Regional IT team, Asia
Following the Y2K upgrade I convinced Unilever's Asia regional management that we should centralise ERP support and future projects in one team, to be based in Singapore. As well as the ERP system I was given responsibility for other regional applications,...
ERP development in Asia
In 1996 Unilever discovered that the ERP systems used in most of our East Asian businesses was not Y2K compliant. In cooperation with several other multi-nationals we commissioned a new version of the software from the supplier. My first involvement was to organise...
Standard Chart of Accounts
I was asked to support the rollout of a global Standard Chart of Accounts in North & South East Asia. This involved working with the country teams to identify and resolve issues; acting as point of contact with the global team in the UK. Our biggest challenge was...
Joint venture in China
I was part of a three-person team from Unilever that established a joint-venture tea factory in Guangzhou, China. We started with an empty building and a year later we had a working factory. Initially I was responsible for Finance, IT and Supply Chain however when...
Working with partners, Middle East
Unilever's export business operated with a number of joint venture and à façon manufacturing partners. I was involved with a number of projects working with some of them in Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Malta. This made me very aware of the need to accommodate the...