Watch a video interview with A.G. Lafley at the bottom of this post.

This morning I did the "Q" part of a 75-minute Q&A session with P&G CEO A.G. Lafley. The discussion was wide ranging, covering everything from the need to re-think marketing and advertising to the benefits of a liberal arts education. At the end of the session, I told the audience that my six takeaways were:

1. In an age of disruption, growth is getting increasingly difficult.

2. Companies need to take the long view. Lafley said he finds it hard to watch CNBC for more than 7 minutes because the focus is so short term.

3. The customer needs to be the center of the innovation equation. When Lafley took over as CEO in 2000, he said he saw too many managers on their cellphones, or buried in spreadsheets, in essence "showing customers their behind."

4. Experimentation is key. Lafley talked about the value of giving customers even crude prototypes to test an idea. He also described how different parts of his organization approach innovation differently, and that's a good thing.

5. Complex organizations need to simplify to successfully innovate. Lafley said he seeks Sesame Street simplicity.

6. The CEO has to be the "Chief External Officer" to manage external pressure and the "Chief Innovation Officer" to push the innovation agenda forward.

I'd add a seventh here, which is the important role of building an innovation portfolio. Lafley said he expects his business units to have somewhere between 10 to 30 percent of their innovation portfolio focused on disruptive innovation.

At a reader's request, I asked Lafley about his educational experiences. He did say he had to forget quite a number of things he learned in school. At the same time, he said his "extreme" liberal arts education (he spent some time in Paris, and at one point was pursuing a Ph.D. in medieval and renaissance European history) has left him open minded and interested in collaboration.

All in all, I thought it was an interesting window into the mind of a CEO who spends a lot of time thinking about innovation.

Related Content: Harvard Business Digital's director of content Paul Michelman interviews Lafley: