The Penn Stater Magazine

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December 9, 2011 at 9:47 am Tina Hay Leave a comment

Jim Stengel ’83g is one of the biggest names in the marketing world. For years he was the top global marketing guy at Procter & Gamble; Advertising Age named him the No. 1 “Power Player” in marketing four different times, and Brandweek magazine named him “Grand Marketer of the Year” in 2005.

He retired from P&G in 2008—the same year the Alumni Association named him a Penn State Alumni Fellow—and since then, he’s been working on an intriguing new book. Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies will be released on Dec. 27, and already it’s getting some nice attention in the media.

Stengel writes about 50 companies—from Pampers to Louis Vuitton to Jack Daniel’s to the Brazilian oil company Petrobras—that outperform the competition. What they have in common, he says, is a concept called ideals.

The gist of the book is explained nicely in this story at CNN.com:

What propels a successful company is not cutthroat business sense but an understanding of the purpose that drives its brand. In other words: If you make your customers’ lives better, they’ll return the favor.

I’ve been following Jim’s career for a while, and I had a chance to meet him briefly when he was here in 2008 to receive his Alumni Fellow award. He’s a genuinely nice guy. One of my Alumni Association colleagues was giving him a tour of the alumni center, and when I was told “This is Jim Stengel,” I immediately said, “Jim Stengel! I have a Google Alert set to your name!” He thought that was pretty funny.

He’s also very grateful for his Penn State experience, as you can see if you watch this video of his acceptance speech at the Alumni Fellows ceremony.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry filed under: Alumni Association, Smeal College of Business. Tags: Alumni Fellow award, Jim Stengel, Procter & Gamble.