Strategic Change in Unilever: A Case Analysis

RUNNING HEAD: STRATEGIC CHANGE
0
Strategic Change
System 0032
[Pick the date]

Strategic Change
1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Strategic Change..............................................................................................................................2
Leadership style...............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................7

Strategic Change
2
Introduction
The world is changing, customer preferences are changing, economy is changing and technology
is changing. Due to changing environment businesses need to change its strategies and
businesses who fail to embrace change cannot survive in the current environment. In an
organization, change can be implemented with the help of an effective leader. Firstly managing
change in an organization involves diagnosing the organization environment and then analysing
strategic change required in the organization1. This can be understood with the help of case
analysis of Unilever. The company was started in 1930 in the UK and now a multinational giant
that offers various products in a different range to its customers. Case analysis of Unilever is
done to know the strategies that company followed from 2009 to 2014 in order to improve its
performance and to survive in the market2. The case analysis includes identifying the problem
that company faced and reasons for change and how the company accepted the change under the
leadership style of Paul Polman. Further sections disclosed the changes that company made and
this is analysed with using different concepts and model of change that is change kaleidoscope,
type of strategic change and done and levers of change that leader adopted to improve the
performance.
Strategic Change
Strategic change is a choice that companies made in order to change its structure and working to
improve performance3. Under the leadership style of Paul Polman, Unilever gone through
various changes and the need for change was diagnosed by Paul Polman in 2009. Unilever was
facing various challenges in the market that was, competition from other big players at
international platform, slow growth in its profits and performance and it was recognized by the
leader that company’s profit declined in the year 2009 that showed that there was a need to
change the structure and key performance indicators and implement change in an effective way.
Paul recognized in 2009 that “the company had to deal with significant economic headwinds and
1 Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D. and Regnér, P., 2011. Exploring strategy. Financial Times Prentice Hall.
2 Steve Smith, W., 2009. Vitality in business: executing a new strategy at Unilever. Journal of Business Strategy, 30(4), pp.31-41.
3 Tidd, J. and Bessant, J.R., 2018. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change. John Wiley &
Sons.