Let's Hope This Spreads

I got a warm fuzzy reading this in today's Wall Street Journal:

A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation

"So far, about two-dozen staffers from the two companies have spent weeks dipping into each other's staff training programs and sitting in on meetings where business plans get hammered out.

P&G, the biggest advertising spender in the world, is waking up to the reality that the next generation of laundry-detergent, toilet-paper and skin-cream buyers now spends more time online than watching TV. Google craves a bigger slice of P&G's $8.7 billion annual ad pie as its own revenue growth slows."

The benefits of doing this, and thinking like this for that matter, should be obvious. Everybody and every company can learn something from a different point of view. Google and P&G are at the head of their classes, and they are trying to be better. Or steal secrets. Both are good.

It would be nice if some company, any company that makes money, invites some folks over from the Auto makers and shows them the ropes.