1. INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
“A DECADE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT
UNILEVER”
PREPARED BY:
NURUL HUSNA BT ABDUL RAHIM 2012245772
MOHD SHAFLI B JAAFAR SIDEK 2012239534
NORBAIZURA BT KAMARUDIN 2012452424
NUR ASHIKIN BT ABDUL JALIL 2012419658
NORLIYANA BT WAHID 2012655352
PREPARED FOR:
MADAM ZURAIDAH BT SIPON

3. COMPANY DETAILS
• Founded in 1929
• Unilever is one of the oldest multinational corporation
• Offer extensive product offering in food, detergent and
personal care business
• Generates annual revenues in excess of $50 billion.
• A wide range of branded product in virtually every country.
• Such as:

4. CASE DETAILS
Historically, early 1990s :
• Unilever was organized on decentralized basis.
• Subsidiary companies in each major market were
responsible for production, marketing, sales and
distribution of product in the market.
• Each was profit center and each was held
accountable for its own performance.

5. By the mid-1990s:
Unilever realized its decentralized structure
was working against them.
•Unilever
competitor
has
been
more
successful .
•It
means
there
a
rose
of
duplication, particularly in manufacturing
,lack of scale economies and used high cost
of structure.
•This has show Unilever was failed to bring a
new product to the market.

6. In 1996,to change the situation in mid-1990s:
Unilever has introduced a new structure based
on regional business group.
•Where by each business group included a
number of divisions focusing on a specified
category of products.
•These group and division coordinated the
activities of national subsidiaries within their
region to reduce costs and to speed up the
process of developing and introducing new
products.

7. By 2000:
Unilever found that its still lagging behind
its competitors, so its decided to
reorganize.
•The goal was to cut the number of brands
that Unilever sold from 1600 to just 400 that
could be marketed on a regional or global
scale.
•Unilever also established a new
organization based on just two global
product division which is food division and
home personal care division.

8. CASE DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS

9. 1.Why did Unilever’s decentralized organizational
structure make sense from the 1950s through the 1970s?
Why did this structure start to create problems for the
company in the 1980s.
• Decentralized make sense from the 1950s through the 1970s
because at first it drive to the localization which mean this
structure allowed the local manager to match product
offerings and marketing strategy to local taste and
preferences. It also alter sales and distribution strategies to fit
the prevailing retail system.
• This structure start to create problems for the company in the
1980s because there are existence of a lot of duplication in
manufacturing, a lack of scale economies and need high cost
structure. It also resulting Unilever falling behind its rivals in
term of bring new product to the market.

10. 2.What was Unilever trying to do when it introduced a
new structure based on business groups in the mid1990s? Why do you think that this structure failed to
cure Unilever’s ills?
• Unilever introduced structure based on business
groups actually are to cut down operating costs
and introducing new product.
• Based on my opinions, this structure failed to
cure Unilever’s ills because the manager are no
longer allowed to match product offerings and
marketing strategy to local tastes and
preferences.

11. 3.In the 2000s, Unilever has switched to a structure based on
global product divisions. What do you think is the underlying
logic for this shift? Does the structure make sense given the
nature of competition in the detergents and food business?
• In my point of view, Unilever are try to improved
it products availability and flexibility to the local
preferences and at same time want to reduce
operating cost and create a global brands.
• Yes, new structure made sense because
consumers more prefers products that has
brands and able to fulfills their needs.

12. THANK
YOU!!
ANY
QUESTION?