P&G Asks: What's the Big Idea?

Of all the firms on the 2007 ranking of the World's Most Innovative Companies, few are more closely associated with today's innovation zeitgeist than our No. 6 company, Procter & Gamble (PG). Once seen as insular, the consumer-products giant is now famous for its open approach to innovation, in which it scours the globe for new products, chemicals, or technologies that can be brought in-house and developed.

As research and development becomes an increasingly global affair, many leaders have rushed to co-opt P&G's strategy, which it calls "Connect & Develop," for importing outside ideas. "Everyone's saying we want to have a Connect & Develop program," says Jeneanne Rae, president of innovation consulting firm Peer Insight. "They're beating a path to [P&G's] doorstep."