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Case Study

From dream to nightmare (A)

By Kees Van der Graaf

4 pages

November 2011

Reference: IMD-3-2227

This case relates the events leading up to the appointment of Kees van der Graaf, president of Unilever’s Ice Cream and Frozen Foods Europe (ICFE), to the position of Foods Division Director. The A-case describes how Kees was taken by surprise at the annual senior leadership event in February 2004 when one of Unilever’s co-chairs informed him of the Board’s decision. This meant that Kees would have a seat on Unilever’s board and become a member of the executive committee. All of a sudden, a dream he had never felt possible had come true. However the following day, when the news was officially released, the dream quickly turned into a nightmare for Kees.

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, General Management, Strategy

Settings

World/global
2004

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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