Strategic Analysis of Unilever's Business Environment

This report provides a strategic analysis of Unilever, a British multinational consumer goods company. It begins with an introduction to strategic analysis and its importance for organizational planning. The main body of the report examines Unilever's current business environment, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors, using a PESTEL analysis. The report then offers recommendations for the company, emphasizing the Berblin framework to improve team performance. The analysis highlights Unilever's commitment to sustainability and technological advancements, alongside challenges like economic fluctuations and changing consumer preferences. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of continuous strategic analysis for maintaining competitiveness and achieving business objectives. This analysis is crucial for understanding Unilever's market position and future strategies.

Business In Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Companies current environment scenario...................................................................................3
Recommendations applied to the company.................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic analysis refers to a process in which an organisation analyse itself and the
environment in which it is operating. This process is necessary to perform as this helps in the
formation of strategy planning so that the operations of the organisation can be done smoothly
and effectively. To make the organisation continuously strive for the survival and excellence
they need to perform the strategic analysis on a continuous basis. Through the strategic analysis
an organisation gets to know about the areas where they need to gain competitive advantage and
the areas where the company can improve better to gain the competitiveness. The analysis of
strategies are done both internally and externally. For reference purpose this report has taken an
example of a company, Unilever. Unilever is a British multinational company which was
establish in the year 1929. The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing the
consumers goods. Unilever is a company which has its operations and reach throughout the
world (Attia and et al., 2019).
This report discusses about the current scenario of the company which has helped them in
gaining the current market position which they have along with the recommendations which help
the company in copping up with the changes that are taking place in external environment.
MAIN BODY
Companies current environment scenario
Unilever company is French origin multinational company which served in the industry
of the production of customer goods. The company is consider as a one of the oldest companies
which is serving into the production of customer goods. Unilever is currently serving in around
190 countries worldwide. The vision of the company is to make a sustainable living
commonplace which they consider as a best approach for business growth. Along with it the
company has a mission is to add the energy to life by providing the customers safe, healthy and
hygiene products.
Every organisation does get affected by the environment in which it surrounds. The
environment includes both internal and external environment. The major policies of any

organisation is formed by reviewing and analysing the external factors which are prevailing into
the market place (Meng and et al., 2017). These external factors are the factors which works
independent and organisation cannot exercises any control upon them. The external analysis of
business environment can be evaluated through PESTEL analysis. The pestel analysis of
Unilever company can be as follows:
Political factor: These are the factors which states about the impact of government upon
organisations. The factors which can be included in political factors involves tax policy, stability
in the government, strong and influential political persons or parties, and much more. As the
Unilever company is a British originated it has the opportunities or strength of political stability
and grow of free trade between the countries. The stability in government or political parties give
the opportunity to company to get grow into market. But meanwhile the European Union can
work as a threat for the company as they may curb the operational and expansion activities.
Although the company can take the full advantage for expanding its business across different
nations because of the free trade relations. From these external factors stated above, the Unilever
company has the opportunities to take the full advantage of stable government and their policies
along with the free trade relations (Murphy and et al, 2019). Meanwhile the company has to take
care from European Unions and forms the policies accordingly.
Economic factor: The economic factor includes economic situation of the country or the
region. As the company is also presents in developing countries, the increase in the wages of
people works as both merit and demerit. The merit is that increase in the wages of customers
would increase the disposable income for people which would lead to higher sales for the
company products. But on the other hand the increase in the wages of workers will also increase
the cost of the company. The expansion of company in developing countries would be
opportunity because as the country would develop the customer base for the company would also
get developed. For example the developing countries like India can be the good opportunity for
the company as they can provide the huge market.
Social factor: The social factors affects the performances of business to a greater extend.
The company Unilever produces the products which satisfied the generating interest of
customers or targeted market. The changing interest of consumers in their eating habits has
forced the company to perform the product development and innovation. The company Unilever
analyses and research about the needs and current demand for the type of products by consumers

so that they can satisfies their needs and demands accordingly and gain the growth in market
share.
Technological factor: The company gets impacted about the type of technology which
company surrounds. The usage of technological automation is increasing in the organisation very
fast as they provide the more effective performance in the production units. The Unilever to
make their production process more effective and efficient uses the latest technology in the
processes so that they can attain the economies of scale with much lower cost (Rinne and Jordan,
2017). Also as the company is a multinational company which operates in various countries, they
uses the advance management information system in which the data or the information about the
operations done by the company can save at a single place or system. The use of advance
technologies in storing and sharing the information would help the company in making the
correct and effective decisions about the business and operations. Management of information
through technology works as an opportunity for company. But to make the organisation
technological advance the company has to put a lot of investment in its research and
development area.
Environmental factor: The environmental factor includes the degree of these natural
environment impacts the organisations. A rise in the business concern towards environment has
been a current trend among the organisation. This trend or topic can be a greater opportunity for
the company to prosper. This can be a new way to attract and increase the customer base. Also
along with it the company can strength its program for sustainability development to surmount
the competition which it is facing form other firms. For example the company innovates the
product which not only satisfies the need of customers but also reduces the negative impact upon
environment due to business operations. This works as an opportunity for the company as it
helps bringing an increase in the efforts of the company towards sustainability.
Legal factor: This factor includes the rules and policies formed by the legislation. The
Unilever company should follow all the rules and regulations so that they can smoothly reach to
their targeted customers. When an organisation follows all the legal factors it enables the them
in strengthening the patent laws in the region or country in which they are operating. Also when
the company follows all the obligation of legal laws they would have the opportunity to serve the
customers in effective way. The quality of customer services increases. This activity would
increase the attractiveness towards the company's products (Shehata and et al., 2019).

By analysing the external factors the company can evaluate the threats and opportunities
which put impact upon the company's performance. Through the pestel analyses the company
gets to know about the area where a large opportunities can be generated and the areas from
where the company needs to beware from the risks they might face. The strategies of an
organisation gets formed by analysing these external impacts. From the pestel analyses present
above, The company forms the strategies in such a way that they makes the improvement in
generating more awareness and work towards the sustainability development. There activities
and strategies are formed which would increase their sustainable activities. Also the Unilever
would be regularly analysing the trends and preferences which are running into the marker place
so that the company can provide the products accordingly to them. Apart from this the operation
which are carried out by the company uses the technology which is very much advance and that
provides the efficient productivity to the operations.
Recommendations applied to the company
The Unilever company makes the necessary strategies in such a way that covers the
opportunities which the company have along with the risks which the company has to surmount.
The company has the ability to form their internal activities and operations in such a way that it
covers all the advantages and disadvantage thrown by the environment. To make the internal
environment effective the company has adopted or make the use of Berblin framework. It is a
framework which helps in making the performances of the team members effective. This
particular framework consists of 9 steps through which a team can be build up in an effective
manner. The Berblin framework suggested that when an individual knows about his roles in a
team clearly, it would lead into the attainment of team objective very clearly. This model helps in
balancing the teams. It has been observed that the team become imbalance when it has members
who have the similar behaviour (Simoni and et al., 2019). For example in a group the members
have the similar weaknesses can weakens the team wholly. The group should contain the
members who have different behaviour and roles to perform in a team. This model is a tool
which helps in the identification of strength and weakness in any team so that they can overcome
the weaknesses they face and strengths their opportunities. According to this model the roles of
the team members are dividing into many segments or parts. Different member is allotted with a
different role. There are a total of 9 roles in this model, which are as follows:

Shaper: Shaper is the person who continuously challenges the other members to perform better
for bringing the necessary improvements. The personality of such people are usually extrovert
and dynamic. With their nature of stimulating other and putting questions upon the things helps
them in analysing and evaluating the best solutions in the situation. They accept the challenges
with zeal. The weaknesses of such people could be that they are very argumentative.
Implementer: They are the people who actually performs the work. They convert the planning
into actions. The nature of such people are generally conservative, introvert and very much
discipline. These people believes in performing the work in a systematic and organised way. But
the major demerit of these people are that they resist the change and are inflexible.
Competitor finisher: They are the people who observe and monitor the task or project
completion. These people make sure that no error or mistakes get done in between the tasks
which may lead to problem in the end. The competitor finisher are very particular about the
deadlines and pushes the team to complete the task with much effective way.
Coordinator: These are the people who make sure that all the activities are taking place at the
correct way. They are the people who work as a team leader or the chairman of project. These
people distributes the task or role among the people.
Team worker: They are the people who tries to build up motivational level of the team. These
people try to bring the team members together (Sohani, Rezapour and Sayyaadi, 2020). They
have the capabilities to get the team members together.
Resources investors: These are the people who collect al the required resources which would be
needing in accomplishing the task or work. There major main is to gather the resources.
Plant: These are the people who comes up with new and innovative ideas so that the team can
use these ideas in making their performance in much easier way.
Monitor evaluator: The monitor evaluator monitors and analyse the ideas which the team
members come up with.
Specialist: These are the people who have the strong command in their respective fields.
The company, Unilever, must forms its team in such a manner that it provides the
optimum efficiencies to them. The role of the employees should be divided according to the
above stated roles. This would bring the effectiveness in the operations of employees and
organisation (Xu and Hua, 2017).

CONCLUSION
From the report presented above, the current business scenario has been presented
through pestel analysis framework along with the recommendation which the company must
surmount in its operations.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Rinne, L .F., Ye, A. and Jordan, N. C., 2017. Development of fraction comparison strategies: A
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Shehata, N., and et al., 2019. Restrictive compared with liberal red cell transfusion strategies in
cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis. European heart journal. 40(13). pp.1081-1088.
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Sohani, A., Rezapour, S. and Sayyaadi, H., 2020. Comprehensive performance evaluation and
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