Harvard Business School: Unilever’s Butter-Beater: Innovation for Global Diversity

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One of the fundamental reasons why other countries did not embrace Krona is because there was not much local research and development done in other countries. For example, the market structure and consumer attitudes toward spreads in the Netherlands were different from those in Germany. Because Krona was developed in Germany, the Netherlands team would have to adapt not only the product formulation, but also the entire marketing mix to the unique tastes and competitive characteristics of the market. The same problems were occurring in other countries as well, localized research to fit the needs of the consumers was not being conducted properly for success. The German team leader noted, “ We realize even more now, that the diverse cultures in the European countries lead to enormous differences in consumers’ preferences. You can’t assume that if you have good results in Germany, the European potential is similar. It is still different and we have to take this into consideration for our strategies.”

Bill Bordewijk had joined Unilever in his native county, Holland. He has served in the company’s operations in Nigeria, England, Canada and the Netherlands. On average, high-potential managers spent between two and three years in a position before moving onto their next assignment. What he should do is to conduct more localized research and development in these different countries where he wants to the company to be successful in. What I see more and more is that companies with large research and develop teams are greatly successful. With more research and development teams helping him and the company, all of his questions in the end of the article would be answered and the company’s success and legacy will continue for many of years.