A Decade of Organizational Changes at "Unilever"

Measures
Announced a five-year growth strategy: “Path To Grow”
„shrinking to grow“: laying off over 25,000 employees (10%)
Splitting Unilever into two separate global units: Foods and Home & Personal Care
Cut down number of plants from 380 to 280
Reorganized its 300 companies into 10 regional groups
Decentralized its control over subsidiaries
Focusing on leading brands: brand portfolio was pruned to 400

Measures
Replacing Top Executives with young managers
Coming up with a Brand Focus Strategy
Exploiting brands within the existing product categories: higher variety

Effects: Unilever today
new corporate vision: “working to create a better future every day”
New strategy: “The Compass”
Launching “Unilever Sustainable Living Plan” in 2010
Goals for 2020
We will help more than a billion people improve their health and well-being
We will halve the environmental impact of the making and use of our products
We will enhance the livelihoods of thousands of people in our supply chain.

Unilever today
CEO Paul Polman: move towards supporting sustainable agriculture
2012: turnover exceeds €50 billion: 14 brands with each more than €1 billion profit a year
Making good progress towards
meeting its Sustainable Living Plan
targets
…