Case Study

Unilever Ice Cream Europe (C): Winning back at the office

6 pages
December 2009
Reference: IMD-3-2085

The C-case and video is an interview with Kees van der Graaf. He speaks about the team’s return to the office following the market dive and how a radical change plan was decided and implemented.

Learning Objective

Each step in this case and video series builds on the previous one, introducing new challenges, discussion points and learning. Participants begin in the A-case by exploring the challenges of complexity facing Unilever Ice Cream, and can have useful discussions around the causes of complexity, the impact of complexity on the business and the challenges in reducing complexity. These issues and discussions can be directly related to similar challenges facing their own businesses. As the participants move on in the journey with subsequent cases and video footage, they are able to explore how the company successfully tackled complexity, the leadership and organizational challenges it faced in doing so and how these were overcome.

Keywords
Complexity, Simplicity, Strategy, Change, Growth, Profitability, Must-win Battles, Food, General Management
Settings
Europe
Unilever
2001 – 2003
Type
Field Research
Copyright
© 2009
Available Languages
English
Related material
Video
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