The Guardian (UK): Pass the butty
12 May 2005
Unilever shareholders attending the food group’s annual meeting were yesterday treated to an interminable presentation about its marketing strategy and how its health and food products help “vitality”.
The fact that investors were then offered a white bread fish finger butty as part of their free lunch nicely summed up the gap between Unilever’s rhetoric and reality.
New chief executive Patrick Cescau gave an astonishingly stodgy performance that part-emptied the hall and made one long for the return of his self-regarding but entertaining predecessor, Niall FitzGerald.
One wondered whether Cescau had eaten too many fish fingers or the various other processed foods made by his company rather than heeding the advice in the company’s own leaflets, which points out that vitality comes from fresh fruit and veg.
There was little attempt to justify the miserable performance of the now scrapped Path to Sloth (sorry, Growth) strategy, but plenty of squirming over why its architect, FitzGerald, left early but still pocketed a £1.2m “golden goodbye”.
One shareholder pointed out the desperate lack of diversity on the board – 15 men, one woman – calling for new blood and ideas. He had a point.
The corporate structure has just been shaken up but top jobs are still being filled automatically by long-serving company men such as Cescau. There is an insular feel about Unilever redolent of another troubled Anglo-Dutch group, Shell, accentuated by the fact that Shell boss Jeroen van der Veer recently joined the Unilever board. This rather dull Dutchman has his own work cut out trying to turn around Shell, where he is chief executive, and that may be why he was not at the Unilever meeting.
Cescau has some time to see whether his new corporate strategy can really trigger a turnaround but you have to wonder how long it might be before somebody makes a bid.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1481837,00.html
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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