The New York Times blog has posted an interesting interview with A. G. Lafley on innovation at Procter & Gamble (registration free but required). The interview is well-worth a read.

I particularly like his answer on the question “…and yet only half of your product innovations succeed. Why isn’t the rate higher?” Lafley states “I don’t really want it to be. Human nature is such that, if we push our people to drive the batting average up, they’ll try to hit more safely, take a shorter swing, go for the singles instead of home runs. But we try to set milestones that innovations must meet at every step along the development process. As soon as they miss one, we allocate the resources to another product moving through the funnel. That’s another difference from the old days, when P. & G. let bad ideas go too far.”

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