'Management and policy in large scale enterprise. Lever Brothers and Unilever, 1918-1938' in B Supple (ed), Essays in British Business History. The development of the firm

Notes:

'The essay that follows shows that the changes in management of Lever Brothers from owner-manager to professional non-owner-manager was closely related to changes in policy and more gradually to changes in organisation of the business, initially in headquarters administration, later in the productive mechanism itself'. In particular deals with the crisis at Levers in the early 1920s, provoked by the bursting of the post war boom which at Levers coincided with the completion of high price acquisition activity, eg Royal Niger Co. This, coupled with William Lever's death in 1925 ushered in a new management structure and style with the business now being managed professionally under D'Arcy Cooper and William Heyworth