Acknowledgements

BISMILLAHHIR RAHMANIR RAHIM. At first we would like to great thank our Almighty Allah for his
blessing, which gave us patience to do this important research successfully.

First we want to thank our respective course teacher Mr Sohrab Khan for his co-operation. Despite his
busy schedule, he has helped us a lot to prepare the assignment. Our whole research was based on his
proper guidance and framework. This study gave us a chance to look into the operation of a globally
successful company-UNILEVER.

We also like to thank those web developers who develop the web sites which help us to make our
concern.
Introduction of Unilever:
Unilever is a multi-national corporation, formed of Anglo-Dutch parentage that owns many of the world's
consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever
employs nearly 180,000 people and had worldwide revenue of almost €40 billion in 2005.

Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever NV in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Unilever

PLC in London, England. This arrangement is similar to that of Reed Elsevier and that of Royal Dutch
Shell prior to their unified structure. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively
operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael
Treschow. Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, was appointed an Executive Director to the Boards of
Unilever PLC and Unilever NV in October 2008, the first time an external candidate was chosen for the
role. The company is widely listed on the world's stock exchanges.

Historical Background:
Unilever was created in 1930 by the merger of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine
producer Margarine Unie, a logical merger as palm oil was a major raw material for both margarines and
soaps and could be imported more efficiently in larger quantities.

Unilever was created in 1930 by the merger of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and In the 1930s the
business of Unilever grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America. In 1972 Unilever purchased
A&W Restaurants' Canadian division but sold its shares through a management buyout to former A&W
Food Services of Canada CEO Jeffrey Mooney in July 1995.By 1980 soap and edible fats contributed just
40% of profits, compared with an original 90%. In 1984 the company bought the brand Brooke Bond
(maker of PG Tips tea). In 1987 Unilever strengthened its position in the world skin care market by
acquiring Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragú, Pond's, Aqua-Net, Cutex Nail Polish, Pepsodent
toothpaste, and Vaseline. In 1989 Unilever bought Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Fabergé, and Elizabeth
Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances. In 1996 Unilever purchased Helene Curtis
Industries, giving the company "a powerful new presence in the United States shampoo and deodorant
market". The purchase brought Unilever the Suave and Finesse hair-care product brands and Degree
deodorant brand.

In 2000 the company absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North
America and extending its portfolio of foods brands. In a single day in April 2000, it bought, ironically,
both Ben & Jerry's, known for its calorie-rich ice creams, and Slim Fast. The company is fully
multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent (except Antarctica) and research
laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in England; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull,
Connecticut, and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India (see also
Hindustan Unilever Limited); Pakistan; and Shanghai in China.

Unilever has recently started a five year vitality company initiative in which it began to converge the
marketing of disparate arms of their business, including personal care, dieting, and consumables into an
umbrella function displaying the breadth of their contributions to personal vitality. This plan has been
implemented because of the lack of recognition that the Unilever brand wields, despite its ubiquitous
presence. In 2006 it concluded with the sell off of the global frozen foods division, excluding the ice
cream business and the Italian frozen vegetables businesses.

The company publicly takes a strong stance on sustainability and started a sustainable agriculture
programmed in 1998. In May 2007 it became the first tea company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a
sustainable manner, asking the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO, to start
certifying its tea estates in East Africa. It declared its aim to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips
tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010, followed by all Lipton tea bags globally by 2015.
Covalence, an ethical reputation ranking agency, placed Unilever at the top of its ranking based on
positive versus negative news coverage for 2007. In 2008 Unilever was honored at the 59th Annual
Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media
Technology for Creation and Distribution of Interactive Commercial Advertising Delivered through
Digital Set Top Boxes" for its program Axe: Boost Your ESP.

Mission Statement:
Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. Unilever meets everyday needs for nutrition; hygiene and
personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

Vision:
Unilever operates their business with a view to:

 We work to create a better future every day.

 We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are
good for them and good for others.
 We will inspire people to take small, everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the
world.
 We will develop new ways of doing business with the aim of doubling the size of our company
while reducing our environmental impact.

A new vision:

In November 2009 we launched a new vision to double the size of our business while reducing our
overall environmental impact across our entire value chain. The commitment presents Unilever with a
major challenge. The reduction we are talking about is an absolute one. It incorporates all our impacts
right across the value chain – from the sourcing of our raw materials through to consumer use and
disposal of our products. In short, we intend to decouple growth from environmental impact.
Functional Approach of Management:
We found all the managerial functions in terms of activities of the managers in Unilever . Here we are
talking about those managerial functions

Planning:

Planning is a management function that involves defining goals, establishing strategies,

developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities. As a decentralized organization most of
the planning decision of Unilever is taken by the regional top level managers. And they used to
prepare plans relating to marketing of products like advertisement of product through different
mediums like electronic or print media.
Organizing:

Organizing is a management function that involves in arranging and structuring works to

accomplish the organizational goals. As their mission to add vitality to life with their world class
products managers of Unilever organize their employees by assigning them appropriate work
that is related to their designation and abilities as well.

Organizational structure:

Chairman
Staffing:

Leading:

As we know that leading is the process of influencing people toward the right direction.
Managers in Unilever lead, motivate and inspire their employees in times of disappointment and
guide them in certain matters of work. One such example is when one of employees was not able
to work properly because of some uncertain reason, in this situation he had to step in and
motivate him to concentrate on his work. He also tries to have good relation with his employees
to be able to lead them properly.

Controlling:

Controlling refers monitoring activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as per the
plan. In Unilever all employees are expected to avoid personal activities and financial interests
which may conflict with their responsibilities to the company. Managers make sure that their
department is working according to the instructions assigned to them and they are not involved
in any time wasting activities and also evaluates work of employees that weather they are
working accordingly or not if not they take immediate action.
Departments in Unilever:
During my visit at Unilever office I come to know that there are following departments are currently
working:
 Research and development
 Information technology
 Human Resource
 Supply Chain
 Marketing
 Customer development
 Business to Business
 Finance Department

Research and development: This department brings ideas to improve and introduce their brands as well.

Information technology: The managers of this department find the new technologies available and use
this technology to drive competitive advantage.
Human Resource department: Managers of this dept use to drive the employees in a disciplined manner
to achieve organizational goal. Here the also motivate the employees to the fullest possible extent.

Customer development: Building relationship with customer and maintain the relation is important job
for any organization that and is done by the managers of this departments. This department also tries to
find needs and wants of the customers.

Supply chain department: After production how products should be distributed to the supplier-
wholesalers, retailer or what would be the chain of supply of the products from production till sales to the
final consumer is totally operated by this department.

Marketing department: Managers of Marketing department tries to create values of their brands to the
customer by taking various steps like- promotion, advertisement, free distribution and so on.

Finance department: The vital role is played by finance department This department develop plans for
their financial activities and also prepare the budget for the coming fiscal year.

Business to business:
Managerial skills of the Managers of Unilever:
Managers of Unilever have some managerial which helps them to accomplish their goal efficiently. The
distinctive skills of the managers of Unilever are:

1. Technical skill
2. Human skill
3. Conceptual skill
4. Design skill

1. Technical Skill:

Technical Skills are the job-specific knowledge that is available in managers and employees as
well of Unilever and this skill helps them to work with machineries and updated technologies.

2. Human skill:

Human skills include ability to work well with people both individually and in a group. As
managers has to work with their subordinates and also with their superiors the managers of
Unilever are very competent to deal in such situation as they have this skill.

3. Conceptual skill:

Conceptual skill is the ability to see big pictures and understand the elements in a situation. The top and
mid level management of unilever are very competent to deal in such situation.

4. Design skill:

The upper-level managers of unilever are very skilful to solve problem in any situation. They are also
very skilled to design and effective solution in any kind of problem which emplifies the development of
unilever.

Design
Skills
7-s

Product categories:
Food brands
Home care brands
Personal care brands
Nutrition
Health, hygiene & beauty

Business Portfolio Matrix:

STARS:
High growth rate & high market share
Lux
Sunsilk
Fair & lovely

CASH COWS:
Low growth rate & high market share
Surf excel
Ponds
Lipton
Close up

CASH COWS:
Low growth rate & high market share

Surf excel
Ponds
Lipton
Tazza
Close up
Lifebuoy soap
Rexona
Vim

DOGS:
Low growth rate & low market Share:
Wheel
Lifebuoy shampoo
Vaseline
SWOT Analysis:
The overall evaluation of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is called SWOT
analysis. In general, a business unit has to monitor key macro environment forces (demographic-
economic, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural) and significant microenvironment actors
(customers, competitors, distributors, suppliers) that affect its ability to earn profits. The business unit
should set up a marketing intelligence system to track tends and important developments. For each trend
or development, management needs to identify the associated opportunities and threats.

Strengths:
Recognizes as a global company.
Brand value
Strong brand portfolio.
Strong relationship with retailers.
Economies of scale.
Largest organizations
Advanced technology
well skilled professionals
Good distribution network all over world
Unilever provided creative strategies
Strong marketing and good image creation
Wide distribution channels in both national and internal markets
Decentralized decision-making

Weaknesses:
Dual leadership. 
Not connecting with customers.
Inefficient management of brands.
Focus on short term strategy
High cost of restructuring
Hard to manage and control company structure
High cost limit promotions in company

Opportunity:
Changing consumer’s preference
Increasing need for healthy Products
Focus on R&D
Rural areas are a large prospective market
Employing external job applicants
Gain high market share
Introducing new distribution channel
Promote its products in new geographic areas
 Customer base is increasing with effective marketing
Take advantage of the changes of technology
Population expanding at a rapid rate
Low income consumers

Threats:
Product innovation is ineffective
The high competition for market share increases rapidly
Changes of people’s lifestyle
Political and Economic factors
Increasing social awareness in society
Unfavorable conditions
Acquisition decision

Competitive Advantages:

Recommendation:
In View of the following data Unilever is one of the manufacturing sector who need to produce more
output by implementing new technologies, new tariffs, and new consumer satisfaction value added
services. Further, it is still the largest manufacturer in the world in terms of geographic reach & quality.

Conclusion:
Our report only focuses on the UNILEVER. For every text we copied, we have mentioned the exact
references. By our analysis we have found that, UNILEVER is globally successful company. One of the
reasons for their success was however; they create brands for specific countries and regions. Products for
example, found in south Americas will not be found in south Asian countries. Since difference in culture
exists worldwide, the creation and supply of brands have to be taken seriously. UNILEVER Bangladesh
is the market leader in home and personal care products. The UNILEVER products are able to gain
customer satisfaction and trust. Their production and distribution is expanding rapidly.