• USA Today, Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:43 AM

Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald has a simple goal: Increase the average $12 per year that every adult consumer worldwide spends to buy his company's products to $14 within five years. The best way to do that, he figures, is not to get you to buy more Charmin but rather to increase his base by a billion or so customers who are primarily in developing nations, he tells Bruce Horovitz in a two-hour exclusive interview.

"We know we need to ramp up our innovative efforts to get to all of the world's consumers -- not just to the top of the economic pyramid," says McDonald. "He is a true global executive," says Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke. "He has a great understanding of markets around the world."

Horovitz writes that the West Point graduate is "giving P&G a kick in its can." It will have 30% more new products in core categories in 2010 than in 2009. And last month it broke away from its tradition of advertising by brand to launch a self-promotional campaign that dubs P&G the "official sponsor of moms." Another initiative: reducing the layers of employees from top to bottom from seven to five and cutting back on vice presidents.

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