PVP, GBU, MDO, CBD, and probably several thousand more. P&G has so many acronyms they actually have a central acronym databse. Since the English language only gives us 26 letters to work with and three letter combos seem to be how it is done, many entries in the databse even have multiple possible meanings depending on your context. Today though, I want to talk about the most important acronym, “the PVP.” This is the Purpose, Values, and Principles. P&Gers live by the PVP, and if you don’t, you won’t be at P&G for long, or at least so I hear. The shared PVP creates a trust between P&Gers and is a big part of how such a big and diverse company’s employees can effectively cooperate globally. I have my onboarding session for my first day as a full-time employee coming up in a week and I’m sure I’ll get to hear even more about the PVP then.
So why am I thinking about the PVP now? This morning I was reading Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC, and came across this post on building successful long term relationships. Apparently, today is Fred’s 22nd anniversary so he thought he’d write a post about business relationships. How romantic right? Actually he does say some nice things about his wife as well, but the main takeaway was that the two most important factors in any relationship are tolerance and shared vision/values. P&G’s commitment to the PVP ensures that everyone in the organization has shared values. I guess this is why I keep meeting so many P&Gers that have been with the company 20 and 30 years. Anyways, I’m excited to work for a company whose purpose is to “improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come.” I never imagined during my seven years in the non-profit world that a for profit company might have a purpose statement like that. Apparently, it is possible, and I’m lucky enough to get to work for one of them. Check out the rest of Fred’s post, that I linked to above, if you are building a team, starting a business, or looking for a spouse and want to have long term success.
See the following post for a great video of P&G’s new CEO, Bob McDonald, talking about Values-Based Leadership.
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