INTRODUCTION TO UNILEVER

• Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational corporation

that owns many of the world's consumer product
brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and
personal care products
• 223 000 employees world-wide
• Brands on sale in 151 countries
• Consumers choose Unilever products 150 million
times every day
• Unilever's main competitors include PepsiCo,
Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Kraft Foods, S.C. Johnson
& Son
 Principles of management
• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Leading
• Controlling
PLANNING
 MISSION
• Add Vitality to life.
• Unilever meet everyday needs
for nutrition; hygiene and
personal care with brands that
help people feel good, look
good and get more out of life.
 Vision statement
• Touching heart changing lives
 Objectives
• To be honest, transparent and ethical in our
dealings at all times.
• To win the hearts and minds of consumers.
• To deliver what they promise.
• To become empowered leaders who are
inspired by new challenges and have a bias
for action.
• To believe in trust, truth and outstanding
teamwork.
• Unilever care about and actively contribute
to the community in which they live.
 Rules and Regulations
• There shall be compliance with all applicable
laws and regulations of the country where
operations are undertaken
• There shall be respect for human rights, and
no employee shall suffer harassment,
physical or mental punishment, or other form
of abuse
• All products and services will be delivered to
meet the quality and safety criteria specified
and will be safe for their intended use
• Safe and healthy working conditions will be
provided for all employees
 Strategies
• Product Development
• Corporate Strategies
• Human Resource Strategies
• Finance Strategies
 MBO
• Mbo links Unilever objectives and the behavior of
individuals. Because it is system that links plans
with performance, it is a powerful implementation
technique
• In Unilever MBO process involves:
• Establishing and communicating Unilever objectives
• setting individual objectives
• Developing an action plan of activities needed to
achieve the objectives.
• periodically reviewing performance as it relates to
the objectives and including the results in the annual
performance appraisal
Tows matrix
BCG Matrix
 Cash Cows
• They generate more cash than required.
• They extract the profits by investing as little cash as
possible
• They are located in an industry that is mature, not
growing or declining.
• · Surf excel
• · Ponds
• · Lipton
• · Close up
• Blue band
• Lifebuoy soap
• · Rexona
• · Knorr
 Stars
• It leads to large amount of cash consumption and
cash generation.
• They also require heavy investment, to maintain its
large market share
• Attempts should be made to hold the market share
otherwise the star will become a CASH COW.
• Lux
• Sunsilk
• Wall’s
• Fair & lovely
• Rafhan
• Energile
 Question Marks

• They will absorb great amounts of cash if the

market share remains unchanged, (low).
• Why question marks?
• Question marks have potential to become
star and eventually cash cow but can also
become a dog.
• Investments should be high for question
marks.
• Clear shampoo
• Rin
 Dogs
• In this area your market presence is weak so its
going to take a lot of hard work to get noticed .also
you won’t enjoy the scale economies of the larger
players so its going to be difficult to make a profit
• Wheel
• · Supreme tea
• · Lifebuoy shampoo
 Competitive Strategy
• Due to slow performance in emerging markets as compared to
competitors Unilever adopt “GROWTH STRATEGY”
• Reduced portfolio to 400 brands
• Focus on R&D & innovative product
• Growth through acquisitions
• But this strategy failed in 2004 due failure in advertising &
marketing effort
• Reported net loss of 318M dollars
• So what’s next???
• Then Unilever adopt two strategies
• Reorganize organizational structure to focus on needs and
wants of consumers & brand management
• Implement Unilever believers, product & brand extensions, use
advertisement that connects with consumer needs & increase
consumer focus on health & nutrition products
 Decision making criteria
• Centralized system of decision making
• Authorities given to regional managers
• Most of the decisions are made by the
board of directors by voting
• Each one has one vote
Organizing
Identification of departmentation
• Human resource management
• Marketing department
• Commercial department
• Sales department
• Finance department
• Payroll department
• Information technology department
• Engineering department
• Administration
• Auditing department
• Customer care
 Vertical structure:
• Vertical differentiation:
• Reporting relationships that link people, tasks and functions
– appropriate span of control

• Tall structures
– impede communication & coordination
– distort information (intentional & non-intentional)
– decreases motivation
– too many middle managers (structure begets structure)
• Vertical differentiation:
– Centralization:
– easier coordination of activities
– speedy decision making
– Decentralization:
– motivation & accountability increase
– fewer managers are needed
Problems with vertical Structure
in Unilever
• Principle of minimum chain of
command
– Maintaining a hierarchy with the least
number of levels of authority needed to
achieve a strategy.
 Centralized or decentralized
structure:
• In case of Unilever the organizational
structure is almost shared structure in
nature. As it is a multinational organization
and almost all such type of organization have
decentralized structure. Unilever has also
decentralized structure in mostly
departments but in almost departments there
is a shared structure
Staffing
 Staffing:
• The recruitment process at Unilever can be
classified into following stages:
• personnel planning and vacancy
announcement
• nature of application form
• recruiters qualification
• channels of recruitment
• recruitment –constraints and challenges
Selection process in Unilever:
• reception of application
• Evaluating reference and biographical data
• Employment test
• assistant candidate through interview
• Cognitive ability test
• Physical ability test
• Work samples
• Hiring decision
Leading:
 Democratic style:
– Participative style
– The leader involves one or more employees in the
decision making process
– Leader maintains the final decision making
authority.
– Allows everyone to be part of a team—everyone
feels that they have participated and contributed.
– Encourages participation, delegates wisely,
values group discussion.
– Motivates by empowering members to direct
themselves and guides w/a loose reign.
– Negative—everything is a matter of group
discussion and decision
 Compensation and benefits:
At Unilever following benefits and
compensations are given:
• Medical facility to employee and his/her
parents
• Paid vacations
• Accommodation facility to energetic
employees
CONTROLLING
 Controlling

• Staff control
• Quality control
• Product control
 Suggestions and
recommendations
 Suggestions:
• Unilever is one of the manufacturing
sector who need to produce more
output by implementing new
techniques, new tariffs and new
consumer satisfaction value added
service. Further, it is still the largest
manufacturer in the world in terms of
geographic reach and quality.
 RECOMMENDATIONS:
• They should encourage new products
• Bring innovations in the existing
products
• They should conduct more surveys in
order to know about consumer
satisfaction level
• Easy access for communication should
be provided in