Achieving Target at Unilever

Sulman, a Regional sales manager in Unilever Islamabad town, pored over the
performance evaluation data packet for his two area sales manager, Toor & Nasiri. He is
mingling with two to decide who is to be promoted. Especially, the Toor who has the
most negative remarks he had ever read. Sulman knew that Unilever wanted team
players, but he felt that he had a responsibility to build a business and that Toor was
critical to that effort. Toor was eligible to be promoted to BOM this year. But, with
performance evaluations like these from his colleagues, it would be difficult, if not
impossible, for the firm to promote Toor

Unilever
Unilever Pakistan is the largest FMCG Company in Pakistan, as well as one of the largest
multinationals operating in the country. The company had a turnover of Rs. 18.2 bn
(Euro 329 mn) in 2004, and enjoys a leading position in most of its core Home and
Personal Care and Foods categories,

Unilever’s’s corporate mission is to succeed with "the highest standards of corporate

behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the
environment on which we have an impact."1 …and they believe “The Unilever community
is shaped and led by its people, who operate creatively within a framework of shared
values and business goals.”

The company operates through 4 regional offices, as well as 4 wholly owned and 6 third
party manufacturing sites across Pakistan.2

Sales Department
The sales department, headed by the General sales manager, Ali us Sajjad, is divided into
regional offices. Each region is then further subdivided into different areas e.g. Islamabad
region consists of Rawalpindi Area (managed by Toor) and Islamabad area (managed by
Nasiri). Each area is further subdivided into territories (see Exhibit 1).
Policies:
Each area is managed by area manager
No manager can interfere in other’s area
Transshipment Policy: Manager can sell only in its own area. Trans-area-shipment
is considered to be interference in someone else’s turf and highly prohibited.
Managers compete with each others based on their sales targets

1
www.unileverpakistan.com.pk/ourvalues/purposeandprinciples/default.asp
2
www.unileverpakistan.com.pk/ourcompany/unileverpakistan/UP_ataglance.asp
 Dilemma
Two area Managers, AM, toor and Nasiri are confronting with each other. Toor with his
vision to increase the sales of the company some times violates the company policy of
transshipment. But this time Nasiri is at fire because he caught the delivery van with
Rawalpindi’s TSO selling at Islamabad Saabzi Mandi. Nasiri knew Toor always fight
only for the sake of his own commission and sales target; But always at the expense of
someone else target and commission. Nasiri understand the dirty politics of Toor who is
inefficient in his own home(Rawalpindi) and could not complete his target properly so
toor always hunt for other’s home to meet its target.

Nairi is an efficient manager and has an established a reputation of people manager in the
company. He established a strong third party distribution network in Islamabad. Prior to
him the Islamabad area is very upset with no strong distribution network. Competitors are
taking the advantage of this situation and Tapal & Tetley has already managed to enter
into Lipton home. Habib Oil has also damaged the Dalda and Planta’s sales.
In such a critical situation, Nasiri is like a blessing to a company whose good client skills
and strong negotiation capabilities helped the company to regain their lost market
position.
But in last couple of months he could not achieve its sales target; even he is putting his
best efforts. He could not figure out why this is happening. Meanwhile he found the sales
of Rawalpindi area has grown in last couple of months and they are achieving more than
their target. Furthermore, Nasiri is loosing some big clients in wholesale market. When
he visited to those clients to explore their complaints he found they are getting supply
from Rawalpindi area. He gets fierce on this situation and complaint this to Toor.

Nasiri: Your TSO is interfering in my territory.

Toor: I know this! He discussed this with me before delivery. But he is dealing with
Nankari Bazar’s client. That client (Yousf & Sons) wants the delivery at Islamabad
Mandi.

Nasiri: But you are not supposed to deliver or do any commitment regarding my
territory. Moreover you are also giving them at cut price.

Toor: Yes! According to books I should not but I also have to achieve the target.
Nasiri: Your target is for your area and you should complete it in your own area. If you
could not complete in your area then you are giving space to your competitor and
damaging the company overall market share.
Toor: It is none of your business.

Shabaz Toor
Throughout his four years of experience Toor has built strong relationships with the
important players in the market. Toor knows how to pitch sales and how to achieve
targets. But in few last months demand has increased rapidly because the Abpara and
Mandi’s retailers are approaching at the Nanankari Bazar. They are complaining
Islamabad’s TSOs & DSR (see exhibit 3) are very uncooperative and could not fulfill
their needs. Toor is generous to the Rawalpindi wholesaler to fulfill their client’s need
even some time at cut price. But Toor do this to increase the overall sales of the company
so that the widening gap should not be filled by company’s competitor.

End of Year Performance review

The most important performance measure in the Sales department is target. The manager
who has brought new business to the firm and managed to achieve its targets is the best
manager in company’s books. Sulman, RM, knew the conflict between the Nasiri and
Toor but do not want to lose any anyone because both brings unique skills to the
company and are beneficial for the longer success of company. So he let them fight
against each other and to decide on their own. But now the situation gets worse because if
he promotes Toor on the basis of performance metric (i.e. sales targets) then Nasiri will
not work under him and if he promotes Nasiri he has no objective reason to support. But
he knows it is a time to decide…

Exhibits 1: Sales Department

GSM

RM ISB RM Lahore RM Karachi RM Quetta

BOM

AM

TSO

Exhibit 2: Area’s served by distributors

Distributor Name Area Description

Citi Distributor Islamabad H, I ,F,G sector excluding G-6 & G7
Sana Distributor Islamabad Appara, Barahakho, G-6, G-7
Punjab Sarhad Distributor Rawalpindi Satelite Town, Kahyban-e-Sir syed, Pirwadhi,
Pindora
Novelty Distributor Rawalpindi City & municipality
National Consumer Rawalpindi Rawapindi Cantt & sadder
Distributors
Raja Distributors Islamabad Murree
Hazara Distributors Islamabad Abbotabad
Exhibit 3: Positions & Responsibilities

DSR– Distributor Sales Representative: Theses People are on pay roll of the third party
distributor and partially paid by company. These are the potential interface between the
retailers and company’s products.
Delivery Man: He is DSR and delivers the goods and is responsible for account
receivable and payments.
OB–Order booker: He is DSR and books order by pitching the sales to various accounts
TSO– Territory Sales Office: He is a liaison between distributor & company; and
responsible to look after the company’s interest in collaboration with distributor’s sales
force.
AM– Area Manager: He is responsible to look after three to four TSOs & distributor and
the market in general.