Colgate-Palmolive Company 2008 Annual Report

Colgate’s long-term success is linked to its culture, which encourages all Colgate people to demonstrate personal leadership every day. Personal leadership involves not only delivering superior business results but also dedication to Colgate’s global values of Caring, Continuous Improvement and Global Teamwork.

Leadership at Colgate extends to caring for our communities. Colgate’s “Bright Smiles, Bright Futures” global oral health initiative brings oral health education and preventive services to children all over the world and has reached more than 500 million children in 80 countries and in 30 languages since the program’s inception in 1991.

Similarly, Colgate partners with public health officials worldwide to reach millions of children annually with its “Clean Hands, Good Health” global hand-washing program, which features Protex antibacterial soap.

Team-building activities within Colgate are also focused on social responsibility. For example, Colgate’s leadership team for the Greater Asia division spent two days working together in partnership with the Tabitha Foundation to assist in building houses for impoverished families in Cambodia.

Colgate’s commitment to developing personal leadership is a formal process that includes goal-setting, training courses to strengthen skills and support personal development, and ongoing feedback from managers. On-line tools for career planning can be accessed directly by Colgate people in more than 90 countries in 17 different languages.