Inside Unilever: The Evolving Transnational Connpany

Still, there are also risks in the informal transnational network. For instance, management can lose its sense of urgency. Everybody may be so busy with friends elsewhere - with the interesting training program, the well-organized course, the next major conference-that complacency sets in. Unfortunately, we have seen this happen in some of our units, especially the more successful ones. It tnay be necessary to shake up the system from time to time, either entirely (as Unilever did with a shift in its core strategy) or partially (as we did with the changes in our foods business). And major shakeups are tasks for the chief executive, tasks that can be delegated only to a limited degree.

But complacency is not a real problem if everyone takes his or her sometimes shifting roles and responsibilities seriously. 1 like to use an analogy with a dance called the quadrille. This is an old-fashioned dance, in which four people change places regularly. This is also how a good matrix should work, with sometimes the regional partner, sometimes the product partner, sometimes the functional partner, and sometimes the labor-relations partner taking the lead. Flexibility rather than hierarchy should always be a transnational's motto – today and in the future.