How Sam Latif is Helping Procter and Gamble Innovate for the 1 Billion People Living With Disabilities

Good Is The New Cool

Sumaira “Sam” Latif, Procter & Gamble’s company accessibility leader in the UK, helps create innovative breakthroughs to make P&G’s products more accessible to more than 1 billion people living with disabilities. Sam’s passion for this work comes from personal experience - she is blind herself - and we learn more about her journey and the innovative ways she is helping this global giant become a force for growth and good.

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About Sam Latif

Sam is P&G’s first Company Accessibility Leader and is leading P&G’s thought leadership and commitment to making products, packaging and advertising accessible for both the growing aging population, and the 1.7 billion people around the world with a disability.

Winning with 50+/PwD consumers is critical for P&G to grow. By 2030 we will have more >50 consumers to serve vs under 50 and 36% of 50+ consumers will experience a disability. We estimate today that we are losing 1BN dollars per annum across our Categories by not serving this segment. P&G has an opportunity to reach more consumers with more accessible and irresistible products and packaging for all.

Sam was born in the UK and is a first-generation Scottish Pakistani. She is blind and the passion for what she is doing at P&G has been inspired by the personal access challenges she has experienced as both a consumer and an employee. Sam studied Marketing and Business Law at the University of Stirling in Scotland and began her career at P&G in IT. She has lead IT transformations across multiple worldwide businesses, including fragrances, Pampers, Olay and Gillette.

In 2015, Sam switched focus from running IT businesses to figuring out what it would take to make P&G become the most accessible company for the consumers we serve and was appointed as the company’s first Special Consultant for Inclusive Design. During this time, Sam worked with the Herbal Essences business to explore how we could make it easier to help people tell the difference between shampoo and conditioner, especially in the shower when people are not wearing their corrective eyewear. It’s estimated that 79% of the population in the west wear corrective eyewear and so it is quite hard for people to tell our shampoo and conditioner bottles apart from sight alone.

In February 2019, Sam was promoted to Senior Director and became P&G’s first Company Accessibility Leader and is responsible for making P&G’s workplace, products and packaging and communications fully accessible to everyone. Sam is married and has three children, boy and girl twins aged 7 and a 10-year-old boy. Sam is enjoying the challenge of learning to play the piano and working out at the gym.