Organizational Strategy and Structure of Unilever

Organizational Strategy and Structure of Unilever

Introduction

Unilever is one of the largest packaged consumer goods companies specializing in hundreds of different brands. Unilever is based in Holland and the UK and is jointly owned by Unilever N.V and Unilever PLC. Both companies have the same board of directors but operate as a single entity and list there stock separately. In 2000, Unilever restructured their board of directors by electing new faces to the board and seeing other key members retire, like Jan Peelen and Robert Philips.

Miles and Snow stated that there are four types of organizational strategies pursued by companies; Defenders, Prospectors, Analyzers and Reactors. Unilever are a company that uses the “Prospectors” organization type. Prospectors are organizations which almost continually search for market opportunities, and they regularly experiment with potential responses to emerging environmental trends, in particular when Vis was appointed to the Food Executive committee and began to emphasize more on environmental and sustainable development in response to changing trends and demands by consumers giving these consumers greater confidence. (Miles & Snow; pp29)

In my discussion, the main types of organizational strategies and structures will be listed and how they have impacted on Unilever’s improved performance and growth in recent years.

Organizational strategies and structures, and there impact on Unilever’s performance

• Restructured Approach:

1. Identifying market opportunities:

A key part of an organizational strategy is to identify market opportunities by finding a niche or a gap in the marketplace that they can pursue to take their company ahead of all their competitors. An organiz...

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...ification as we move towards our destination IT architecture, and further strengthen our global market presence” said Neil Cameron, chief information officer at Unilever.

Unilever’s steady underlying improvement in Europe has continued, with 2.8% growth in the year. The fourth quarter was particularly strong, at 5.5%, against a weaker comparator. The Americas were up by 4.1% in the year, with Brazil and Mexico improving through the year, while the US grew solidly at 3.2%. Asia Africa has shown consistent, broad-based growth across countries and categories throughout the year, up by 11.1%. This demonstrates that merging with globalised technologically advanced companies such as SAS, and using their expertise, is paying dividends for Unilever. (Unilever’s Annual Report, 2007) (Drinks Business Review, “Unilever selects SAP as standard for global IT Strategy”, May 2007)