Booz & Company's strategy+business has a piece on P&G's Innovation Culture by Ram Charan and A.G. Lafley (P&G's CEO).
The heart of a company’s business model should be game-changing innovation. This is not just the invention of new products and services, but the ability to systematically convert ideas into new offerings that alter the very context of the business.
The bulk of the article is in the first person from AG Lafley's point of view. It's an interesting view of the importance of innovation and may of the surrounding aspects of making it happen. I suspect it isn't only a focus on innovation, but on the larger culture of the business that leads to success in the innovation venture.
I remember interviewing with P&G at the end of my undergraduate education in chemical engineering at Ohio State. At that time, they were known for being hard interviewers, and I think this article bears out why that was so important. It is the people who make or break the culture, and having high standards on the intake will ease questions of building the culture.
[By the way, can anyone tell me why "game changing" has become so prevalent in business (and political) speech lately? The phrase seems fairly clear, but I hear it everywhere these days. The US presidential race, articles like this, and within my company.]