Organizational Strategy’s and Structure – 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 competit ...