宝洁CEO正面回应股东施压（节选）

    宝洁公司（Procter & Gamble）首席执行官（CEO）兼董事长麦睿博经历了充满挑战的一年。宝洁公司目前的年营收总额已经高达836亿美元。作公司CEO麦睿博今年不得不三次降调指导性业绩预期，导致分析师产生忧虑情绪，股价也连连下跌。10月25日，该公司公布的2013财年第一季度财报显示，经不计一次性费用调整后每股盈利为1.06美元，超过了分析师预期（此前已经下调过）。

    麦睿博遭到了一些前公司员工及退休员工的批评，这些人主要通过宝洁股票获得收益。而在今年7月份，对冲基金公司珀欣广场资产管理公司（Pershing Square Capital Management）创始人兼CEO、维权投资者威廉•阿克曼宣布，他已买入价值总计达18亿美元的宝洁股票，表明他很快将会要求宝洁公司进行重大改革（尤其是领导层的人员调整）。据报道，阿克曼在与麦睿博进行的一次会晤期间，曾要求他辞职。

    现在，麦睿博决定公开表明态度。他在接受《财富》杂志资深编辑珍妮弗•莱因戈尔德独家采访时称，自己相信公司的复兴计划正在取得明显的进展。以下是经过编辑的采访笔录。

那么，这次公布的财报数据符合人们此前的预期...

    我们2013财年第一季度的营收业绩接近我们此前给予的指导性预期区间上限，而运营利润和现金流等业绩均达到超计划水平。这使我们有望按计划兑现我们对2013财年设定的承诺。

这次季度业绩有哪些地方出乎你的意料之外？

    我认为没有出乎我的意料之外。但我们复兴计划的三个部分都获得了预期的成效。整个设想是把重点放在提高股东总回报水平上，以此让我们重新回到同类企业排名的前三分之一之列。这个三部分计划之一就是这个“40-20-10”计划，即把重点放在我们40个规模最大的产品类别与国家组合上，其中主要是美国和中国。我们首先把资源集中投放到这些产品类别与国家组合上，然后投放到20个最重要的创新产品上。我们一直在举办我们称之为“即兴构想会”（jam session）的活动。在这个活动中，我们会延请公司高层领导及各职能部门的专家，让他们即兴提出构想。自从我们任命豪尔赫•梅斯基塔担任公司新业务拓展与创新部门总裁以来，我们这个活动已经进行了有6到9个月左右的时间。然后就是把重点放在10个最重要的新兴市场上。

    创新方面，（我们的盈利要求）我们特意进行一些新的创新产品开发商，然后把创新产品引入市场。比如，汰渍Pods（Tide Pods）就提高了汰渍系列洗衣粉的市场份额。

    第三个部分就是提高生产力。这是向分析师及投资者证明我们可以通过提高利润率来实现成本削减计划的一个方面。我们计划在一年内削减成本20亿美元，这相对于我们每股预期盈利而言相当于提高11个百分点。如果我们能够实现目标的一半（也就是削减成本10亿美元）的话，这相当于每股预期盈利提升5到6个百分点。这将相当于公司的核心运营利润率提高90个基点。我们上季度的生产力提高了150个基点。这可能是我们一直在不断加强的方面。

你指定公司负责创新的灵魂人物了吗？

    他会很高兴听到你的这种描述方法，但我们还没有宣布这项任命。他是一位部门总裁，曾在某业务部门负责产品创新。他拥有丰富的经验，将会直接在我手下工作。我们的设想是在公司内部设立一个由部门高级总裁组成的委员会，所有成员都是备受推崇的人物。他们将和我一起努力，重新组织我们开展工作的方式。如果为了改善业绩而有需要的话，我们将会重组公司结构。

    Procter & Gamble CEO and Chairman Robert McDonald has had a challenging year. The CEO of the $83.6 billion company has had to lower guidance three times this year, worrying analysts and depressing the stock price. On October 25th, the company beat its (previously lowered) expectations for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, earning $1.06 per share excluding charges.

    McDonald has endured criticism from former employees and retirees, who receive their benefits primarily in P&G stock. And in July, activist investor William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management announced he had purchased $1.8 billion in P&G shares, suggesting that he would soon demand major changes. At a meeting between the two, Ackman reportedly asked for McDonald's resignation.

    Now McDonald has decided to speak out. In an exclusive interview with Fortune Senior Editor Jennifer Reingold, he proclaims confidence that the company's turnaround plan is gathering steam. What follows is an edited transcript.

So the numbers came in where people had hoped that they would...

    Our results for the first quarter were at the high end of our expectations on the top line and ahead of the plan on operating profit and cash. This puts us on track to meet our commitments for the fiscal year.

What surprised you about the results?

    I wouldn't say it was a surprise. But the three parts of our plan are working. The whole idea is a total shareholder return that gets us back into the top third of our corporate peer group. The three parts are this 40-20-10,plan, focusing on our 40 biggest category/country combinations, primarily in the US and in China. We focused the resources there first, then on the 20 biggest innovations. We've been having something we call jam sessions, where we bring in top leaders and functional experts and have them ideate. We've been doing this for 6-9 months, since about the time we put Jorge Mesquita in place [as President, New Business Creation and Innovation]. And then there are the 10 emerging markets that are critically important.

    On the innovation piece, [on our earnings call] we purposely went through a number of the new innovations that we brought to market. Tide Pods, for example, added to the Tide market share.

    The third piece was the productivity improvement. That was the piece that was confirmation to the analyst community and to investors that we could deliver savings that resulted in margin expansion. Our plan saves $2 billion a year, which would be 11 index points in EPS. If we capture half of that, it would be 5-6 points. That caused the core operating margin to improve by 90 basis points. We showed 150 basis points of productivity improvements. That may have been the piece that was reinforcing.

Have you named your new innovation czar?

    He'll be pleased to hear your characterization, but we haven't announced it yet. It's a group president who has done this before in a business unit. He has a lot of experience and will be working directly for me. The idea is to set up a council of senior group presidents in the company, all of whom are highly respected, who will work with me to reorganize the way we do work. We will reorganize the structure of the company if that's needed in order to improve.