Invented Here: P&G's Non-Tech Tech-Exec StrategyInvented Here: P&G's Non-Tech Tech-Exec Strategy

Marta Foster, manager of IT for the global beauty-care and global health- care unit, recently celebrated her 25th anniversary at Procter & Gamble Co. Her husband also recently celebrated his 25th anniversary at the consumer-products manufacturer. And together, the Fosters recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

That's an example -- extreme, perhaps, but not unusual -- of the loyalty P&G inspires in its employees. It's also an example of the company's home-grown, promote-your-own management strategy that it's stuck with for most of its 165 years.

Another example is CIO Steve David. "This is the only place I've ever worked, which is pretty consistent with our P&G senior managers," says David, who started his career in P&G's sales organization in Nebraska in 1970. He worked in most major cities throughout the United States in the 1970s, then at Cincinnati headquarters in the early 1980s. In 1985, David was sent to Greece as business manager for four years. From 1989 to 1992, including the Gulf War in 1991, he was general manager of the Arabian Peninsula. Later, he headed up North American and global sales. He was named CIO in 2000, at the same time P&G's current CEO, A.G. Lafley -- also a career P&Ger -- took over.

David now heads an IT organization of about 4,500 personnel and a budget less than 3% of net sales -- low on an industry scale, he admits. About 2,800 IT employees are part of a "shared services" group and the rest are scattered among four business units, a market development organization, and a corporate group that manages security, architecture, and governance issues. This balance between a centralized and decentralized IT organization allows for flexibility, David says. "We want to have innovation at the periphery."

In describing P&G's IT efforts, David speaks very little about the actual technology components. In his 32 years at the company, he's had very little direct technology experience -- except for the PC he built in 1976. "And I taught myself to machine-language program on an Apple in the late '70s."

But David and those around him are firm believers that it's more important for IT personnel to have a rich understanding of the company's focus. "It's about infusing technology into a business environment to create better products and more value," he says.

It's a formula that seems to keep P&G products moving -- and its people staying.

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