We hope you enjoyed the learning journey on this course so far and have found it useful in

shaping your understanding of strategic management. We hope that by now, you have
developed a good understanding of the key frameworks and models used for analysing the
internal and external business environments. You are now also equipped in the formulation and
execution of a business strategy. Now, let’s focus on applying your learning to become naturally
skilled on the topic.

Background
In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company,
followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited (1935). These three
companies merged to form Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in November 1956. HUL is the
largest consumer goods company in India, established in 1933 and based out of Mumbai. The
company is known for its presence across almost all categories of consumer products and has a
variety of products in each of the categories targeted at almost all the customer segments. It
has products in over 20 consumer categories, including Food & Drink, Personal care, Homecare
and Water Purifier, serving over 700 million customers across the country. It is undoubtedly the
market leader in the FMCG sector. Some of the famous brands of HUL are Dove, Lux, Lifebuoy,
Pears, Hamam, Lyril, Rexona, Surf Excel, Wheel, Comfort, Clinic Plus, Sunsilk, Fair & Lovely,
Pond’s, Lakmè, Vaseline, Bru, Taj Mahal, Lipton, Brooke Bond, Cornetto, Kisan, Annapurna,
Magnum, Close up, Pepsodent and many more. On 1 April 2020, HUL also acquired some
leading brands like Horlicks and Boost. The company has 21,000 employees, along with 31
factories, more than 1150 suppliers and products available at more than 8 million outlets in
India.

Problem Statement
PART 1

1. Assess the external environment of HUL through:

a) An analysis of the macro-environment factors using the PESTEL framework.

b) An analysis of the industry environment using Porter’s Five Forces Model.

PART 2

2. Assess the internal environment of HUL through:

a) An analysis of the firm’s business through the SWOT framework.

b) An analysis of the firm’s resources (any one) through the VRIO framework.

The submission must be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, comprising the following
sections:

● External environment
● Internal environment