Unilever is one of the world’s oldest multinational corporations with extensive product offerings in the food, detergent, and personal care businesses. It generates annual revenue in excess of $50 billion and a wide range of branded products in virtually every country. Detergents, which account for about 25 percent of corporate revenues, include well-known names such as Omo, which is sold in more than 50 countries.

Personal care products which account for about 15 percent of sales include Calvin Klein cosmetics, Pepsodent toothpaste brands, Faberge hair care products and Vaseline skin lotions. Food products account for the remaining 60 percent of sales and include strong offerings in margarine (where Unilever’s market share in most countries exceeds 70 percent), tea, ice cream, frozen foods and bakery products.
Historically, Unilever was organised on a decentralised basis. Subsidiary companies in each major national market were responsible for the production, marketing, sales and distribution of the products in that market.

In Western Europe, for example, the company had 17 subsidiaries in the early 1990s, each focused on a different national market. Each was a profit center and each was held accountable for its own performance. This decentralisation was viewed as a source of strength. The structure allowed local managers to match product offerings and marketing strategy to local tastes and preferences and to alter sales and distribution strategies to fit the prevailing retail systems.
To drive the localisation, Unilever recruited local managers to run local organisations; the U.S. subsidiary (Lever Brothers) was run by Americans, the Indian subsidiary by Indians, and so on.

By the mid-1990s, this decentralised structure was increasingly out of step with a rapidly changing competitive environment. Unilever’s global competitors, which include the Swiss