Costed road maps will ensure we stay on track, and we will hold ourselves accountable to targets that are explicit, stretching, transparent and measurable and I’m excited to be leading for this next phase of the sustainability journey, building on the great traditions of the Company and the fantastic work of my predecessors. But I also want to take the process of simplification here further by simplifying what it all means for our brands. In recent years, the debate around brands sustainability and purpose has arguably generated more heat than light. The topics have been conflated and the business case has got confused. My approach is simple. All of our brands or businesses will be expected to be full and active participants in delivering Unilever’s four big sustainability priorities.
Some priorities, of course, will apply to certain business groups and brands more than others. For example, our Home Care business has a larger plastic footprint than Nutrition, but this is an enterprise-wide endeavor. Some brands will want to include the work they are doing on sustainability as part of their brand proposition to drive unmissable superiority. That could be through the use of recycled plastic packaging or a sustainable sourcing claim. Many are already doing this, and that will continue, as I explained earlier. In fact, I expect it to increase in line with the acceleration of our work on the big four pillars. And then some brands we also want to go — beyond the four areas: leveraging their expertise and insights in other areas of social and environmental concern and make this a part of their brand proposition, what has become known as brand purpose.
And when done well and with credibility, this can be highly effective. Unilever knows how to do it well, brilliantly in fact, think of Life Bouy, Domestos or, of course, Dove campaign for real beauty. For these brands, and others like them in our stable, they will receive every encouragement to go on developing a social or environmental purpose as a part of overall brand proposition. But we will not force fit this across the entire portfolio. For some brands, it simply won’t be relevant, and that’s okay. Again, the approach here is based on being simpler going deeper, maximizing impact. And this is what will characterize the next stage of the sustainability journey. I hope that makes the thinking clear. The third action under productivity and simplicity is driving the benefits of the new organization.
In all my meetings so far with investors and others, I found widespread support for the new organizational structure, and I can see why. It is working well and is already increasing speed and accountability. However, this was a significant change introduced just over a year ago. The speed with which it has been adopted, is impressive. But inevitably, there is more to do to finalize the changes and ensure we reap the full benefits. We can’t yet say job done, Hence, I have, together with the leadership team, given priority to ensuring that we eliminate remaining points of ambiguity in order to drive single-point accountability. This is essentially done. We take the opportunities that are certainly there to simplify further and we strengthened frontline roles, especially in the area of customer development, where we have a clear program for the next 12 months.
This level of organizational change only happens very occasionally. This one can be of significant long-term benefit to Unilever. But for that reason, it’s vital. We get it right in all respects. That is why I’m calling it out as an important part of driving productivity and simplicity and why I intend to stay close to this area personally as we finalize the new structure. Let me turn now to the third shift. Dialing up our performance edge. Of course, this starts at the top with me and with the leadership team. A good moment, therefore, to share with you the details of the new team that will lead for this agenda. You will have seen the announcement this morning of a number of changes to the Unilever leadership executive. Let me share them briefly with you again now.
Following a very thorough and open search process, Fernando Fernandez currently President Beauty and Well-Being, will succeed Graeme as Chief Financial Officer. I couldn’t be more pleased with this appointment. As I indicated in the announcement, Fernando brings the full range of financial, strategic and operational know-how that is vital to the role and which I believe will mark him out as an outstanding CFO of Unilever and a great partner to me as we go about executing this plan. You will have also seen that Hanneke Faber, President Nutrition and Matt Close, President Ice Cream, have both decided it is the right moment for them to move on. They have each made an outstanding contribution to Unilever in that case over a 31-year career with the Company.
I want to thank them for what they have done and wish them every happiness and success in the future. Hanneke’s successor as President of Nutrition will be announced shortly. Peter ter Kulve, who many of you will know, will move from President Home Care to President Ice Cream. As such, he will be returning to a part of the business he knows well and where he has enjoyed considerable success in the past. Peter is an exceptional business executive with a proven performance record, and I’m delighted to have him on the team in this role. Less known to you, perhaps at this stage, is the next generation of leaders who are joining the Unilever executive. Priya Nair, who succeeds Fernando as President, Beauty & Wellbeing; Eduardo Campanella, who takes over from Peter as President Home Care and A.C. Eggleton Bracy, who takes on the new role of Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, all great talent with impressive performance track records to match and all now part of what I hope and expect will be a great team to lead the next stage of Unilever’s development.
Leadership throughout any organization is always key but the organizational changes Unilever has gone through over recent times have highlighted the need for our leaders to have real breadth and depth. In other words, own the whole P&L. That is the inevitable consequence of a structure predicated quite rightly on delivering higher levels of speed, expertise and accountability than ever before. To help our leaders and to support them in delivering this plan, we are therefore going to make some important shifts in the way we think about and systemize our approach to performance culture. And again, it is all about simplicity and impact. For example, there will be fewer, clearer priorities, more single point accountability. Simpler, more visible in-year targets, more differentiated reward, new streamlined standards of leadership to help set expectations and guide behaviors.
And we will be putting forward a new reward framework linked more overtly to value creation. Measures such as underlying sales growth, ROIC and TSR will be included in our long-term incentive program. The new framework is designed to sharpen the link between actual performance and reward as well as strengthening alignment with shareholders’ expectations. These are important changes in their own right, but they will also send a clear signal of what we expect of our leaders and how in return we intend to support and reward them. This is a wide-ranging action plan based on some important changes and some significant shifts of emphasis. You are going to one time to digest the detail. You are also going to want to know when you can expect to see the benefits.
