Business Operations and Management Decisions in Unilever Plc Company

This report provides an overview of business operations, focusing on Unilever Plc as a case study. It explains the meaning and functions of business operations, including production, marketing, management, finance, and accounting. The report evaluates Unilever's operational management decisions related to production, supply chain, logistics, location strategies, quality control, and human resources. It highlights Unilever's objectives, marketing mix, global supply chain, digital transformation strategy, inventory management, maintenance, and HR functions like compensation, recruiting, safety, training, and talent management, concluding with the importance of these operations for the company's success. Desklib offers similar solved assignments for students.

INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS OPERATION
AND MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Explaining the meaning and functions of the business operations in the organization...............3
Description of the Unilever Plc company....................................................................................4
Evaluating the Unilever company operations management decision..........................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business operations are all the activities that business engages for its daily operations to
earn profit for the organization. The activities are organized in such manner that it generate
enough profit for the owners of the company. The company Unilever plc is a multinational
company operates from united kingdom in London. Unilever offers wide ranges of products
almost in 190 countries like food, ice creams, beauty, etc. In this report we will see meaning of
business operations and later will evaluate business operations in the company Unilever, and
how it affect company's management decisions.
MAIN BODY
Explaining the meaning and functions of the business operations in the organization.
The term business operation is referred to the operations of the company done in order to
provide the goods and services to the consumers. Business operations includes production,
supply chain, staffing, location, quality control etc. This is the reason every organization should
focus on researching these elements and understanding them properly in order to gain maximum
profit out of the consumer. The four function of business operations are as follows-
 Production and the procurement- The process of manufacturing, expanding or
improving goods and services is knows as the production process whereas procurement is
buying and reselling of the goods and services already been produced from another seller.
Every company needs to this function in order to run any kind of business activity.
 Marketing- The another function is the process of planning to promote and advertise
product and services in the market to gain consume attention. This involves distributing
ideas, goods and services in the market. The four P's of marketing includes the price,
product, promotion and the place which help company in marketing its products.
 Management- The most important functions performed by the business entities in order
to achieve company's goal is the process related with planing, organizing, directing and
controlling. Planing is related with planning goals, organizing means to arrange
everything systematically, directing means to divert employees in particular direction
whereas controlling means the assessing the progress of organization.
 Finance and accounting- Finance and accounting is also important function, they look
same but there is difference between two the finance is analysing financial statements for

the future decisions for taking right path and the accounting is related with maintaining
and checking records to attain cost-effectiveness in the organization.
Description of the Unilever Plc company.
The company Unilever Plc is the British multinational company who operates from
London. Unilever provides the various products in the market like the food, ice creams, beauty
products, home care, personal care etc. and owns 400+brands worldwide. Currently Unilever Plc
has its business operations in 190 countries worldwide and that offers products according to the
need and the demands of the consumer in different countries (Sikder, 2019). Unilever operations
are well organized into the three main divisions that are Food and refreshments, Home and
beauty products and the other one is personal care. The company business operations of research
and development activity is in the countries like China, India, U.K. and the U.S.
Evaluating the Unilever company operations management decision.
Operational management or Operations management (OM) refers to one of the most
integral components in the field of business process management. Operations management
responsibly deals with the business administration functions for the smooth and efficient working
of an organization. In the Unilever organization it is primarily concerned with activities like
inventory checks, quality assurance, etc.
Production operation-
The production operation is related with the production department which involves
producing and procuring goods and services in the market (Kaur and et.al.,, 2020). The company
Unilever production operations includes the following things for efficient working. Objective of Unilever- The objective in Unilever management decision regarding its
production operation is always to produce that products that suits Unilever (Ramirez,
2018). The operation management system of Unilever always tries to innovate its
products according to the different consumer expectation from different countries.
Currently company is offering products in Beauty&well-being, personal care, home care,
nutrition, ice cream etc. Marketing mix- In Unilever's marketing mix it has been seen that the consumer goods
always has complex set of needs and in order to achieve those needs the company

Unilever spent lot on research and development (Reza, 2020). For example the company
is trying new variants of beauty care products, food products and the home care products
in order to capture the unstrapped market area and achieve higher level of profitability.
Unilever consumer goods are developed by the process that keep in mind the consumer
requirements. Designing production- Operational manager are responsible for designing production in
such way that it caters the demand of the consumers and increase efficiency level. The
another decision by its operation manager of the company is Unilever is to opt the best
research and development process that can ensure high quality products to its consumers.
Unilever applies automation in its operational efficiency for achieving objectives.
Supply chain-
Supply chain management operation in the Unilever needs a constant supply chain and
retail outlets to cater the needs of consumers in different countries. Further, the company must
have excellent product quality standards. The some things related to the supply is as follows- Global supply chain- The global supply chain in the organization in Unilever is very
complex because of its operations in 190 countries across the globe and its consumer
demand of 2.5 billion every day. Unilever has 220 factories and more than 900
partnership with different manufactures in different countries, to deliver right products to
the consumer as soon as company can. The most important goal for the company is to
provide the fresh food and its related products to win the trust of the company.
 Digital transformation strategy- The company Unilever is trying to change its supply
chain on digital platforms after the covid -19 impact. Providing goods online through
various sites and social media platforms enables to capture the large market share and
attract more consumer in order to attain the profitability (Bala, and Verma, 2018). This is
reason today that the proper supply chain in digital world is also the need of high
consumer brands. For digital supply chain Unilever is focusing on its sites and
performing on three v's that is view-ability, verification, and the value (Checchinato,
2021).
Logistics-
Logistics means the process which involves the coordinating and moving people,
inventory, material and the equipment from one destination to the another. Logistics is the part of

the supply chain that helps the company in lower cost of the product, higher effectiveness,
inventory control and an improved consumer experiences. Inventory management- Inventory management comes under the strategic decision in the
operation management. Unilever company logistics involves inventory management
whose prime motive is to keep updating with the change in the consumer demands
(Agbowo, 2018). Thus, operational managers are responsible for providing the consumer
goods in the organization in order to achieve efficiency levels.
 Maintenance- mangers at Unilever are aiming at providing high reliable stability in the
various operation. The company maintains all the measures for ensuring that the capacity
with the organization fulfils the demands of the consumer. For example the company
Unilever company is able to hire high personal for increasing the productivity of the
consumer needs in the market. In addition to this Unilever also has various teams that
helps in analysing the business processes and solutions of various problems.
Location strategies of Unilever-
The location strategies that has been created by Unilever are designed in a way that is
able to meet and exceed consumers’ expectations as well as their requirements moreover meeting
specific goals of the firm. Headquarters- The company headquarters are located in two cities i.e. London and
Rotterdam. Basically, the company strategically positions itself in context of cost
production and product distribution, their supply chain management, effectual monitoring
of product consumption, ability to manage all the risks and regulate tax as well as all the
legal matters appropriately. The political as well as economic environment in which the
company works is highly favourable for the firm along with having certain key aspects
that are required to be considered while establishing company headquarters (Kpoku,
2021).
 Distribution channel- The company headquarters in which it has been located are highly
able to evaluate and determine social and geographic conditions that are able to influence
market behaviour. Irrespective of this, the company have various distribution channels all
across the world. Other strategic location factors are based on the basis of warehousing
costs, production capacities of the goods and services as well as transportation matrix

related to each and every product that has been offered by the company in order to fulfil
their basic requirements and demand in fruitful manner.
Quality control
Quality control is primarily concerned with activities like inventory checks, quality
assurance, and assessment of resources, etc. There are a lot of operational tools like TQM – Total
Quality Management that focus on an organization's long term success. Here's an assessment of
qualitative aspects of Unilever using this framework. Quality Management & Assurance: Quality assurance (QA) ensures the controlled use of
resources and their allocation in the production process. It also includes an effective
supply chain management through keeping proper inventory stocks. The British
multinational consumer products company 'Unilever' manages quality using its supplier
standards to match the output of desired goods. Quality Culture Process: The kind of process that is used in the production chain reflects
the work commitment of employees and their active participation which shows the
effective nature of operational management in the company. The Unilever organization
efficiently promotes employee engagement which leads to its successful position.
 Organizational Leadership: The value of qualitative leadership greatly affects a business
enterprise. The executive staff and customers both get affected by the company
leadership. Having a good supervisor leads to a productive work environment and the
chosen company maintains this qualitative aspect by implementing and encouraging good
leadership skills and programs.
Human resource-
Every organization need human resource in order to run organization. The company Unilever has
148000 employees in the 190 countries (Boon, Den Hartog, and Lepak, 2019). Hiring right
employees at right time in the organization is very important strategic decision that every
operational manager take. The human resource of Unilever includes following decisions
regarding- Compensation and benefits- Unilever has decided compensation and varieties of benefits
to its employees according to the work and the efforts of the employee working in the
organization. Unilever also conducts compensation surveys for comparing its benefits
with the other organization.

 Recruiting and staffing- the another important function of human resource is to hire the
most talented employees for the right job. This human resource function in Unilever
involves the following things- Sourcing talent, selecting the best candidate, and trying to
smooth their entry into the company by on boarding them. Safety and compliance- The another important HR function in Unilever is to comply with
all the safety measures that are decided by the company as well as the government of
particular country where Unilever is operating. There are civil and criminal penalties
when organization fails to comply with the rules and regulation of the country. Training and development- The basic function of HR is to provide the training and the
development programmes to the employees working in the organization (Jiboku, 2018).
This is done by Unilever also for ensuring that the skills of its employees increases for
better productivity.
 Talent management- This is also very crucial step involved in HR function and is
involved with enhancing and coordinating the relationship between the employees and
the employer. It focuses on employees' performance, employees job satisfaction, his
engagement, motivation etc.
CONCLUSION
From the discussions we did above, we can conclude that the every organization performs
different business functions in order to achieve organizations goals with efficiency. The
company Unilever operating in 190 countries has been able to expand its business is because it
has different departments to perform different business functions for catering the demands of the
consumer in various countries. Further, in this report we addressed the Unilever operations like
the human resource, training, quality control etc. and how operational managers takes decision in
these operations by strategic thinking and ability.

REFERENCES
Kaur, H., and et.al.,, 2020. Sustainable stochastic production and procurement problem for
resilient supply chain. Computers & Industrial Engineering.139. p.105560.
Ramirez, S.A., 2018. Diversity and ethics: Toward an objective business compliance
function.LOY. U. CHI. LJ.49. pp.581-589.
Bala, M. and Verma, D., 2018. A critical review of digital marketing. M. Bala, D. Verma (2018).
A Critical Review of Digital Marketing. International Journal of Management, IT &
Engineering.8(10). pp.321-339.
Reza, M. H., 2020. Marketing Strategy and Sustainable Plan of Unilever.
Jiboku, J. O., 2018. Multinational corporations and skills development in Nigeria: the case of
unilever Nigeria PLC. AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and
Humanities, 7(1). pp.29-40.
Agbowo, c.h., 2018. an appraisal of inventory management and control in manufacturing firms. a
study of nigeria breweries and unilever plc (doctoral dissertation, godfrey okoye
university).
Sikder, s. a. m., 2019. the procedure of launching brand new homecare products in the country.
agbowo, c.h., 2018. an appraisal of inventory management and control in manufacturing
firms. a study of nigeria breweries and unilever plc (doctoral dissertation, godfrey okoye
university).
Checchinato, F., 2021. Technology is just an enabler of digital transformation: Interview with
Gianfranco Chimirri, HR communication director of Unilever Italy. In Managing Digital
Transformation (pp. 87-94). Routledge.
Kpoku, O. K., 2021. Positive and negative influence of globalization on international business
actors’ activity (on materials of Unilever Group) (Doctoral dissertation).
Boon, C., Den Hartog, D.N. and Lepak, D.P., 2019. A systematic review of human resource
management systems and their measurement. Journal of management, 45(6), pp.2498-
2537.

1