P&G managers use retreat in Cincinnati for new ideas

UNCORKING CREATIVITY

Getting out of a corporate setting can unleash creativity.

CINCINNATI (AP) — When facing a particularly challenging project, Procter & Gamble Co. managers can get away from it all to brainstorm just blocks from the company’s central offices.

The Clay Street retreat, in a converted 19th century brewery in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, helps project teams for the consumer products maker uncork their creativity in an offbeat atmosphere.

There are beanbag chairs and wooden floors, but not constant access to e-mail and cell phones. Instead of PowerPoint presentations, the day begins with “good-morning circles” and maybe an exercise in Zen Buddhism.

P&G managers can ask to have a tough problem, such as revitalizing declining product sales, referred to Clay Street. A team of 12 or so people from marketing, sales, finance, consumer research and design is then assembled.

Outside speakers, such as futurists and New Age thinkers, are brought in to help the workers see things in new ways. Each day, everyone says “good morning” to every other person and open-ended conversation follows.

“We take team members and we open up how they see the world,” said Michael Luh, a co-director of Clay Street and 16-year P&G veteran.

But there is a mission at hand.

“We focus on impact,” said David Kuehler, who runs Clay Street and whose background is in theater, design and engineering. “The teams have clear deliverables.”

Before a team leaves Clay Street, it’s expected to have an idea that’s been checked out with consumers, a first take on a financial plan, a marketing strategy, and a presentation for senior management.

Among the success stories has been P&G’s Herbal Essences brand, whose sales were falling. A Clay Street team decided to target a hypothetical consumer in her late teens to early 20s; active, fun-loving and drawn to the brand’s appeal to those interested in natural ingredients.

Packaging was redesigned in a “nesting” concept, to sell shampoo and conditioner together in a sensual way. Colors that popped out from shelves such as orange, pink, purple and green were used, along with product names that conveyed attitude: Totally Twisted, No Flakin’ Way, Dangerously Straight and Drama Clean.

Herbal Essences sales took off.

The Clay Street concept draws from Mattel Inc.’s Project Platypus, in which teams for the toy maker brainstorm in a separate building. Kuehler came to P&G from that project.

Kuehler sees his role as freeing people’s thinking from the corporate setting.

“We want to energize that entrepreneurial spirit, that artistic spirit,” he said.