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Case Study

From dream to nightmare (B)

By Kees Van der Graaf

2 pages

November 2011

Reference: IMD-3-2228

This case relates the events that took place after the news of Kees van der Graaf’s appointment as Unilever’s Foods Division Director was released. It became clear that the other members of the Foods Executive were closing ranks on him. Kees and the senior VP of HR for the Foods Division agreed that a process was needed to get him fully introduced to the team before taking over his new role. They decided to organize a session for the entire executive team the evening before the next Foods Executive meeting. The purpose of the session would be to help Kees relate to the team by positioning him properly and addressing all the misconceptions and stories that were flying around about him and his leadership style. The plan was unusual and potentially risky, but Kees felt comfortable sharing some deeper insights about himself.

Learning Objective

a) How to manage the communication process of a piece of price sensitive information; b) How to manage an on-boarding process of a new leader for an existing team.

Keywords

Corporate Communication, On-boarding Process, New Leader, Fast-moving Consumer Goods

Settings

World/global
2004

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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