New P& G CEO faces mountain of challenges

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2009 | by Bruce Horovitz

At a time cash-strapped consumers are rethinking what they buy, Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer products company, has selected a new CEO whose key tasks may rank among the most daunting ever faced by a P&G chief executive.

With the expected selection on Wednesday of Chief Operating Officer Robert McDonald, 55, as new CEO, the Cincinnati-based marketing giant signaled that the embrace by outgoing CEO A.G. Lafley, 61, of a new world of fast changes and new media will not only continue, but likely will go into overdrive.

This leaves McDonald, who becomes CEO on July 1, with challenges aplenty. "The generation that is P&G's primary buying population now vs. 10 years from now will have as many media consumption changes as any generation has ever...