International Business Report: Analyzing Unilever's Global Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's international business operations, focusing on its organizational structure, corporate culture, and human resource management strategies. It examines how Unilever has adapted its structure from a decentralized model to regional divisions and a reorganized structure to meet the challenges of the global market. The report explores the impact of national cultures on Unilever's business transfer processes and the importance of effective human resource management in achieving its global objectives. It also discusses the suitability of different organizational structures, including decentralization, regional division, and reorganization, in the context of Unilever's evolving business environment. The report highlights the need for Unilever to coordinate marketing activities, reduce costs, and adapt to changing market demands to remain competitive against rivals like Nestle and Procter & Gamble. Overall, the report provides insights into the challenges and strategies involved in managing a multinational corporation in the international business arena.

INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The concept of international business and various elements included in it are covered in
the report to highlight the need for a company operating in international competitive
environment to align with changes occurring. Understanding the concept of Organization
structure is an important area of concern as it determines the way in which the cited company
carriers out various functional activities. The corporate culture of Uniliver has a broader scope
including set of beliefs and assumptions adopted by the senior executives to lead the personnels
working under them in an appropriate manner to sustain the positive image of the company
among its customers to contribute its part in the society in which it exists. Organizational
structure and corporate culture together determine how to design strategies for managing human
resource department to achieve global objectives and goals (Dunning, 2012).
INTRODUCTION
The framework presented in the report is prepared with consideration to world's largest
multinational company that is Uniliver which has wide scope of operational functions in various
countries across the globe. The enterprise has been providing a wide range of products including
detergent, personal care products and food products, etc. Looking at the company's background,
it has been observed that the entity had initially followed decentralized structure for number of
subsidiaries that operated in specific national market within the assistance of local managers who
were held responsible for performance of activities carried out by them including marketing,

promotional and distributional activities that were aligned with customer's demand and
preferences. However, the cited company faced the issue of falling behind production and
marketing of new products as compared to improved global branding of rivals on account of
being able to bring new product ranges in the market. This imposed a requirement on Uniliver to
coordinate manufacturing and marketing activities of various subsidiaries located within the
region (Griffin and Pustay, 2012).
TASK 1
1.1 National cultures affecting Uniliver's business transfer process
The statement mentioned in the section has empirical evidence as observed in the case of
cited company. The corporate culture of Uniliver traditionally included list of beliefs and
assumptions that focused upon promoting the idea of decentralization. Company cited in the
report has been observed facing problems and issues with respect to designing and transferring a
new corporate culture to bring a new product in the market to successfully operate in global
market environment. Sustainability in competitive business environment requires the cited firm
to design a corporate culture that includes framing as well as implementing strategies and
policies that enables the organization to coordinate the marketing activities of various
subsidiaries on international basis. Bringing up with a new product in the market requires the
cited entity to analyse market condition of each regional market. Technological and fashion
trends prevailing in the market, influence the need for designing and manufacturing a new
product to align with changing taste and preferences of customers on a large scale. Uniliver is an
internationally operating company which has acquired a prominent position among its customers.
Corporate culture is an management environment that prevails within organization on overall
basis. It has been analysed that the cited enterprise has been following different management
structure which directly affects the way in which company needs to design its own corporate
culture. Looking upon the objectives and goals of Uniliver, it is required that the company adopts
various strategies for overall improvement of various subsidiaries that are existing in specific
geographical area. There are number of rivals that have been successful, following a strategy that
effectively coordinates marketing activities of similarly working subsidiaries to reduce the
manufacturing cost by putting in efforts to reduce the purchasing cost (Ball, Geringer, Minor
and McNett, 2012). Similarly, the corporate culture of cited organization needs to be modified by
bringing in required changes in beliefs and ideology followed. The concept of corporate culture

has a wide scope that includes clarifying the objectives to be attained by following common set
of beliefs that symbolize common set of policies followed. The concept highlights the fact that
employees are also an important resource for the organization and therefore it needs to adopt
such strategies that enables the cited organization to enhance its relationship with its employees
to enable them to deliver quality assured services for carrying out task assigned to them. Basic
principle that needs to be followed by the cited organization includes bringing required
modifications within the management structure in such a way that it ensures alignment of
corporate culture with that of market in internationally working parlance. It must also include
and accept ideology and beliefs of major section of society so that the cited entity is able to
deliver higher level of satisfaction to customers on global basis. Corporate culture determines the
way in which human resources including senior executives and employees will be working to
deliver uniquely featured products as compared to various competitors in the industry. The
internal culture of the cited company reflects values that are considered to guide senior
executives to design policies that can be effectively applied to attain the objectives to lead the
international market against strong rivals such as Procter and Gamble. Corporate culture is held
responsible for performance of various subsidiaries that work on the basis of policies imposed to
be followed by the cited company. Corporate culture of Uniliver has also determined that the
senior executives and directors act and behave in a manner that reflects the importance of
consideration of providing an appropriate environment to the employees to keep them happy so
as to make best possible use of their skills and expertise in designing and enhancing various
product range. The cited entity's organizational culture reflects various norms adopted by the
senior officials to effectively lead number of teams that includes providing required training to
employees and finding out solutions for list of issues that are likely to arise in international
business market. It must include constructing enough space for accepting with emerging trends
and cultural values adopted by customers on global basis (Peng, Wang and Jiang, 2008). Uniliver
has designed a unique structure of corporate culture that has a room for providing required job
motivation and job satisfaction to employees in continuously changing business environment to
effectively address all the issues and difficulties arising in case of changing set of policies that
were initially implied.
TASK 2
2.1 Suitability of organizational structure

The structure of organization determines the hierarchy of how a complex task of
managing an organization is divided into small groups working for accomplishment of task
assigned. Each of the small groups are determined as functional departments in case of company
cited. Each of these functional department are required to follow principles and guidelines
mentioned to be followed by various corporate strategies governing application of same for
promoting overall organizational growth. Organizational structure is directly affected by
strategies adopted in corporate cultural environment. Operating efficiently in international
market imposes need for framing effective corporate strategies to be able to lead the industry in
which the cited company is operating that might include food industry or home care products
industry. On the basis of strategies applied by various competitors to pull potential customers
and promote brand image of their respective company, Uniliver also has to undergo the process
of brining a change in organizational structure as well as strategies followed to align with the
same. Organizational structure followed by the organization cited has not been the same since
when the organization initiated various operations till date. Addressing the changing market
demand and prevailing trends required the cited company to design new set of policies and
strategies to withstand amongst strong multinationally operating companies such as Nestle which
is Swiss oriented company (Chang, Van Witteloostuijn and Eden, 2010). Suitability of each
structure of management has been discussed below in detail with consideration to appropriate
corporate strategy followed during application of same.
 Structure based on decentralization: Decentralization structure of organization has been
observed to exist within the business environment of Uniliver for a longer period of time
originating since the organization initiated to exist in the industry. Under this system of
organizational structure, the cited enterprise had been leading the market in various areas
for providing products that included detergent segment, home care products and personal
care products. These products were distributed in different national markets. Each of the
subsidiaries in national markets that were a part of specific geographical area were
responsible for there own level of performance with respect to success or failure of
marketing, promotional, distributional and manufacturing activities. The success of these
subsidiaries directly depended upon how efficiently and effectively they have been
managed and organized by senior executives. These subsidiaries were thereby operating
on independently leading to increase in core competence of the cited organization. List of

strategies applied by the organization enabled to lead the industry for a longer period.
Personnel responsible for managing respective subsidiary company, were determined as
local managers belonging to cultural environment of the same area. They were therefore
able to align various activities according to preference and taste of customer in the
market. However, with rapid increase in competition in the international environment
there was a considerable impact on increased level of cost incurred after manufacturing
and marketing activities conducted to manage these companies on individual basis.
Competitors were now able to lead the market by applying pan-European product
launches in consideration to Nestle and Procter and gamble. Uniliver was however slow
and ineffective in bringing new product range in the market as compared to its rapidly
developing competitors in different product sectors (Killing, 2012).
 Structure based on regional division: To address the issues that raised on account of
increasing competition and increasing new entrants in the market, Uniliver adopted a
change in its organizational structure. Considerably, changes occurred within various
national subsidiaries as the cited company adopted regional organizational structure.
Company followed the pattern of establishing number of business groups for different
national markets wherein each of the groups were responsible for performance of number
of divisions that undertook manufacturing of different products. For e.g., European
Business Group in the European market, consisted of number of divisional areas that
were operating for manufacturing different products. National subsidiaries producing
similar product range were coordinated to reduce the overall cost incurred on particular
product range. It thus united number of subsidiaries to enable them work as a single
segment with specific geographical area (Johnson, Lenartowicz and Apud, 2006). Each
regional business group therefore consisted of a single segment that was actually
coordination of number of subsidiaries in a particular area.
 Structure based on reorganization: Application of regional organizational structure was
however displaying lack of overall performance as compared to various competitors in
the industry. Uniliver thereby felt a need to redefine its organizational structure by
practically applying the concept of reorganization structure wherein it decided to reduce
the varied list of brands that were a part of company's organizational structure. In case of
company cited, it was observed that it reduced number of brands from 380 to 280 only.

The complex structure of activities of organization was divided into two major segments
that included food range and personal care products range. Reducing the total cost
incurred on promoting marketing activities was the main objective to be attained by the
cited entity to withstand against increasing competitiveness in the market. Uniliver's two
subsidiary brand segments included food and personal care products (Beamish, 2013).
TASK 3
3.1 Importance of effective human resource management
The cited organization has considered the importance of effectively managing human
resource department to easier the task of achievement of complex objectives too along with basic
goals and targets. Each of the employee of organization is a part of human resource department.
Company cited in the report has been observed to frame effective strategies that provides
guidelines and principles to senior executives to efficiently select, recruit, motivate and sustain
each of the personnel for a longer time period. Strategies are framed to enable each of the
personnel to align with corporate culture of the company. Managing human resource is an
important area of concern for the organization as employees are responsible for carrying out
different functional activities in an appropriate manner to enable organization to attain overall
objectives of an organization. Selection procedure requires at most care to be taken by the
executive responsible for same purpose as strategies followed by the organization requires
selecting employees on the basis of requirement of each functional department. For e.g.,
marketing department requires skilled and efficient employee holding expertise in same area.
Strategies designed for selection of an employee must be implied to ensure capable candidate is
selected who can be held responsible for the performance level of task assigned to him.
Recruitment is completed after selected employee passes all the required level of test and
examination conducted to analyse his capability (Dhanaraj, 2007). Strategies must therefore
include providing guidelines to conduct effective emotional intelligence test. Required training
must be provided to employees employees who are new joiners as well as those who require
training on account of change in technology adopted by the organization to conduct procedural
activities for completing specific task or a project. Strategies designed by the company cited, also
includes a special consideration to provide effective communication within an organization. Top
level management needs to convey each of the employee's group with important information and
details that might be with consideration to change in procedure adopted for completion of

specific task. On the other hand, the employees to need to communicate important information
and details which can be with respect to issues arising in workplace area or problems that are
increasing for carrying out routine activities (Radebaugh, Gray and Black, 2006). Skilful and
efficient employees might need to convey the company cited with important recommendations
for bringing in required change in organizational structure or corporate culture. Corporate
changes can be implied only if appropriate strategies are adopted to align each of the employees
with corporate environment by providing required training to each of them. As the organization
is operating in an international business environment, it has specific set of objectives and goals to
be achieved in international environment. All of these objectives will be achieved by the
organization only if strategic importance of effectively applying policies with respect to
protection of interest of employees are applied thoroughly by the cited company. Extent of
effectiveness of strategies can be accessed by analysing the performance of Uniliver all through
since past years of performance wherein it has been observed that, with reference to increasing
competitiveness in the market, it has been designing effective training programs and campaigns
for the employees to train them to accept change in organizational structure and work
accordingly. Moreover, the cited firm has been considering the importance of ensuring none of
the employee is confronted with situation of partially on the basis of cultural diversity to promote
the concept of global ideology which has been successfully conveyed by the company in global
society. Uniliver has aligned it corporate culture with that of society culture followed on global
basis in international market to ensure that the employees are provided with ample of
opportunities to enhance their carrier development plan by exploiting the list of opportunities
available to them. Strategies must focus upon increasing motivation of employees to coordinate
their activities with that of other group members by accepting common objective to be attained
to help the organization to achieve overall objectives and goals reflected in mission and vision
statement by effectively applying strategies designed for managing human resource department.
Effective leadership must be provided to employees to enable them to get assistance with respect
to complex task or during difficulties arising in certain situations. Evaluating work performed by
each personnel ensures effectiveness of strategies implied that also ensures completion of task
within specified time limit. Thus, it can be included here that the strategies adopted by Uniliver
for effectively managing human resource department are the blueprint of success of company
that has enabled to maintain a strong image in the society (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009).

CONCLUSION
It can concluded here that the organization cited in the report has a well structure
corporate culture consisting of effective set of policies designed considering various set of
beliefs and assumptions that are followed to align the operational and other functional activities
in accordance with needs of customers, that can also be determined as a blue print of success of
company's prominent position in various local markets located in different geographical areas.
The corporate culture has been a role model for various competitors to guide them design a
corporate cultural environment that will be efficient of pulling potential customers in different
sectors such as food, home care products and health care products, etc. Uniliver has thereby
aligned with international business environment by effectively applying strategies designed for
managing and controlling human resource department to provide guidelines upon which
company needs to operate in. The cited organization has responded to changes that arise on
account of trends prevailing in market. Lastly, the company has well applied the policies that
enables various personnels to align with changed organizational structure adopted to withstand
strong competitive conditions.
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APPENDIX
1. Designing and transferring a corporate culture to align the activities conducted by the
company is a complex task that requires applying strategies effectively and appropriately to
withstand among increasing competitiveness.
2. Corporate strategies must be capable of adopting with changes occurring on account of
globalization increasing rapidly to promote the idea of entire world working as a single market.
3. Effectively applying the strategies requires active participation from various senior
executives to maintain the positive brand image in the international market.