NEW YORK -- Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer products maker, said Thursday that its net income fell 7 percent on the stronger dollar and restructuring charges, but adjusted results met expectations. The company in May made a plan to focus on its 40 top businesses, 20 biggest new products and 10 most-profitable emerging markets, with a cost-cutting plan aiming to save $10 billion by fiscal 2016. Here CEO Bob McDonald discusses how that plan is going.
QUESTION: What drives your confidence that you will see improvement in sales in the remainder of the year given the difficult consumer environment out there?
RESPONSE: I would just say that we're in the early innings of our program, that our 40/20 plan is on track. It's gaining momentum in developing markets and strengthening the core developed markets. We're in the early innings of our innovation program. ... It strengthens after January. And we're also in the early innings of our productivity program, so what you should expect to see is continued progress. We're on track, and continued progress is ahead.