How an advisory board drives innovation: Procter & Gamble offers a strong example of how to create an advisory board, how to manage it successfully, and how to apply its recommendations for bottom-line results.

• Author: Stautberg, Susan
• Position: ADVISORY BOARDS

HOW CAN A COMPANY continually innovate and create exciting new ideas in today's competitive and constantly changing world?

The answer is deceptively simple: By asking for help.

Most individuals and organizations spend their time thinking about what they are most familiar with: their own business sector, their current competitors, the customers they know or their organization as it currently exists. They think from the inside--the things they can control--out to the world they would like to shape.

This approach is safe and comfortable, but safe and comfortable doesn't cut it in today's lightning-fast world. Today, thinking from the outside in is what many organizations need to stay ahead of the curve. They need to step outside their comfort zones. They need multiple perspectives. They need help. For this reason, organizations in a wide variety of industries are creating advisory boards of specialists who can offer outside-in knowledge and bring a range of experiences and insights not available internally.

Advisory boards consist of expert professionals who share ideas, feedback, and a fresh perspective with corporations seeking input. They increase an organization's intellectual capital and contacts. Such groups have become increasingly popular as budgets tighten and global competition increases. Cigna Corp., for instance, had two different global advisory boards to provide insights into international issues. Northwestern Mutual convened a technology advisory board to consult on its Internet presence. Goldman Sachs had and PNC has women's advisory boards to discuss the needs of female consumers.

A relatively new trend in advisory boards addresses the area of design and innovation. In fact, some of the products you see lining supermarket shelves or displayed in the windows of your favorite store may have been created, packaged, marketed, or improved with the help of a design advisory board.

Procter & Gamble is a pioneer in this practice. While many different strategies have been implemented in CEO A.G. Lafley's heralded turnaround of P & G, one of the largest companies in the world, the design advisory board and critical outside thinking from a multitude of sources have played a part. Openness, getting to and listening to the best and the brightest, and inviting new thinking among its own people are transforming the culture and boosting the bottom line as a result. For companies seeking a more creative and innovative culture, P & G offers a strong example of how to create a design advisory...