ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°148 - Mai/Juin 2013 - 21

FoCus

By Thomas GRUNZKE (EAP 90)

The Navigator
Thomas GRUNZKE, took over the local CFO role at Unilever
Benelux in September 2011. In this article, he shares his
thoughts about his key challenges.

After graduating from EAP Berlin stream in
1990, I now look back at 22 years of experience
in Finance or Finance related functions within
Unilever, the euros 50bn fast moving consumer
goods company with businesses in nearly all
markets around the world. Our leadings brands
include Dove, Axe, Skip/Omo, Magnum, Knorr,
Maille or Lipton. Since the start of my career, I had
the fortune to work in many parts of the world,
with a focus on emerging markets such as China,
Eastern Europe and Vietnam.
Besides the captain
Arriving in the new role in the Benelux, with overall
Finance responsibility for the Netherlands and
Belgium, an euros 1.6bn business, I initially had to
readjust to the market realities of Europe, with low
growth rates, a consolidated trade environment
and largely established market positions. As the
local CFO, I see my role very much as the navigator who helps the captain (= local CEO) to steer
the ship with speed but safely into the right harbor. While there is a global and European strategy
(Unilever aims to double its size from euros 40bn
to E80bn while halving its environmental and increasing its social impact), it remains the job of
the local leadership team to adjust this strategy to
the local circumstances. It is the local CFO who,
due to his «neutral» position, can best support
the CEO to make the necessary trade off decisions between business units and their brands:
where to invest more funds to accelerate growth,
where to reduce to improve profitability? How to
ensure that each euro spent on sales or marketing
budgets has the highest possible return. How to
ensure maximum efficiency whilst investing into
new capabilities such as digital marketing or
e-commerce? These days, the local CFO can
strongly focus on the so called business partnering tasks as a number of back office functions,

such as financial accounting or tax/
treasury, are either outsourced to
3rd parties or centrally provided. As
a business partner, you challenge
and support the local marketing
and sales teams in taking the best
decisions for the business. «50%
of advertising spend is wasted» is
an old saying in the industry. The
challenge: identifying which campaigns are worth the money and
which not. This gets increasingly
more difficult as traditional media
is complemented by social/mobile
media.
« Winning »
With the objective of performance
The navigation role includes the
measurement of the current performance but even more importantly to
help strengthening future plans that
lead to winning in the future. What
does it actually mean, «winning»? It
is the combination of winning market share, growing turnover, increasing profitability
and, importantly, winning the hearts and minds of
the employees. As the local CFO, I see my task to
help the CEO to increase the chances to meet and
beat all targets which often may appear mutually
exclusive. It is about moving the ship forward with
maximum speed without hitting rocks (pro-active
risk management) or running out of fuel (balancing the funds) before reaching the target harbor
ahead of competition. I am happy to say that I am
proud to play my part in safeguarding the successful heritage of the many brands, some of which
have been in the market for over 100 years, while
adjusting the business model for the future.
●

ESCP Europe Magazine N° 148 - Mai/Juin 2013 -

Table des matières de la publication ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°148 - Mai/Juin 2013

Couverture
Zapping
Sommaire
BUSINESS
Personnalités du mois Gilles BOGAERT (91) : Acteur de la performance
Focus
Sur tous les fronts
Au coeur de la création de valeur
Soigner sa communication
Transformer la fonction
Piloter la performance
The navigator
Efficience and performance
Chef de choeur
Des défis à revendre
De l’audace, toujours de l’audace
Itinéraires
Le goût de l’aventure
Créer sa « boutique »
Entretiens
Promo 78 : 35 ans après
Promo 88 : 25 ans après
Tourisme & loisirs
Agro-alimentaire
Banque/finance
Développement durable
Innovation
BTP
Avocat
NEWS
Vie du réseau
Alain PROST (83), Président de Maison Lejaby
Nominations
Groupe Automobile : La stratégie de Renault en Chine
La 57 pleure…
Groupe RH : du système D au système CO
Carnet
London Gala
Agenda
À lire
Carrière Le DAF du 21ème siècle
Voyages Maroc-Martinique à la rame
CAMPUS
École
Start@Europe 2013
Crise de l’euro : les craintes sont-elles dissipées ?
Le MS Finance fête ses 25 ans
Fondation 2013 : une action renforcée !
Vie étudiante
Au grand galop !
Noisy week-end

ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°148 - Mai/Juin 2013