Collaborative Disruption: The Walmart and P&G Partnership That Changed Retail Forever

Collaborative Disruption is an insider’s account of the relationship between two of the most successful companies on the planet—Walmart and Procter & Gamble—and the transformative impact their collaborative strategy has had on their business for more than thirty years, particularly in the retail industry. Their innovative partnership produced what has come to be known as the “one-company model,” an approach that has fundamentally changed how suppliers and their retail customers interact with each other. Tom Muccio, who led the team at P&G that innovated this concept with Walmart, outlines how the two firms broke through silos, self-interest, short-termism, and suspiciousness to forge a mutually beneficial partnership focused on trust, shared information, and transparency. A masterclass in this model of collaboration that has been key to the success of several of the biggest companies around the world, Collaborative Disruption at its heart is a book about change management and vision.

Tom Muccio served as president of global customer teams and senior customer strategy officer for Procter & Gamble. As the first leader of P&G’s Walmart Customer Team, he worked with his team to grow annual sales with Walmart from $350 million to $8 billion over a fifteen-year period. He was the driving force behind the “one-company model,” which is now seen as a standard operating practice in the retail industry. During his time as board chairman of the Strategic Account Management Association, he introduced this model to many global companies across a broad range of industries. Muccio remains active as a strategic consultant and speaker and serves as a board member of various organizations and nonprofits.