Strategic Management: A Case Study of Unilever

This case study analyzes the strategic management of Unilever and recommends long-term objectives, operational strategies, management accounting strategies, sales and marketing strategies, and human resources and risk management strategies.

Running head: PART 1: UNILEVER
Strategic Management
[Assignment 2 (Part 1): A Case Study of Unilever]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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PART 1: UNILEVER
Table of Contents
Question 1: Using ALL SEVEN criteria in preparing long-term objectives for Unilever............................2
Question 2: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of operations, recommending
FIVE operational strategies to Paul Polman................................................................................................3
Question 3: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of management
accounting, recommending FIVE strategies to Paul Polman.......................................................................4
Question 4: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of sales and marketing,
recommending FIVE strategies to Paul Polman..........................................................................................5
Question 5: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of human resources and
risk management, recommending FOUR strategies to Paul Polman............................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Question 1: Using ALL SEVEN criteria in preparing long-term objectives for
Unilever
Two Grand Strategies
In context of the identified needs, two grand strategies such as Vertical Integration and
Innovation will be highly recommended to Unilever.
Vertical Integration: It is an arrangement in which the company has its full control on its supply
chain operation. It means that different works in the supply chain will be taken care by different bodies;
however, they will share common needs. This is the most important part of this arrangement as there will
be fewer doubts about the full control on the operation. The system indeed looks possible and quite
realistic as well.
Innovation: It is a continued process in which firms use the different technologies and the
strategies to create the difference with it. There is no limitation or any time period set for using the
innovative approaches. In fact, it is very important for a sustained business. According to the case study
report on Unilever, the company was not listed in the Fortune’s list of 2008 of most desired companies to
work with (Johnson, Whittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regner, 2017).
Checking the feasibility with qualities of long term objective
1. Acceptable: Managers can make the difference. There is a need for employee friendly
environment, so that, it becomes attractive to fresh talents. Fresh talents can be very vital for encouraging
innovative approaches in the company.
2. Flexible: Employee recruitment can be improved with effective utilisation of latest
technologies. Supply chain operation can be taken under full control as the company had the history to
undergo major changes or restructuring. One of the examples of restructuring had happened in 2000
(Icmrindia.org, 2018).
3. Measurable: The supply chain operation will get improve. Unilever will be able to have a full
control on the operation. Fresh and skilled employees will be attracted to work for the company.
Objectives should be attained by the end of five years of time.
4. Motivating: The grand strategies should be motivating for the company and also for the
employees. A transition to a much-friendly work environment should be motivating for employees.

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Restructuring of supply chain operation should also be motivating for the company and the other
stakeholders.
5. Suitable: The grand strategies will help Unilever fulfilling its mission to serve the community
on a daily basis. For example, the enhanced control on the supply chain operation will only augment its
capability to produce quality products on a daily basis.
6. Understandable: The suggested grand strategies must be understandable to managers in
Unilever. This is because the company had gone for restructuring on quite a lot of occasions.
Restructuring again should not be a new thing to the company and its stakeholders.
7. Achievable: Objectives are achievable as there have been restructuring on quite a few
occasions in past.
Question 2: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of
operations, recommending FIVE operational strategies to Paul Polman
Recommending five operation strategies to Paul Polman
(Mechleri, Fennell & Mac Dowell, 2017)
Focus on the problem: Paul Polman needs to focus on problems rather than on the technologies. It
is important to identify what the exact problem is and then utilising the most feasible technology or the
set of technologies.
Follow the fundamentals: It is very critical and important as well to stick with the fundamentals
than depending a lot on technologies. Operational principles like ethical practices must be deployed to
pronounce a loyal and a trustable image.
Accountability: Managers need to be active in setting the metrics and rules. It must be deployed
organizational wise to make the difference in the worldwide branches of Unilever. There is a need for a
regular monitoring of operation, so that, performance is effectively controlled.
Employee motivation: It is extremely recommended to understand the employees’ needs &
demandsto increase employee engagement. Nonetheless, motivated employees are the assets of an
organization.
Change: It is never advisable to stick with just one strategy. It is rather advisable to positively
look for changes which improve the business performance. There will be times when one or few

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strategies will not work. Coca-Cola sets one of the finest examples for the change management. This has
happened in the 1980s when the company has decided to listen to customers and replaced New Coke with
Coca-Cola Classic (Gehani, 2016).
Question 3: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of
management accounting, recommending FIVE strategies to Paul Polman
Unilever should follow the below-mentioned financial strategies ():
Control the Cost: This can be done in two ways such as by either increasing the revenues or by
controlling the cost. Cost control should be a much better strategy for the new CEO of Unilever
considering the financial struggles of the company in recent past. There is a need for observing the
operational deficits & overlaps, economies of scale, compensation based on results and other ways to
enhance the financial productivity of Unilever.
Liquidity Management: It is very important to manage a disciplined system for payables &
receivables and to maintain a cash buffer for urgent situations. The new CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman,
must ensure a capacity to produce cash from operations and the ability to pay its vendors, employees and
creditors. It is important to generate the significant cash flows.
Tax Management: It is advisable to speak to a tax lawyer or an accountant to understand the best
legal status that works best for Unilever. Filing process must be prepared in advance to avoid last minute
mistakes and the missed opportunities. Keeping a track of all the expenses and the tax filing dates will
also be recommended. All state and federal taxes, Medicare, social security, fees and local permits must
be paid on time.
Manage the Financial Risk: Financial risks can be of varied kinds such as volatile stock
markets, interest rates and liquidity crunches. Macroeconomic factors can create problems for clients in
paying off their debts. Managing cash and building buffers will help Unilever to withstand against any
form of financial crunch.
Dividend Policy: Paul Polman must carefully manage the company’s dividend policy to continue
the expansion process. A mixed policy in this regard can be helpful. Mixed policy means distributing a
part of the earnings to shareholders and investing the rest. It is recommended for Unilever that it deploys
a short-term reinvestments policy to avail growths over a long-term.

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Question 4: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of sales
and marketing, recommending FIVE strategies to Paul Polman
Five sales and marketing strategies to Paul Polman (Arnett & Wittmann, 2014)
Reward for referrals: This can be done by offering rewards for referrals. Notably, a very good
percentage of the customer base does have an impact of word-of-mouth publicity. Word-of-mouth
publicity does not just create the product related awareness but also encourages the purchase. Positive
responses of customers make an impact over a significant customer base. Hence, Unilever needs to work
in this area and come up with a plan to encourage & reward the referrals.
Email with social: Email marketing can be an effective way to reach closer to customers.
Customers those who are the followers of Unilever on social sites need to be invited for filling up the
email sign-up form or directly be sent the text keywords to join through the social media channels. In this
way, Unilever will be able to deep more into relationship with its customers on the social sites.
Facilitate a contest: Running a contest occasionally like the photo contest or others and
rewarding the winner with valuable things is a good way to encourage the customer participation. To
influence the customer participation, it is necessary to publish the contest’s results through the emails and
the social media channels. Customers will then have reason to visit to the email and the social sites run by
Unilever.
Discussion with customers: Unilever must try to interact with its customers through the most
possible channels. This is possible through panels or through online forums.
Using the valuable contents: The contents used in the various marketing tools must be well
designed, so that, it appears attractive and engaging to customers. Contents must be speaking the valuable
words. Contents should not speak the offers which customers were not looking for. It should actually
speak the words that are relevant to customers’ demands for quality and price. Hence, Unilever must
work on its strategy for the target audience to be able to identify the needs and to design the contents
accordingly.
Question 5: Based on the knowledge of the principles and practices of human
resources and risk management, recommending FOUR strategies to Paul
Polman

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Four strategies
(Tortorella&Fogliatto, 2014)
Increased employee motivation: Employee motivation must be well managed through the
effective use of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Mr.Polman must try to find the problems which
employees face and do the needful to the feasible extent.
Managing the workforce: Existing employees must be put to regular training and development
programs, so that; acquaintance with new skills is attained. Additionally, there is a need for effective
promotion of the recruitment and selection process, so that, skilled professionals find these jobs as
relevant to their needs.
Effective implementation of workplace safety policies: Policies related to workplace safety must
be effectively implemented, so that, adherence to the policies is enhanced. Safety policies will be required
for dealing with hazardous substances, types of machines and others.
Effective communication within the company: It is generally the responsibilities of managers or
the supervisors; however, the human resource managers can also play the effective roles in promoting the
effective organizational based communication. Human resource managers will only design the policies
identifiedby supervisors or the managers as the enablers for effective communication. Sainsbury’s is one
of those very few companies which innovatewith the human resource practices. Despite the very tight
market competition, the company was able to innovate and perform consistently (Lee, 2014).

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References
Arnett, D. B., & Wittmann, C. M. (2014). Improving marketing success: The role of tacit knowledge
exchange between sales and marketing. Journal of Business Research, 67(3), 324-331. [DOI:
10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.01.018]
Gehani, R. R. (2016). Corporate Brand Value Shifting from Identity to Innovation Capability: from Coca-
Cola to Apple. Journal of technology management & innovation, 11(3), 11-20. [DOI:
10.4067/S0718-27242016000300002]
Icmrindia.org. (2018). Restructuring Unilever: The 'Path To Growth' Strategy. Retrieved from
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy2/Restructuring
%20Unilever-The%20Path%20To%20Growth%20Strategy.htmhttp://www.icmrindia.org/
casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy2/Restructuring%20Unilever-The%20Path%20To
%20Growth%20Strategy.htm
Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D. and Regner, P. (2017). ‘Paul Polman: turnaround
and development of strategy at Unilever’. Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases, 11th ed. Pearson
Education Limited.
Kang, N., Zhao, C., Li, J., & Horst, J. A. (2016). A Hierarchical structure of key performance indicators
for operation management and continuous improvement in production systems. International
Journal of Production Research, 54(21), 6333-6350. [DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2015.1136082]
Lee, D. K. (2014). Building Integrated Vegetation Systems into the New Sainsbury's Building Based on
BIM. Journal of KIBIM Vol, 4(2), 26. [DOI: 10.13161/kibim.2014.4.2.025]
Mahdi, H. A. A., Abbas, M., Mazar, T. I., & George, S. A. (2015). A Comparative Analysis of Strategies
and Business Models of Nike, Inc. and Adidas Group with special reference to Competitive
Advantage in the context of a Dynamic and Competitive Environment. International Journal of
Business Management and Economic Research, 6(3), 167-177. [DOI:
10.1504/IJTM.2002.003045]
Mechleri, E., Fennell, P. S., & Mac Dowell, N. (2017). Flexible operation strategies for coal-and gas-CCS
power stations under the UK and USA markets. Energy Procedia, 114, 6543-6551. [DOI:
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1790]

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Orozco, L. A., Vargas, J., & Galindo-Dorado, R. (2018). Trends on the relationship between board size
and financial and reputational corporate performance: The Colombian case. European Journal of
Management and Business Economics, 27(2), 183-197. [DOI: 10.1108/EJMBE-02-2018-0029]
Tortorella, G. L., &Fogliatto, F. S. (2014). Method for assessing human resources management practices
and organisational learning factors in a company under lean manufacturing
implementation. International Journal of Production Research, 52(15), 4623-4645. [DOI:
10.1080/00207543.2014.881577]