving real-time information-based decision making. Equipped with the tools provided by GBS, Alan Torres, vice-president of North America Fabric Care, must finalize the forecast for P&G's laundry detergent sales. Results for the two months since introducing concentrated powder laundry detergent in select retailers saw a surprising jump in sales of over 10%, but would the trend continue as the concentrated detergents were introduced across North America?

Keywords: analytics; Data Management; Forecasting; information technology; Shared Services; Procter ＆ Gamble; Laundry Detergent; Information Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Information Technology; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Products Industry; North America;

Language: English

Format: Print

20 pages

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Citation:

Davenport, Thomas H., Marco Iansiti, and Alain Serels. "Managing with Analytics at Procter & Gamble." Harvard Business School Case 613-045, April 2013.

In the digital economy, scale is no guarantee of continued success. After all, the same factors that help an online platform expand quickly—such as the low cost of adding new customers—work for challengers too. What, then, allows platforms to fight off rivals and grow profits? Their ability to manage five aspects of the networks they’re embedded in:

• network effects, in which users attract more users
• clustering, or fragmentation into many local markets
• the risk of disintermediation, wherein users bypass a hub and connect directly
• vulnerability to multi-homing, which happens when users form ties with two or more competing platforms
• network bridging, which allows platforms to leverage users and data from one network in another network

When entrepreneurs are evaluating a digital platform business, they should look at these dynamics—and the feasibility of improving them—to get a more realistic picture of its long-term prospects.

While some platform markets exhibit strongly interconnected network structures in which a buyer is interested in purchasing services from most providers, many platform markets consist of local clusters in which a buyer is primarily interested in purchasing services from providers within the same cluster. We examine how network structures affect interactions between an incumbent platform serving multiple markets and an entrant platform seeking to enter one of these markets. We find that having more mobile buyers, which increases interconnectivity among markets, reduces the incumbent’s incentive to fight and increases the entrant’s incentive to expand. Incumbent profits increase with interconnectivity. When advertising is inexpensive and mobile buyers consume in both local markets and the markets they visit, greater interconnectivity increases the entrant’s profit, thus encouraging entry.

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Managing with Analytics at Procter & Gamble

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