US-based FMCG Procter & Gamble Co. is shaking up its beauty strategy. Chairman, President and CEO Bob McDonald has shifted the responsibilities of Ed Shirley, VC, Beauty and Grooming, to Dimitri Panayotopoulos, VC, Global Household Care, effective July 1. This decision came one week after P&G reported that its beauty unit’s net earnings from continuing operations declined by 3 percent to $547 million.
The management switch is likely to spur major changes within P&G’s beauty operations as it moves to turn around its struggling brand, Pantene, one of the cores of the division. It also could spark an internal battle within the group over who will take over the Beauty and Grooming division – key to the company’s future growth.
Ed Shirley has been the rising star, both within P&G and within the beauty world itself, and was even tapped by The Wall Street Journal in a recent article as a potential CEO. Despite that many speculated that his background at Gillette would ultimately prevent him from occupying the corner office at P&G even though it is a division of the group.
Now the focus is on who might succeed him as the head of the Beauty and Grooming division. The two most obvious candidates are Gina Drosos, Group President, Global Female Beauty, and Chip Bergh, Group President, Global Male Grooming.
Source: http://www.wwd.com
