158 The 30 Day MBA in International Business Ca S e S TU DY Unilever In the spring of 2009 nearly every bank in the world was selling off any product group that was not core and even a few that were. The Royal Bank of Scotland put a fifth of its assets into a separate business ready to be sold off, leaving the management free to concentrate on the part that may possibly have a future. A decade earlier, in September 1999 to be precise, Unilever, a 34 billion (£30/$50 billion) business employing some 300,000 people in 90 countries and the name behind such brands as Magnum, Omo, Dove, Knorr, Ben & Jerry's, Lipton, Slim-Fast, Iglo, Unox and Becel announced its intention to focus on fewer, stronger brands in order to `promote faster growth and improved margins'. Over the following four years Unilever set out to whittle its brands down to just 400 from the 1,600 it started out with. At the same time it shook up its top management, splitting the company into two separate global strategic business units: food and home; and personal care. succession planning