When Thomas Dawson first interviewed for a position at Procter & Gamble 10 years ago, he was struck by how clean the hallways were in comparison to the university laboratories where he had spent most of his career. "Well," his host responded, "we are a cleaning products company."
Inside the glass-fronted lobby of the company's Miami Valley Innovation Center, nestled along a wooded stretch of the Miami River near Cincinnati, Ohio, a bronze plaque commemorates the development of Tide laundry detergent. The restrooms are all outfitted with household paper towel dispensers loaded with rolls of Bounty.
The company was founded by a soapmaker and a candlemaker in 1837, but over the last decade, biologists like Dawson have been redefining exactly what it means to be a "cleaning products company" - beginning with one of their flagship products, Head & Shoulders, the leader in the $6 billion anti-dandruff shampoo market.
Head ...
