27. Bob Wehling

It takes a clear compass setting and a strong rudder to keep a boat on course through shifting tides. Bob Wehling knows that well from having helped steer Procter & Gamble (P&G) through the peaks of global expansion and the troughs of adverse publicity in his 41-year career with the company. Both opportunities and challenges require a steadfast commitment to underlying values and principles, even as the way these fundamentals are played out, he says.

Take P&G’s expansion into the Middle East and then the former Soviet Union, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. “One of the issues we had to face, over and over again, was when our corporate values and principles differed from the values of the country we were entering. There were some countries where bribery was a given, as it had been for thousands of years. You didn’t get your product shipped into the country without crossing the palms of customs people, retailers, distributors,” he recalls. “Everybody had a piece of the action, and when we would say our principles don’t include bribery and we’re not going to do it, this created a hell of a challenge.” In some cases, it required ingenuity to break a deadlock. The company would r....