Introduction

Organization Structure of the Nestle Company

Introduction

Nestle is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing company and it is one of the largest, leading and fast growing food company in the global world. The company was originated in the year 1867 by Henri Nestlé. Nestle is also considered world’s biggest nutritional & health related consumer goods company. In the present time, a range of products are offered by the company to the global consumers. For instance, bottled water, medical food, baby food, breakfast cereals, tea & coffee, ice cream, dairy products, snacks, pet foods etc. are the major products provided by the company in the global market. It is also found that, more than 30 brands of the company have annual sales of over US$1.1 billion. The company has developed 450 factories at the different locations. The company is providing its products in more than 189 counties that reflect its size. In order to grow and expand the business in the global market, Nestle had paid too much attention on corporate acquisitions. It is also considered the biggest supplier of drink and food products. In this research paper, the organizational structure of the company would be outlined and discussed.

Organizational Structure

An organizational structure/Chart reflects the relationships among the people within a company or organization. These relations may include director to managing director, manager to employees, CEO to different departments etc. Nestle is the large in size and decentralized organization so it is planned as per matrix structure. Simply, it can be said that, the company use a global hybrid or mixed structure in order to attain its corporate vision, mission and objectives and goals. The company allows its secondary divisions to enjoy a respectively high level of individuality. But, all the strategic and core decisions are made by the headquarter level. Subordinate branches are responsible to perform their day to day tasks individually. As per matrix organizational structure two or more different structures are utilized. In most of counties, Nestlé has its own sub-division and subsidiary companies so all these are handled and managed by the geographies.

As a biggest company in the market, it doesn’t accept the idea of a single market and utilize a geographic structure in order to fulfill the needs and expectations of customers and attain the strategic business objectives. As per this organizational structure, the company pays too much attention of independence of regional manager who is aware about the local culture of a country. The company gives full independence to its local managers and regional managers to select a product element, portion size, packaging and flavoring. In order to manage huge product line, the company is using several advanced tools, technologies and information systems. The company has divided the market geographically to meet the need of different level of customers. Moreover, each local division is fully responsible to report to the CEO of the company. This helps the company in controlling as well as managing of functional activities (Andriopoulos, & Dawson, 2008).

The company has its headquarters in Switzerland and this work closely with the various geographic divisions. For instance, all the strategies, policies, and norms for the zone are sets. The company has also set three zones that work with local market and strategic business units. The headquarters is also accountable to develop liaison and relationships among the business centers and market. The company Nestlé has also have a shared vision so all employees are able to understand the direction of the company. This vision helps them in understanding company’s value, goals, objectives and tools.

On the other hand, strategic business units have to work together with the R&D to fulfill the needs and expectations of the customers. This helps in achieving brand and business objectives successfully. Along with this, it should also be noted down that, the company has also developed joint ventures with the several players. The global matrix/hybrid organizational structure is helping with the company to work effectively with other company in the market and attain strategic objectives. This specific organizational structure is also reflecting task allocation systems of the company. This allows employees to see their organization and its business environment (Gersick, 1991).

Organization Chart

As a global multinational company, Nestlé is conduct annual general meetings of shareholders. Based on its corporate website, it is found that, the key executives of the company are board of directors. CEO as well as chairman is responsible to manage and lead the overall operations of the company. In the company, there are four types of committees that play key role in supporting of board of directors in the area of corporate governance. These are led by the chairman of the company. In these committees, the board has 14 members that play key roles in handling of various parts of global business of the company. The departmental heads and executives are accountable to manage business operations and implementation of specific strategies and policies proposed by the board of directors (Dahlin, Weingart, & Hinds, 2006).

In addition to this, as per the organizational chart, it is also analyzed that, the company has divided management into 3 levels of management such as: top level, middle level and low level. All are responsible for different tasks, roles and functions such as:

• Top Level of Management: Managing directors, chief executives and board of directors are the top level management and these are responsible for managing business policies and objectives. Apart from this, they are accountable for preparing strategic policies & plans, coordinating the activities of all the departments, managing the relations with outsiders, providing direction and guidance etc.
• Middle Level of Management: Under the middle level management, branch managers and departmental managers works. They have to operate their relative departments to attain the objectives. The level of management is also responsible to give report to top level management. Middle level management is responsible for organisational functions, developing specific plan as per company’s policies, developing strategic plan for the sub-units, arranging training for lower level management, and inspiring lower level managers.
• Lower Level of Management: These are supervisory or operative level of management and include officers, supervisors, manager section etc. These are responsible for allocating tasks and role for the employees & workers, offering instructions about day to day operations, and managing relations in the organization (Govindrajan & Gupta, 2001).

Conclusion

On the basis of above analysis, it can be concluded that, the matrix organization structure adopted by the company is helping it in attaining strategic vision and mission. Moreover, all the departments are able to effectively communicate with each other’s on a project. On the other hand, the company is able to resolve issues more quickly with the help of this structure. This is also helping the company in motivating its different levels of employees. The company is also promoting a better sense of teamwork among the employees. Along with this, this structure is allowed the employees to work in the area of their expertise to attain the strategic objectives of the company. Overall, it can be said that, the company is gaining competitive scope and advantages over competitors.

References

Andriopoulos, C. and Dawson, P. (2008). Managing Change, Creativity and Innovation. USA: SAGE.

Dahlin, K., Weingart, L. & Hinds, P. (2006). Maximizing productivity in diverse teams. Rotman Magazines, 44-48.

Govindrajan, V. & Gupta, A. K. (2001). Building an effective global business team. MIT sloan management review, 42(4), 63-71.

Gersick, C. J. (1991). Revolutionary change theories: A multilevel exploration of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm. Academy of management review, 16(1), 10-36.