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Essay: The Unilever Group – Company Analysis

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  • Subject area(s): Business essays
  • Reading time: 4 minutes
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  • Published: 21 June 2012*
  • Last Modified: 18 September 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 997 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 4 (approx)

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Background of Unilever

The Unilever group is the anglo-Dutch Multinational group came into existence with the merger between Margarine Unie( of Netherlands) and Lever brothers(of U.K) in the year of 1930.However the first company margarine Unie was associated with the production of margarine and the another one lever Brothers had soap manufacturing unit.The status of the company is dual listed while in Rotterdam it is listed as Unilever NV and in London it is Unilever plc. However it has been traded in stock exchanges of Amsterdam,NewYork,London,Belgium,France ,Germany,Luxemberg and Switzerland. It has also participated in the American Depositiory Reserves of New York Stock Exchange(NYSE).

Initially ,both the companies are merged with the signing of various agreements by having a coomon directors for both the companies and with an equal distribution of capital and dividend values.However with a new resolution the unilever has accepted Euro as the new currency for reporting.

Mission statement of Unilever

Unilever has an inspiring mission to add vitality in life .The company is committed to provide well balanced nutrition ,hygiene and in the field of personal care with a high brand standard.

The company has a deep rooted relationship with the local culture and the presence of the company in the global market led to a high degree of customer relationship necessary for the future growth.The company has a mission to bring the treasure of knowledge to the customers in the local market to make it a integration of different locality and nations.

The company utilises its manpower to bring a success and dedicated to maintain a high scale performance and productivity with a continuous learning and development.The corporate culture of the company is standardised and with a look forward policy towards community and environment where it has function.

Value Creation

The company has a roadmap encompassing all concernes for the wealth creation for its shareholders,to the people and to its partners,bring eco-efficiency by reducing the operational negative effects,Eco-innovation by reduction in the impacts of the products and ensuring sustainibilty in agriculture and water to the locals.

Overall Unilever is a culturally diverge company and more proactive in employing female manager with a percentage of 30 %.

Vision of the company

The company has a customer base of over 160 million people and helps in enriching health and beauty. The company has four different pillars of vision such as-to work for an ensured better future everyday,to bring goodness in looks,life and services ,action oriented scheme for the public and maintaining the balanced environment it tries to double their size.

Operation

Unilever has a operation in 90 countries and it products are sold in another 60 countries. It always faces a tough competition from its major rival Procter and Gamble and Nestle’. Unilever always scrutinises its activity and as a result the company has restructured by dislodging its dual structure after analysing the strengths and weekneses in 2005.The Unilever Bestfoods and and Home personal care is the vehicle for the company and allround performance of the company is dependent on these two divisions.The UK joint chairman Niall Fitzegerald has commented that this structure- “allows for faster decision making and strengthens our capacity for innovation more effectively,integrating research into divisional structure”(Unilever annual report 2001)

There is an constituted Board in the company controls both the divisions looking into the need of the local markets by introducing a wide variety of consumer products.

The Company has different operation under the global divisions which really creates the worth for the company with over 73 factories with an environmental standard certificate of ISO-14001.

Research and Development

Unilever has been maintain a high standard of research and development to establish it as core competencies to maintain its sustaibility with competirive dynamism.The R and D of the company follows the three theme mainly innovation,inspiration and participation.The Company has two business lines as pointed out above with 6 research centres in three continents and 71 centres for innovation across the world.

For Innovation, the company has a wide network of collaboration with experts of international repute and academicians with a third party involvement who can provide high quality research. The budget of the Unilever is 900 million euros with over 6000 people in research facilities in UK,Netherlands,USA,China and india.

For Inspiration, the brain involved in these product development has the responsibility to bring the product from the lab to the market which is a huge motivational factor.

For participation, one can undergo various patent norms or regulatory compliance which will have the least impact on the environmrnt.Such for example the trainee team in the research centre developed a fragrance for Lynx which is round the clock effective.

Marketing

Unilever has the tendency to market its product very aggressively .the company always follws the law and regulation pertaining to any market and has own marketing code of conduct with a dissent viewpoint and cares for parental norms towards the young children.

The company has a tendency to go for mass market with a certain number of outlets with full given price range.For example unilever

Findings of Unilever

The Unilever has undergone some changes in terms of its dual corporate structure by replacing it with a new structure to make it more efficient and substitute with a leadership structure. The company has replaced dual chairman/chief executive chairman structure by decentralising it. The Board structure has been revamped by cutting down the member size from seven to four. There are committee of executives, the Foods and home and personal care(HPC) division and 11 groups will be omitted and whole authority will be given under a Chief Operating Officer (CEO) and a team will be working under him. The company has appointed three regional presidents Europe, America and Asia/Africa. The structure will be as follows-

1) 2 Category presidents for foods and HPC

2) The Chief Financial Officer

3) The Chief human resources officer

http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/423116-1.html

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