Selling P&G

How do you sell $76 billion of consumer goods? One brand at a time. Fortune's Geoff Colvin talks with Jim Stengel.

FORTUNE, September 5, 2007 — In the vast world of marketing and advertising, James Stengel just may be the king. He is Procter & Gamble's global marketing officer, and thus commands the world's largest ad budget - about $6.7 billion. It's an enviable position, but uneasy lies the head that wears an ad king's crown. The Digital Age is revolutionizing the way consumers use media, though no one yet knows what the new model will be or if it will last longer than an eye-blink. Product innovation happens faster than ever.

British Grocer Tesco Comes to America

NPR, August 7, 2007 — The giant British retailer Tesco plans to open several dozen grocery stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada this fall. If successful, the stores could be the beginning of a nationwide rollout.

Amazon Offer: Its Gigabytes Now for Sale†

Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2007 — Amazon.com Inc. is known as a place to buy books, gadgets and shoes. But in business circles, it's gaining fame as a place to buy digital storage and computing power.

In the last year, the e-commerce company has begun renting out space in its enormous computer network to other companies

Changing the Course of JetBlue†

New CEO Dave Barger Reviews Discount Carrier's Strategy, Seeks Calmer Approach to Growth

Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2007 — For nine years at JetBlue Airways Corp., Dave Barger played the quiet No. 2 executive to David Neeleman, the discount carrier's passionate, high-profile founder and chief executive. Now, the reserved Mr. Barger is manning the controls when the airline most needs a steady hand.

Sempra Energy: All Charged Up In California

No longer just a utility, the company is moving into booming, unregulated markets

BusinessWeek, June 11, 2007 — Today, California utilities and energy generators face some of the strictest green rules in the country. But what others saw as onerous, Sempra Energy (SRE ) saw as opportunity. Chairman and CEO Donald E. Felsinger seized the moment to reinvent the company, turning it into a fast-growing energy utility with few parallels.

The new Facebook is on a roll

The social network's new strategy has already led to surprising innovation - and another million or so users

FORTUNE, June 1, 2007 — It's been an eventful week since Facebook launched a new strategy to turn itself into a platform for applications created by outsiders. The social network has gained another million users and is now up to 25 million. And now that the company has created a new green field for developers, innovation is exploding.

Google’s goal: to organise your daily life†

Financial Times, May 24, 2007 — Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off. Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

How Can Lafley Keep P&G Expanding?†

Analysis: Q3 Didn't See Broad Gains on Rivals; Key Brands Struggled

Advertising Age, May 14, 2007 — A.G. Lafley's turnaround of Procter & Gamble Co. has been little short of miraculous, and the package-goods giant continues to beat its stated targets. Yet the question is being asked: Can the sorcerer keep conjuring organic growth with his marketing magic, or is it time to bring in the bankers and divest some of the company's poorer-performing brands?

Ask Kim Feil why she left her senior marketing post at Kimberly-Clark in order to join Sara Lee, and†

Brandweek, May 7, 2007 — What executive wouldn't? The catch is, Feil—and the food-industry analysts who've been carefully watching Sara Lee since CEO Brenda Barnes took the helm in 2005—may have to hang out a while longer; that transformation hasn't wholly materialized. According to Barnes—and to Feil, whom she brought aboard as CMO of Sara Lee's Food & Beverage division—things are well underway.

Dunkin' Donuts Whips Up A Recipie for Expansion†

Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2007 — Joe Rando has had no problem selling baked goods to residents of Nashville, Tenn., since he opened the first Dunkin' Donuts in the area in August. On opening day, he even sold out of doughnuts. But getting locals to make Dunkin' their regular stop for coffee — which has a higher profit margin than baked goods — has been more challenging. "Dunkin' is truly entrenched as a ritual for Northeastern customers," says Mr. Rando. In Nashville, he says, "we haven't necessarily changed the behavior — the coffee-buying behavior — yet."