YourEncore is now owned by Indianapolis consultant Barnard Asso­ciates. Many of its clients rank in the Fortune 500. Its experts come from more than 1,000 public, academic, and government organizations.

“The network is made up primarily of retirees who want to stay retired, yet engaged—and engaged on their terms,” said Peter Kleinhenz, global account director at YourEncore, who is responsible for P&G. “We work with our clients to collaborate on what the problem is. What’s the outage, the innovation challenge? We go to work on matching the talent in our network with those requirements.”

And a level of privacy. YourEncore experts, while working on P&G assignments, are subject to noncompete contracts. For P&G, their work has included launching production lines, advising on divestitures, and consumer understanding.

One expert contracted by P&G helped shorten a problem-solving process to six months—down from 14. The results were as good, and it was at a lower cost.

“Agility is the key,” Kreutz said. “They don’t have to focus on anything but their technical work. They tend to be very efficient and quick.”

And efficiency means putting the experts where the clients need them, reducing travel time and expense. YourEncore expanded its network to the United Kingdom in 2008 and, in October, to Germany.

Next, Kleinhenz expects YourEncore to radiate into Asia and Latin America—markets that are fast expanding and are among those on which P&G itself is focusing. It is a long way from Louisiana, but natural disasters, and consumerism, have few borders.

“We’re going to follow P&G where they will take us,” Kleinhenz said. “P&G has been very good at pointing the direction in which we should head.”