Procter & Gamble (P&G):

i) HR problems:

Religious discrimination:
In 2012 a female Muslim worker filed a lawsuit against P&G for racial
discrimination. She worked for P&G through XLC Services, a Cincinnati-based company
that provides manufacturing services and warehouse management to other companies, at
P&G facilities in Guilford County, N.C. from 2004 to Sept. 16, 2011. Elhassan claimed that a
woman by the name Ernestine Wilson had approached her and forcibly searched Elhassan
for her wedding ring and removed Elhassans hijab in front of coworkers, including men. She
went on to claim that her performance was satisfactory or better and it had nothing to do
with her being laid off.

Discrimination against women:
A former Procter & Gamble brand manager by the name Elizabeth
Adkison is suing the consumer goods company for gender discrimination. Elizabeth
Adkison claims she was forced out in 2009 after taking four maternity leaves in five years.
The leaves amounted a total of 19 months. P&G claims she failed to embrace the
constructive criticism of her bosses.

Violation of human rights:
P&G along with several other companies that were involved into the construction,
sponsorship and other arrays responsible for successfully hosting the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games in Sochi had violated human rights of workers who built them, the
local people who have lost their homes and health, and harassment of human rights
and environmental activists. The companies involved, from sponsors to construction
firms, have been largely complicit in this neglect.




ii) Job cutting:
In February 2012 Procter& Gamble said it would eliminate 5,700 jobs in the
US over the next year and a half as part of a cost-cutting plan in order to save $10 billion by
the end of the fiscal year ending in June 2016. Analysts say that this was probably due to the
falling US economy and companys unwillingness to decrease personal gains for the betterment
of the employees.

In February 7 2014 P&G closed an office building at its European headquarters in
Geneva as part of a restructuring initiative. P&G eliminated an unspecified number of jobs at the
Geneva headquarters and a spokesperson said that more employees might be let go this
month. The Spokesman identified as Paul Fox said We have recently rearranged our office
footprint in Geneva by closing our smallest building, this was enabled by leveraging more
flexible office designs, increased use of digital technology.

iii) Decreasing ad effectiveness:
While P&G's Old Spice ads drew creative raves in past years, the
company's broader array of advertising, according to consumer surveys by
Advertising Benchmark Index in January and February, ranked in the middle of
the pack or below household and personal-care peers. This was particularly true
in TV and print, where P&G still spends the vast majority of its media dollars. A
P&G spokeswoman said in an email that the company's research shows that
"80% of our sales are supported by copy that is strong in comparison to a
relevant industry database. In addition, the quality of our copy is increasing
year-on-year over the past several years.



iv) Go-to-market issues:
Hurting P&G in the eyes of retailers -- not to mention of investors and
analysts -- has been its inability to fully deliver on product launches in recent years. The six-
month delay of Tide Pods is the latest in a series of problems that included supply issues with
Fusion ProGlide razors and Old Spice body wash. Some executives in and close to the company
blame capital-spending constraints put in place after the $67 billion acquisition of Gillette in
2005.

v) Competitive woes:
P&G's beauty and grooming businesses -- bolstered by $80 billion in
acquisitions last decade that included Clairol and Wella -- have been a growing drag on the
company's top line. After showing some positive momentum early last year, P&G the past two
quarters has again slipped behind rivals L'Oreal and Unilever in top-line sales growth in
personal care.

vi) Going green or environment friendly:
In 2010, Bob McDonald, P&G's chairman, president and CEO, said in an
announcement webcast from Geneva that consumers applaud improvements to help the
environment, and the new effort should help P&G's business, as well as the Earth. "I think when
you do the right thing ... the business just takes off," said McDonald. He said 173-year-old P&G
recognizes its long-term impacts. He has targeted 2020 to get P&Gs all factories 0 percent of
their power from renewable sources. P&G officials said new plants now being built around the
globe will use more solar, wind and water power.


vii) Palm oil use issues:
Procter & Gambles proud claim that nearly 5 billion people use its products is
backfiring as a year-long investigation by Greenpeace definitively shows the company is
sourcing palm oil from companies connected to widespread forest devastation. Palm oil,
common in detergents, shampoos, cosmetics and a myriad of household products is directly
linked to a supply chain that causes forest fires, habitat destruction and perhaps even species
extinction for the Sumatran tiger. Greenpeace has called on the multinational company to
commit to an immediate no-deforestation policy in Indonesia where palm oil is sourced. Last
year, P&G bought nearly 462,000 tons of palm oil of which less than 10 percent is certified
sustainably-sourced, according to the environmental activist group.

Activists recently strung two 60-foot banners from the Procter & Gamble towers
at its Cincinnati headquarters that read: "Head & Shoulders: Wipes out Dandruff & Rainforests,"
and "Head & Shoulders: Stop Putting Tiger Survival on the Line."


viii) Culture Change
Organization 2005 also aims at changing P&G's culture from a conservative, slow-
moving, bureaucratic behemoth to that of a modern, fast-moving, Internet-savvy organization.
P&G wants to make faster and better decisions, cut red tape, wring costs out of systems and
procedures, fuel innovation, set more aggressive sales goals and nearly double its revenue. The
catalyst for all this change is IT.
In addition, P&G wants to abandon its legacy of secrecy. Its new spirit of openness is most
evident on the Internet. A year ago, it was a stodgy, nondescript site where no one other than
investors or job seekers had any reason to go to. Today, you see a consumer-friendly portal
with loads of information about P&G products.


ix) Killing competition:
One of P&G's new strategies is linking up with other companies to extract as
much value from its brands as possible. Last February (2001) Coke and P&G announced a
$4bn [2,77bn] alliance. The alliance would involve the union of some 40 consumer products
(including Sunny Delight, Pringles and Minute Maid) under the umbrella of a Coke-P&G joint
venture. P&G was hoping Cokes far-reaching distribution network could give the company a
boost. P&Gs renowned R&D capacities were attractive to Coke. Eight months later the
consumer goods behemoths called the wedding off. A spokesman for Coke said: "After many
months of due diligence with Procter & Gamble, we felt that we could unlock the value of our
brands more effectively and profitably by retaining full control of them."
However, P&G successfully tied up with chewing gum giant the Wrigley
Company. The deal will allow P&G to cash in on the global gum, mint, and breath-freshener
market. This is bigger than the toothpaste market and equal in size to the shampoo or skincare
sectors. We will soon be able to sweeten our mouths with Crest gum, Crest mints and Crest
breath freshener, the Guardian reports. P&G has recently announced it will sell the Jif and
Crisco brands in a bid to get rid of under-performing brands. P&G and J.M. Smucker Co., which
makes a wide variety of jams, jellies and other foods, is acquiring the Jif peanut butter and
Crisco cooking oil brands from P&G for $1 billion in stock.

Some predict this to be a strategy used by P&G to decrease competition by taking
an advantage into cost cutting measures which may subsequently kill of competitions in the long
run due to them not being able to measure up to its low cost of production and thus leading the
free market to a monopoly.

x) Price Fixing:
In April 2011 P&G were fined 211.2m by the European Commission for
fixing the price of washing powder in eight European countries.

The price-fixing cartel began in January 2002, according to the commission,
when P&G and Unilever, along with Germany's Henkel, held talks over plans to implement an
industry-wide programme to improve the environmental performance of detergents. The companies
agreed to shrink the amount of packaging they used but to keep prices unchanged, and later to
collectively raise prices. The arrangement lasted until March 2005 and involved products sold in
Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.

xi) Animal testing:
Almost 80% of P&G products are tested on animals and continues to
torture rabbits, dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, and other creatures by conducting experiments on
them that include poisoning them with toxins, burning their eyes with chemicals, and eventually
killing them, even though in 1999 the company announced that it would limit its use of animals
as testing materials. And the U.K. website Uncaged says that on top of these and many other
extreme testing protocols, P&G does not even provide basic care for these animals while they
are still alive.