Make sure you hire an outsider as the next chief executive, went the clamour from Unilever’s frustrated shareholders when the current boss, Alan Jope, said last September he’d be checking out.
The sense that the Dove-to-Marmite titan requires a kick that only a newcomer can deliver has been overwhelming ever since Unilever’s misadventure a year ago in trying to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer products division, now demerged as Haleon. That folly was abandoned when the group’s own shareholders rebelled, arguing that Unilever should fix the businesses it already owns before attempting splashy £50bn-plus purchases.
