Optimization of FMCG Companies' Product Portfolio in Latin American Markets (Case of Unilever)

At the present stage, large international companies have to conduct their activities in a highly competitive environment. Multinational corporations strive to gain and maintain a leading position in the markets, strengthen their competitive advantages, and diversify their activities, which is provided by developing a company's strategy and making effective management decisions. One of the main levels of strategic planning is the corporate strategy, which is aimed at effectively managing a set of strategic business units of a diversified company. An important component of the corporate strategy is the product portfolio, and its optimization becomes a priority when developing the strategy. International companies operating in the FMCG sector have dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of brands in their portfolio and operate in several industries. Such diversified corporations face the problem of prioritizing the management of multiple product groups in a resource-constrained environment. The company faces questions: which businesses should be invested in, which areas should be abandoned, and which should be maintained at the current level. Latin America is one of the most promising developing regions in the world. This is a market represented by a half-billion people and producing more than 8% of the world's GDP. However, operating international companies in the region is complicated by the unstable economic and political situation in some countries, so firms need to carefully study their corporate strategy and optimize their product portfolio to maximize profits in the market. The relevance of the work is that currently the markets of Latin America attract an increasing number of international FMCG companies. Unilever is one of the largest companies in this sector in the region, but in 2018 this region was recognized as the weakest in the company's portfolio, as it showed the largest decline in revenue as a percentage, so the company needs to rework its corporate strategy and optimize its product portfolio in the region's markets. The purpose of this study is to develop recommendations for improving the product portfolio and corporate strategy of the company being studied in the markets of Latin America using the McKinsey and BCG matrices.