Contemporary Management

Research paper
Group: 63G

By: Mohamed Samy Mohamed Rashed

Supervised By: Dr. Khaled Bekhet

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Table of content
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Unilever’s Structure ………………………………………………………………………. 9

Centralization, Decentralization, & Leadership style …………………………………….. 14

Work Specialization ………………………………………………………………………..15

Managing Organizational Changes ……………………………………………………… .15

Unilever’s Decision Making Process and Planning ……………………………………… 17

Unilever’s Social Responsibility & Sustainability ……………………………………….. 18

Unilever’s Ethics …………………………………………………………………………. 20

Unilever’s Control ………………………………………………………………………… 23

Unilever’s Innovation ……………………………………………………………………… 24

Unilever’s Information System …………………………………………………………….. 25

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………. 27

References …………………………………………………………………………………. 29

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Introduction

Unilever is a Dutch-British transnational consumer goods company co-headquartered

in Rotterdam, Netherlands and London, United Kingdom. Its products include food,
beverages, Home care, health & hygiene, and personal care products. It is considered as the world's
largest consumer goods company. Unilever is one of the oldest multinational companies; its
products are available in around 190 countries. It is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever
N.V., based in Rotterdam, and Unilever plc, based in London. It was founded in 1930 by the
merger of the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and the British soap maker Lever
Brothers. During the second half of the 20th century the company increasingly diversified from
being a maker of products made of oils and fats, and expanded its operations worldwide companies
operate as a single business, with a common board of directors.
Unilever owns over 400 brands, but focuses on thirteen brands with sales of over one billion euros,
which are organized into four main categories – Foods & Refreshments, Home Care, health &
hygiene, and Personal Care. Seven out of every ten households around the world contain at least
one Unilever product, and the range of world-leading, household-name brands includes Lipton,
Knorr, Dove, Axe, and Omo.

Food & Refreshments products encompasses; Breyers, Cornetto, Hellman’s, Knorr, Lipton,
Magnum, Pure Leaf, Unilever food solutions, Arisco, Ben & Jerry’s, Bru Instant, Carte D’or,
Continental, Cremssiono, Cup a Soup, Fruttare, Klondike, Maille, Maizena, Marmite, Pfanni,
Popsicle, Savora, Solera, Unox, Viennetta, Wall’s, Annapurna, Brooke Bond, Bango, Buavita,
Bushells, Chirat, Choysa, Colman’s, Conimex, Glaxose-D, Gien, Joko, Kissan, Knorrox, Kuner,
Lanchoo, Lyons, Malloa, McColin’s, Mondamin, RI.K, Robertson, Sari wagni, Rafhan, te Club,
PG Tips, Pot Noodle, and Rafhan.

Home Care products includes; CIF, Day 2, Domestos, Omo, Surf, ala, Bio tex, Blueair, Comfort,
Coral, Drive, Jif, Rin, Rinso, Sunlight, Robijn, Skip, Vivere, Wheel, Andy, Viss, Fofo, Wipel,
Viso, Super Pell, Vixal, and Wipol.

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Beauty and personal Care products includes; Axe, Lifebuoy, Dove, Sunsilk, Good Morning,
Lux, Camay, Signal, Closeup, Rexona, Clear, Fair & Lovely, alberto balsam, aviance, Breeze,
Brut, Citra, dusch das, Eskinol, Fissan baby, Hazeline, Impulse, Lever, mods hair, Noxzema,
Pears, ponds, Q-tips, simple, St.Ives, Suave, TIGI, TRESemme, Timotei, Toni&Guy, VO5,
Vaseline, Zwitsal, Block & white, Anderlon, Cream Silk, dawn, ELLE 18, Clinic plus, Follicure,
le sancy, Kanha, Organics, Pure derm, proden, and Ayush therapy.

Unilever’s has been and will always be striving for long term growth and this central part in their
business model. The company adopts multiple strategies to support their Sustainable operation as
they consolidate their efforts on building brands based on what people love while focusing on each
brand solely in order for each one to make a difference. They create global brands to compete with
the competitive global markets, while seek opportunities in local markets based on unique needs
of this markets’ consumers.

While of the main keys of the successful operation of Unilever is that they know how world and
market are dynamic, other than they always cope and be proactive with these changes, they create
the change and the world follows.

All of these support their new mission statement launched in 2020 “Every U Does Good” which
mainly illustrates that each Unilever’s brand seeks success while making a good impact throughout
their all processes. Each brand is working to do Good, by satisfying people’s diverse needs, make
a small environmental footprint, supporting their employees and partners and overall help global
and local communities to flourish.

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Unilever’s Values and principles

Unilever’s corporate purpose states "the highest standards of corporate behavior towards everyone
we work with, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact."

Unilever’s Values defines and gives direction on how people make actions on a daily basis, take
decision interact with their colleagues, partners, customers and consumers ethically. The company
has four Values which are integrity, responsibility, respect, and pioneering.

All of Unilever’s policies states that all employees should act with integrity and responsibly in all
of their actions, how do they behave in their working day, their relationships with suppliers, it
guides them for doing the right to get the best outcome

As illustrated earlier, Unilever’s brand focus on giving a better impact every day and act socially
responsible, throughout their operations, commercials, environmental contributions. They care
about adding value to their business partners, consumer and the overall society.

Unilever’s Leadership model is mainly designed to deliver faster decision making and more
flexible operations.

Unilever’s executives

Alan Jope – Chief Executive Officer

Graeme Pitkethly – Chief Financial Officer

Conny Braams – Chief Digital & Marketing Officer

Marc Engel – Chief Supply Chain Officer

Fabian Garcia – president, North America

Hanneke Faber – president, Food & Refreshments

Sunny Jain – President, beauty & personal Care

Sanjiv Mehta – President, Unilever, South Africa and Chair managing director, Hindustan
Unilever

Leena Nair – Chief HR Officer

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Nitin Paranjpe – Chief Operating Officer

Richard Slater – Chief R&D Officer

Ritva Sotamaa – Chief Legal Officer & Group Secretary

Peter Ter Kulve – President Home Care

Unilever’s Customers

Unilever Strategy is mainly about consumer centric growth, the company expands according to
consumers’ needs and wants. The company has two types of consumers; Customers and shoppers.
Customers are said to be the modern trade (Key Retailers, Hyper markets, and wholesalers) while
also the pharmacies. In which the company deals directly with both of them, customize its services
and operations to facilitate and coordinate the work between them. Unilever has a long term
contract between its customer based on long term mutually beneficial relationships got out form
satisfactory dealings with both parties. On the other hand, there is the shoppers whom are the end
users who actually use Unilever’s products. The company has a very Intensive marketing plan and
perform wide range of research to deliver what those shoppers expect, the company tailor its
products to which the shopper pay attention to as Quality, price, new trends, and innovative &
diverse portfolio products that satisfy all of their different needs.

Unilever’s Competitors

Unilever has a wide range of competitors, both direct and indirect. The direct competitors are the
ones who sell similar products of Unilever and act as another options of UL’s products. As Nestle,
P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Henkel, Kraft, Colgate Palmolive, Mondelez, Arma, and Mars. Also
there is indirect competitors that provide products that acts as substitutes of Unilever’s products
like L’oreal, GSK, Edge well and others. The company also faces direct and indirect completion
from local players in different markets. Unilever pays attention and work very closely with their
competitors, they tailor their strategies to be differentiated and ahead of them. The company
perform SWOT & TOWS on a regular basis to know how leverage opportunities faster and take
advantages of their strengths better.

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Unilever’s Strategies

Unilever’s generic strategy builds competitive advantage by satisfying consumers’ specific needs
and preferences.it is used to ensure organizational competitiveness necessary for business growth
and resilience. In the case of Unilever, competitive advantage is based on product development
approaches that integrate research to address market needs. In addition, the company maintains
growth through a suitable combination of intensive strategies. Unilever shifts the prioritization of
its intensive growth strategies based on the condition of the consumer goods market. The overall
combination of such generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies ensure
Unilever’s continuing success in its operations.

Unilever’s Generic Strategy Unilever uses broad differentiation and innovation as its generic
strategy for competitive advantage. The main focus of this generic strategy is its emphasis on
features or characteristics that make the company’s products stand out against competitors. For
example, Unilever produces personal care products like Dove Cream Bars to satisfy consumers’
need for soaps that are not harsh or drying. Despite their relatively high selling prices, such
Unilever products are competitive because they stand out from a majority of soaps that focus more
on cleaning than moisturizing. In this strategy, the company attracts customers to specially
designed products. Thus, such a generic strategy aligns with Unilever’s vision statement and
mission statement, which aim to support sustainability and to increase vitality in consumers’ lives,
respectively.

Unilever’s Intensive Strategies (Intensive Growth Strategies)

Market Penetration (Primary Strategy). Unilever applies market penetration as its primary
intensive growth strategy. In this intensive strategy, the company increases its sales volume to
improve revenues and corresponding business growth. For example, in the home care market,
Unilever aggressively sells its products in current markets, such aggressive efforts increase the
company’s ability to capture customers away from competing home care firms. Unilever
successfully applies this intensive strategy by using the generic strategy of differentiation to make
its products more competitive and attractive than others.

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Product Development (Secondary Strategy) Product development functions as a secondary
intensive strategy that Unilever uses for business growth. The company applies this intensive
growth strategy by introducing new products that address consumers’ needs. For example, entirely
new or new versions of Unilever’s personal care products are released over time to maintain or
increase the company’s market share. This intensive growth strategy is in line with the company’s
differentiation generic strategy for competitive advantage in the consumer goods industry. For
instance, differentiation requires product uniqueness, which is applied in Unilever’s product
development processes.
Diversification (Supporting Strategy) Unilever uses diversification as a supporting intensive
growth strategy. This intensive strategy focuses on establishing new businesses to grow the
company. The generic competitive strategy of differentiation supports this intensive growth
strategy by ensuring that Unilever’s acquired brands offer unique features that attract target
consumers.
Market Development (Supporting Strategy) Market development is used as a supporting intensive
growth strategy in Unilever’s business. In this intensive strategy, the company grows by entering
new markets or market segments. For example, Unilever can grow by marketing its current
products as a new solution to unaddressed needs in certain market segments, such as infant care
needs. However, the company already has significant presence in practically every consumer
goods market segment in the country. Thus, this intensive growth strategy takes only a supporting
role in Unilever’s business. The generic strategy of differentiation supports this intensive strategy
by creating competitive advantage, based on product uniqueness necessary to successfully enter
new market segments.

Unilever’s structure

Unilever’s organization structure is responsible for ensuring adequate support for product
innovation in the firm’s business. A company’s organizational structure or corporate structure is
the design that defines the arrangement and systems used to build and interconnect various
organizational components, such as offices and teams. Unilever’s organizational structure adapts
to changes in the consumer goods industry. At present, the company maintains a structure that
addresses corporate needs in terms of managing product types across the country. As a leading

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consumer goods firm, Unilever has an organizational structure that suitably supports diversified
operations.

Unilever has a product type divisional organizational structure, which is the most significant
feature in the company. The organization is divided into components based on their product focus.
It functions as a unit that enables Unilever to manage the development, manufacturing, distribution
and sale of its consumer goods. For example, the managers use this feature of the organizational
structure to match markets needs with appropriate products based on Understanding of these needs
as they are totally focused on a specific category and have the enough expertise accumulated from
their work on particular market insights on this category. An advantage of this structural
characteristic is its facilitation of the company’s efforts to apply product differentiation, this
structure is beneficial, especially because the company already has a diverse portfolio of products.
So, it is crucial in letting each division in the company concentrate on its part. Unilever maintains
the following product type divisions in its organizational structure:
1. Personal Care
2. Foods & Refreshments
3. Home Care
4. Health & Hygiene

Corporate Executive Teams are a secondary characteristic of Unilever’s organizational structure.

This structural feature is based on business functions. For example, Unilever has a team for finance
and another team for marketing communications. These teams make up the Unilever Leadership
Executive (ULE) group. The following are the corporate executive teams in Unilever’s
organizational structure:
1. Chief Executive
2. Human Resources
3. Research & Development
4. Supply Chain
5. Marketing & communications
6. Finance
7. Legal

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 Geographic divisions is the least significant feature in Unilever. The company relies on this as
they believe that each country and region has different needs from another. While also, other than
the overall strategy, they have unique strategies that works with each Country’s Dynamics.

The following geographic divisions are maintained in Unilever’s organizational structure:

1. Asia/AMET/RUB (Africa, Middle East, Turkey; Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)

2. The Americas
3. Europe

All of the above shows that Unilever has a matrix structure and this structure is adopted by
Unilever because both technical expertise and product innovation are critical for its goals. It
implements both vertical (out of functional structure) and horizontal (out of product divisional
structure) communications.
As any other organization Unilever also recognized that it is hard to implement a balanced matrix,
to avoid dual authority it went for product matrix, the brand managers have the primary authority
and the functional managers simply coordinate & assign technical personnel to projects and
organize other administrative work.
Also, for Unilever to increase horizontal communication for better coordination and collaboration,
it integrates cross functional teams and it is a team composes of at least three members from diverse
functional entities to perform a common goal. Although, the organization sometimes uses task
forces when there is adverse problem facing the organization or even if it wants to achieve a certain
objective temporary, a representative from each department represent his department in continuous
gatherings and meetings until the problem is solved then everyone is disbanded after the task being
accomplished.

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Chain of command

As noticed from the above, it is found that Unilever has a clear hierarchy of authority that identifies
each one’s roles and responsibilities. The company starts with the board of Directors whom are
eligible for hiring & monitoring the CEO performance.

Under the CEO comes the ULE (Unilever Executive Leadership), whom are; the Chief Financial
officer, Chief Operations officer, Chief digital & Marketing Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer,
Chief HR Officer, Chief legal officer and group secretary, and Chief R&D Officer. These are the
managerial levels that manages the company at globe, along with the Category presidents whom
are; president of food & refreshments, President of Home care, & president of beauty, & personal
Care.

Then comes the presidents of each Region, like president of North America, and others. Then in
each country there is the Managing director who manages the overall performance of the company
in this county, while in each country it has its Divisions managers, as food & refreshments director
in Egypt. While also, Unilever in Each Country has the functional departments and managers that
supports the performance of the category and brand managers as Head of Finance in Unilever
Indonesia. Under each Category director, comes the brand managers who are responsible for
specific brand or Range like Hair Care or Oral Care. Each brand manager has numerous employees
working under him and all work on coherency to achieve a clear set of Goals while recommended
to report their work and take decisions with their direct managers. Other than this, each function
in the company has representatives who their primary role to support the activities of brands, as
there are numerous marketing operations employees to handle marketing activities of specific
category as, food & refreshments marketing officer

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Organizational Chart

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Span of control

As noticed from the organizational chart, the span of control under each managerial role is narrow.
As Unilever is mainly organized according to divisional classification in order for each department
to focus on a specific set of products and roles to get the best outcome. Also, the company
encourages the horizontal communication between department to increase innovation and
creativity, so each department communicates with the other and share insightful information to be
ahead of other competitors and leverage opportunities more effectively. Only the CEO is the one
who has a wide span of control as he is eligible to take strategic decisions that affect the
organization as a whole.

Delegation
Delegation of roles differs from department to department in the organization, as most of strategic
positions are the only ones who are allowed to perform their roles. However, lower in the
organizational chart, Category and brand manager encourage employees to be involved in tasks
and decision making to increase their level of loyalty and involvement. So, they sometimes assign
some of their task to their Co-workers and monitor their performance.

Centralization, Decentralization, & Leadership styles

Unilever has a complex structure and organic in nature, the company is always striving for
differentiation and innovation by giving employees the space and authority to think and have a
share in decision- making process. While on the other hand, the company also encompasses a wide
range of portfolio, customer base, and operates in various markets around the world so, it has to
focus on efficiency and getting the work done. As a result, the company is not totally centralized
or decentralized. Strategic Strategies & goals that support the overall operation of the company is
centralized. Only, the CEO & Executives are the ones who are titled to be involved in those
strategies and objectives, which later give the blueprint for the brands and departments specific
strategies and goals. Lower level of decision are always pushed to lower managerial and non-
managerial levels, so decision-making at these stages are not totally centralized as on each role,
the employees working under him/her have a share in the decision-making, have the enough
capacity & authority to perform their task more freely without the need to get back to their manager
in every operation they do.
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Unilever adopts strategic leadership style, CEO and executives are the ones who take strategic
decision with respect to inputs they get from lower level directors. This can be an effective way of
leading the whole organization as they have to be sure that strategic companies interest and goals
have to be achieved while insights they have from multiple roles are beneficial to make sure that
these objectives are compatible, consistent, & achievable.

Work Specialization

In Unilever, all departments are highly specialized, each worker has a narrow range of tasks to
increase productivity and efficiency. Thus, results to division of labor which the organization
believe that it is effective in an efficient use of employee skills, allow the use of specialized
equipment, and increase employee’s skills through repetition. This is noticed from product
divisional classification as each team is assigned to specific brands and required to work on its
innovation and success continuously. While also Unilever encourages their employees to have
more exposure and get more experiences. So, some of the times they are assigned to do different
tasks with their manager to know different aspects of the organization.
Managing Organizational change
Unilever operates in a dynamic environment. it is always facing changes from various aspects
either internal or External. The company always pay attention to their surrounding as they believe
that successful companies are the ones who adapt to changes as reluctant to changes always lose
their market share and fades. Instead the company is adapting its strategies to be able to be
compatible to the new trends and factors in the market in which operates.

First of all, and one of the most important steps in the process of managing changes is to assess
which kind of change that company should adapt to. Unilever is affected by numerous factors of
external changes in its remote environment; as technological, economic, sociocultural, political,
ecological changes. While also face the same impact from changes occurring its operating
environment as; competitors, customers, suppliers, creditors, labor market. All of these changes
are continuously analyzed to clearly define the area in which an action must be taken and act

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accordingly. After defining the problem, the top managers align to the company business goals to
determine what type of action must be taken to help in sustaining the company’s competitive
position and long term profitability.

Then, Manager study how the changes they will implement will have an effect on the organization.
Accordingly, manager start with creating set of plans to choose from the best one which will help
the company actually implement the changing process while getting the best outcome determined
by Unilever’s Strategic objectives. Later on these plan act as a blueprint to each party work and
determine their goals.

After that starts the communication process, in which all employees in the organization got aware
of what type of change will be implemented, what is their role and what they need to be compatible
to the new plans. This is considered as very crucial stage as the plans should be very communicated
very well as consistency in communication among to avoid confusion and divergent performance.
While also lower levels employees involve and give their feedback as to make sure that these plans
are compatible with insights they have and applicable. For example, if there is s new technology
have been implemented in other than Unilever’s factories which led to more efficiency and faster
production, Unilever should follow this technology to be have same level of productivity as its
competitors. Then each one will be affected it the company as supply will increase so brand
managers & marketing teams should get involved to create demand as to sell this excess and avoid
lost expenses.

Subsequently, Unilever start training and giving support to their employees to make sure that their
performance is on the right track while getting them motivated to ensure the right implementation.

The Last thing, the company is to evaluate the change, how did it affect the company overall
performance. Also assess if the intended goals are achieved or not. Monitor the performance and
outcome of each employee in order to determine whether they should get back to early stages of
training or not. Moreover, this part is vital in determining the corrective actions that should be
taken and in which stages. While decide, If the changes happened fits the organization.

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Decision Making & Planning
Planning
Planning in Unilever as any other company is a primary function and must be done very carefully
as if the organization lacks good planning, all following functions won’t be done effectively and
will affect the whole business performance.

First of all, the company start with setting its goals and objectives. Then start to gather data about
their external and internal environment, analyze this data to make sure that these goals are
attainable and relevant to the marketplace. Subsequently, they develop the action plans on how
these goals will be achieved. Action plans are crucial part of planning in Unilever as it guides the
overall performance of each department and brand.

Also, the type of planning differs as top managers are the ones responsible for setting the strategic
goals and development of strategic broad plans that guides the work of the whole organization.
Then middle and lower level manager break down these goals to sub goals that are relevant to the
department and brand and make plans that are more specific for each team. Which is operational
planning.
As an example of strategic goal is to increase the sales. This is considered a very vague goal for
hair category employees. So, each brand’s manager sets goals out of it as increase the distribution
of products in rural areas, work on product promotions in order to encourage people purchase
decisions. As a result, mainly strategic managers are concerned with long term planning while
lower one are concerned with short term planning and goals.

Decision Making
Unilever is considered as large FMCG in terms of Market share, number of employees, products
portfolio and others. As a result, there are various types of decisions in the company. The Type of
Decisions taken is identified based on the problem Nature. If the problem is strategic one then it
should be taken by top level managers, while smaller ones their decisions are pushed to middle
and lower leveled managers.

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Through all levels in the company, the decision making process is almost the same. It starts with
a clear identification of the problem the stating the criteria which are relevant factors. After than
allocating weights to each criteria. Also, Unilever seeks to develop more than one alternative for
each problem as to study all possible solution and take decision based on theoretical background.
Than they analyze each alternative and implement the one that get the optimum and desired
outcome. Finally, they will evaluate the outcome and compare it with the desired goals, and take
corrective actions if needed.

Decisions in Unilever Also can be rational and intuitive, and this happens based on Nature of
problem or factors. If the problem has low level of certainty and all outcome can be identified and
studied. So, decision makers are making logical decision based on real factors. On the other hand,
for example the programed problem which are familiar and face the organization more than once,
usually experienced strategic manager have the enough accumulated experience and ability to
solve these issues faster, and type of decision here is intuitive.

Type of decisions that faces Unilever, for example if they want to introduce a new product to
market or focus its existing o increase its market share and value. Moreover, will they hire new
employees for a specific new technology or train their existing ones to handle its work, and a lot
of decision that are either taken annually each quarter throughout the year by top management or
daily decisions that are taken by lower ones.

Social Responsibility and sustainability

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) is vital to its business model. The company believes that
the best way and the only for a better business performance is doing good to society. USLP has
three big goals; Improve health and wellbeing for more than 1 billion, Reduce the environmental
impact by half. Enhancing the livelihoods for millions.

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 Improving health and wellbeing

By the end of 2019, Unilever had reached over 1.3 billion people through their programs on
handwashing, safe drinking water, sanitation, oral health, self-esteem and skin-healing.
Their approach encompasses;
 Selling appealing products with health, hygiene and nutrition benefits
 Encouraging people to take action on health, hygiene and nutrition through behavior change
programs
 Advocating to bring these issues higher up the national and international policy agenda
 Working with partners dedicated to health, hygiene and nutrition, to broaden our impact.

Reducing Environmental Impact

As Part of Unilever’s Vision is to grow our business whilst decoupling their environmental impact
from growth. They consider the reduction of our greenhouse gas (GHG), water and waste impacts
across their value chain, from sourcing our raw materials to within our own manufacturing and
operations and consumer use as well as they also aim to source their agricultural raw materials
sustainably.
Their approach encompasses;
 Taking global climate action and protecting forests
 Championing sustainable agriculture, focused land use and food security
 Helping consumers to recycle more and use less water and less energy through producing products
with a lower environmental impact
 Making their manufacturing and distribution more eco-efficient
 Advocating public policy to tackle climate change.

Enhancing Livelihoods
Unilever is seeking to make progress across the main three pillars of Enhancing Livelihoods goal
which are Fairness in the Workplace, Opportunities for Women and Inclusive Business.
Their Approach encompasses;

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 Driving fairness in the workplace – by implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights throughout operations, and working with suppliers who commit to promote
fundamental human rights
 Advancing opportunities for women; empowering millions of women by advancing opportunities
for women in operations, promoting safety, providing up-skilling and expanding opportunities in
their retail value chain. And challenging the harmful gender norms that can hold women back
 Developing an inclusive business; by improving the agricultural practices of smallholder farmers
and the incomes of small-scale retailers.

Unilever’s Ethics

Unilever is Considered as one of the most ethical companies in the world, it has its code of business
principles that guides and put rules to all parts of the organization and its stakeholders.
The following is an overview on how Unilever addresses each part of the organization to guide its
employees and the whole organizations to act Ethically

Their Standard of Conduct ensures that the conduct their operations with honesty, integrity and
openness, and with respect for the human rights and interests of their employees.

Obeying the Law; Unilever companies and employees are required to comply with the laws and
regulations of the countries in which they operate.

Employees; Unilever is committed to a working environment that promotes diversity and equal
opportunity and where there is mutual trust, respect for human rights and no discrimination. They
recruit, employ and promote employees on the sole basis of the qualifications and abilities needed
for the work to be performed. Also, they are committed to safe and healthy working conditions for
all employees. Moreover, the company forbids the usage of any form of forced, compulsory,
trafficked or child labor. While also, they are committed to working with employees to develop
and enhance each individual’s skills and capabilities. In addition to that the Company respects the
dignity of the individual and the right of employees to freedom of association and collective
bargaining. They maintain good communications with employees through company- based
information and consultation procedures.
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Consumers; Unilever is committed to providing branded products and services which consistently
offer value in terms of price and quality, and which are safe for their intended use. Products and
services will be accurately and properly labelled, advertised and communicated.

Shareholders; Unilever will conduct its operations in accordance with internationally accepted
principles of good corporate governance. They provide timely, regular and reliable information on
our activities, structure, financial situation and performance to all shareholders.

Business Partners; Unilever is committed to establishing mutually beneficial relations with their
suppliers, customers and business partners. In their business dealings they expect their partners to
adhere to business principles consistent with Unilever’s principles.

Community Involvement; Unilever strives to be a trusted corporate citizen and, as an integral

part of
society, to fulfil their responsibilities
to the societies and communities in which the
company operates.

Public Activities; Unilever companies are encouraged to promote and defend their legitimate
business interests. While also, the company co-operate with governments and other organizations,
both directly and through bodies such as trade associations, in the development of proposed
legislation and other regulations which may affect legitimate business interests.

The Environment; Unilever is committed to making continuous improvements in the

management of their environmental impact and to the longer-term goal of developing a sustainable
business. Moreover, it works in partnership with others to promote environmental care, increase
understanding of environmental issues and disseminate good practice.

Innovation; In Unilever’s scientific innovation to meet consumer needs they respect the concerns
of our consumers and of society and work on the basis of sound science, applying rigorous
standards of product safety.

Competition; Unilever believes in vigorous yet
fair competition and supports the development
of appropriate competition laws. Unilever companies and employees will conduct their operations
in accordance with the principles of fair competition and all applicable regulations.

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Bribery & Corruption; Unilever does not give or receive, whether directly or indirectly, bribes
or other improper advantages for business or financial gain. No employee may offer, give or
receive any gift or payment which is, or may be construed as being, a bribe. Any demand for, or
offer of, a bribe must be rejected immediately and reported
to management.

Also, Unilever accounting records and supporting documents must accurately describe and reflect
the nature of the underlying transactions. No undisclosed or unrecorded account, fund or asset will
be established or maintained.

Conflicts of Interests; All employees and others working for Unilever are expected to avoid
personal activities and financial interests which could conflict with their responsibilities to the
company and they must not seek gain for themselves or others through misuse of their positions.

Compliance, Monitoring, & Reporting; Compliance with these principles is
an essential
element in the business success. The Unilever Board is responsible for ensuring these principles
are applied throughout Unilever.

The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for implementing these principles and is supported in
this by the Global Code and Policy Committee which is chaired by the Chief Legal Officer.

Day-to-day responsibility is delegated to all senior management of the geographies, categories,

functions and operating companies. They are responsible for implementing these principles,
supported by local Business Integrity Committees. Assurance of compliance is given and
monitored each year. Compliance is subject to review by the Board supported by the Corporate
Responsibility Committee and for financial and accounting issues the Audit Committee.

Any breaches of the Code must be reported. The Board of Unilever will not criticize management
for any loss of business resulting from adherence to these principles and other mandatory policies.
Provision has been made
for employees to be able to report in confidence and no employee will
suffer as a consequence of doing so.

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Control

As discussed earlier, Unilever always focus on getting the jobs done and ensuring that they achieve
the optimum results. So as any other organization, Unilever has control over its operation in order
to ensure that outcome is as their planned objectives.
First of all, the company starts with measuring the performance in terms of stated standards that
results will be identified according to them. Then the management starts comparing these result
according to the company’s intended objectives or projects objective. In this stage, the company
usually put a range of variation to identify the scope of differentiation that would be acceptable as
to take decisions more wisely.
All of these stages are important to identify the type of corrective and managerial action that will
be take to get job back on track and get the desired outcomes. Type of action varies according to
the problem happening, sometimes the problem is severe and need immediate action or the
problem doesn’t need so much thinking and studying so it’s easy to identify the solution that would
help the performance get on track. Sometimes, the problems need more studying so management
spends time understand how and why the problem occurred to avoid the repetition of it and have
a background of solving similar ones in the future. Problems like usually needs basic corrective
actions.

Types of control also varies in Unilever based on the project or the objective that will be achieved.
Sometimes, manager controls before the creation of the project either by market research and data
analysis to ensure that the project will reach its objective based on theoretical background which
is feed forward control. While also, sometimes same or different project always require concurrent
control and monitoring the performance while it’s is still in progress. Some other projects needs
only feedback control and results and the control process begins after end of implementation.

Unilever also uses some traditional measurements of performance that are used in other
organization as they identify their performance in the balanced scorecard. As well as they always
their completive advantage and differentiation points to determine their benchmark and what make
them superior in the market which acts as measure of excellence to measure and compare against.

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Unilever’s Innovation

Innovation is at heart of Unilever’s strategy; the company seeks to grow sustainably by investing
in distinct areas to aid in reaching their goal. The company intensifies its effort to bring up new
ideas and brands to continuously offer diversification and updates in order to match the existing
trends and exceed consumers’’ expectations. All of effort are mainly addressing consumers’ needs
and wants so, the company work according to these consumers’ insights
The company applies Market and product development strategies to come up with new functions
and different variants and usage of their product to be innovative and expand their customer base.
While also entering new markets with their existing products by innovating in their marketing and
distribution campaigns. In addition to these, they are always aware of competitors and what they
offer accordingly, they spend a lot of time and effort to bring new ideas to the market and be ahead
of their competitors.

Unilever’s innovation process goes through three main stages; research, development, and product
launch:

1- Research

Unilever has six main R&D centers in the US, UK, Netherlands, India and China work on the
science and technologies that can be applied to their product development process. The research
aims to bring together best think and ideas from everywhere in the world as not to only focus on
expertise inside the company but also to take advantage from working with global universities and
specialist companies to get the best and most innovative results.

2- Product development

Product design teams take breakthroughs in science and technology one step further, turning
unique insights into the products that consumers want and need. Development and testing of new
technology takes place until it fits the product description and perfecting a formulation so that it
looks great and is stable when stored, or developing packaging that suits the product format,

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delights the consumer, and minimizes environmental impact. Next the product is tested as to ensure
that it is safe and compatible to the company’s standards of performance, then with consumers to
make sure it meets their needs.

3- New Product’s Launch

Our R&D Deploy teams draw on local knowledge - such as consumer preference, the regulatory
framework, legal considerations and competitor products - as they ready a product for launch into
a new market. They work closely with colleagues in marketing and supply chain to make sure the
new product can be manufactured efficiently and meets the needs of our consumers.

As, marketing team is responsible for building a communication campaign to raise awareness
about the new product and communicate its function and values effectively. While supply chain
role is to implement right the process of production, distribution and handle all operations needed
to help the product reach to its end user.

Unilever’s Information System

Unilever relies on various information system to overcome the geographic barriers, offer seamless
communication among its branches around the world, and eliminate excess paper work that waste
time, effort and money.

Information system used in Unilever are; Unilever supplier qualification system which is for all
suppliers of products and services to Unilever. Supplier are being registered in (USQS) are first
evaluated against principles detailed in Unilever’s Responsible sourcing policy. This system
represents what Unilever seeks and what they are expecting from their suppliers. As Unilever is
also a large multi-national organization its procurement team purchases from a very huge number
of supplier so, the system aids in their decision making process.

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USQS helps Unilever to; Identify approved suppliers for the products and services they want
to buy, better understand the possible risks of buying products or services in all geographies, and
encourage developments in supplier standards.

Also the company uses; Business planning and control system (BPCS) which facilitates the entire
manufacturing system, which consists of three applications that adds in various functions inside
Unilever. First, configurable enterprise financials which assists the functions includes accounts
receivable and payable, cost accounting, remittance processing, and budgeting and analysis. Then,
supply chain management applications which includes sale performance management, purchasing,
promotion, inventory management, and forecasting. Finally, Multi-mode manufacturing
applications which includes planning, production scheduling, capacity planning, shop floor
control, and plant maintenance.

Moreover, as any other company which care about their relationships with its customer, Unilever
employees Customer Relationship management system which helps the company to achieve
customer intimacy and is implemented to manage the company’s interaction with its customers,
clients, and sales prospects. It includes using technology to organize, automate, and
synchronize business processes mainly sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer ser
vice, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and attract new clients, service
and retain those the company already has, entice former clients to return, and reduce the costs of
marketing and client service.

In addition to that, the company cares about the organization of its employees and its Human
resources function so it employs Human resources management system and another information
system called “Performance Development and planning system” which monitors the performance
of Unilever’s employees continuously and allow each employee to his/her value-added to the
organization. Moreover, the company also has “performance appraisal and competency
enhancement system” which is responsible for employees’ appraisal and enables them to
understand each employee's abilities, competencies and relative value and worth for the

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organization. Then, the employees are graded and raised according to their performance and results
got out from system.

Finally, and one of the most important systems in Unilever is “Coupa” which Unilever’s online
buying system, it enables purchase of non-production items to be made at volume negotiated prices
from suppliers. They pay suppliers through this system as the purchasing order is issued which
acts as official approval for production and quotations are collected lately form finance team by
sending the purchasing order with invoice or the bank transfer is sent directly.

Conclusion
Unilever is considered one the most important FMCGs in the world, it has very competitive market
position in many countries. It is a company that Is well known for its good reputation and
successful performance. Unilever is Organic in Nature as it emphasis on its products innovation
and bring new creative ideas to the market while crafting new techniques for doing its Business.
Also, the company has a matrix structure as it adapts various types of organizing as product
division, functional division, and geographic division. However, to maintain unity of command
and avoid conflicts in decisions within the organization it adapts to Product Matrix Structure.

On the other hand, Unilever doesn’t enjoy all of characteristics of the organic nature. Due to the
complex product portfolio, number of employees, external and internal factors that affect the
company. As a result, the company is not totally centralized or decentralized. Work specialization
also is very clear within Unilever but as they care about innovation, the management usually go
for some diversification in employee’s roles.

Unilever is also well known as a socially responsible organization that sends a lot of money and
effort to act socially to the external environment by adapting various programs to help people
getting better life, as well as doing good to the environment as a whole, partners, employees, and
consumers.
To maintain its competitive position and global market share, Unilever focuses intensively on
innovation and creating new product to match consumers’ different needs and wants in order to
ensure its long term sustainability and profitability. Besides, Unilever has their global Code of

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ethic that deliberates every act inside the company and help their employees and stake holder to
act ethically to avoid any conflicts and illegal acts.

Why I am interested to join Unilever?

As noticed from earlier notes, Unilever is one of the most successful companies and working in
such organization will enhance my skills and knowledge and help me get exposed on different
business practices around the world. The working environment in Unilever encourages innovation
and help their employees to get their best as they respect their employees’ rights and give them
proper trainings and support to ensure that they will excel in the business world. The experience
that I can get from Unilever can’t be compared to any different local company.
So, I think working in Unilever will be an important step in my career and will help me a lot In
any further step in my business life.

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References
https://www.unilever.com/about/who-we-are/about-Unilever/

https://www.unilever.com/Images/code-of-business-principles-and-code-policies_tcm244-

409220_en.pdf

https://www.academia.edu/38622351/Management_Information_Systems

https://www.unilever.com/about/innovation/

https://www.academia.edu/36551995/STRUCTURE_AND_FUNCTIONS_OF_UNILEVER

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aSGuest134942-1418403-unilever-structure-design/

https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/

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