Abstract

This case is about the challenges faced by the new CIO of P&G, Linda W. Clement-Holmes (Linda), in taking the big data strategy of the leading consumer packaged goods company forward. Under her predecessor, Filippo Passerini (Passerini), P&G had leveraged big data successfully in all its business decisions – marketing, product development, supply chain, etc. The company collected consumer data and other data from multiple touch points as part of its digitization drive. The case elucidates the benefits that the company had derived from big data, including cost savings and the speedier roll-out of new products. The case also explores the potential downside of an excessive focus on big data and digitization, including diluting the human touch in the company’s interactions with its customers, and other potential risks of employing big data. Linda faced a challenging situation as she tried to take the company’s big data strategy forward at a time when P&G was facing difficult times.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the opportunities and challenges in implementing a big data strategy.
• Understand the significance of accessibility to information in an organization and how its functioning can be transformed through the availability of real-time data.
• Discuss the ways in which big data could be productively employed in an organization.
• Understand how big data can be effectively exploited in some of the key business functions.
• Understand the limitations of employing big data.

Keywords

Big Data Strategy, Digitization, Adapting data analytics for innovations and decision making, Big data applications in the retail sector, Business decisions, Marketing, Product development, Supply chain, Real-time data, Predictive Analytics, Strategic capabilities, Competitive advantage, Procter & Gamble