• Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11 AM

Business Week's Jena McGregor and Roger O. Crockett tell incoming Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald how to smooth the transition when he succeeds "Rushmorian" A.J. Lafley, who reigned for nine years. McDonald has been hailed as a skilled executor but doesn't have anywhere near the reputation for innovation that Lafley does.

McDonald's first task will be to create a team that complements his strengths in operations while helping to address some of his weaknesses, they write. He'll also need to tread the line between forcing change and being deferential to Lafley's legacy -- a management principle that hard-charging Durk I. Jager, who took over from the popular John E. Pepper Jr. in 1999, ignored at his own peril.

Suzanne Vranica, meanwhile, writes in the Wall Street Journal that McDonald is regarded as a no-nonsense executive on Madison Ave. and that the news of his appointment is being met "with some trepidation." The worry is that he could separate a number of ad agencies and marketing firms from the $8.7 billion in annual spoils that P&G doles out worldwide. People will see "much leaner and more efficient ways to build a brand than P&G has in the past," one ad executive tells Vranica.

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