The decisions that made it
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Unilever's '69% Faster' Was a Headline, Not a Finding. Then Its Own CEO Quietly Conceded the Point.
For years, one number sold the world on purpose-driven brands: Unilever's purpose brands grew '69% faster' than the rest. It was self-reported, never audited, and had no control group - and in October 2023 the incoming CEO killed the mandate behind it.
8 min
The Culture Doctrine · People & Control
Unilever Tried to Give Mayonnaise a Purpose. A Shareholder Called It Losing the Plot.
Unilever's purpose-brands doctrine was sold as a growth engine. The CEO cited 'extremely strong data.' A top-10 shareholder called it correlation dressed as cause - and within a few years, a succession of CEOs and a Power Brands playbook quietly proved him right.
8 min
The Culture Doctrine · People & Control
Unilever Keeps Issuing One Cultural Doctrine for 400 Brands. That's the Bug, Not the Brand.
First every brand had to have a purpose. Then no brand was force-fitted one. Now mass advertising is 'dead.' Unilever keeps swapping doctrines while missing the real flaw: any single rule applied across 400 brands and 190 countries kills the brand-level judgment it claims to set free.
8 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Unilever Didn't Reshape Its Portfolio. It Was Pushed.
The story is a CEO boldly pruning to focus. The record is a retreat: a £50bn GSK bid rejected three times, an €8bn ice cream business spun off after years of underperformance, and a demerger that completed a month late.
7 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
Unilever Didn't Beat Kraft Heinz With Purpose. It Beat It With a Clock and a Thin Premium.
In 48 hours Unilever rejected a $143bn approach from Kraft Heinz. The story says purpose won. The truth: an 18% premium was too thin to be credible, the UK Takeover Code handed Polman a killswitch, and six weeks later he conceded most of the cost-cutting case anyway.
8 min