Analysis of Knowledge Management and Information Systems at Unilever

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's knowledge management and information systems. It begins with an overview of the company, its structure, and objectives, followed by an in-depth SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter's Five Forces analysis to assess its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges within the business environment. The report then recommends various knowledge management information systems, including process, practice, and community approaches, to enhance Unilever's operational efficiency and knowledge sharing. Finally, it addresses key implementation challenges the organization might face. The report concludes with a summary of the main points and findings, offering valuable insights into Unilever's knowledge management strategies and potential areas for improvement.

Knowledge management
and information systems

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1) Overview of the organisation with their structure and objectives......................................3
2) Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges considering all the
environmental factors.............................................................................................................4
3) Recommendations of various knowledge management information system....................7
4) Key management implement challenges faced by the organisation..................................9
5) Short introduction.............................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge management and information system is referred to as a kind of information
technology system that is used by the companies for storing and retrieving knowledge, in
locating the sources of the knowledge, for improving collaboration and many more. With the
help of this the organisation can efficiently manage their processes related with capturing and
applying knowledge for improving their day-to-day operations (North and Kumta, 2018). Along
with this the knowledge management system facilitates the organisation in managing and
organising the documentation processes, gathering useful information from both internal and
external customer. In this report the Unilever is taken into consideration which is a UK based
multinational company offering a wide variety of consumer goods to the customers. The
products of the company are classified into four categories such as personal care products, food,
refreshment and home care. In this report various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
challenges for the company are discussed on the basis of analysis of environmental factors. Apart
from this various recommendations and implementation challenges are discussed.
MAIN BODY
1) Overview of the organisation with their structure and objectives
Unilever is a British-Dutch company that is famous for transnational consumer goods. It
has its co-headquarters in London. It has a wider variety of products that includes food, energy
drink, ice cream and beverages. Also other cosmetic products are there. It is also one of the
largest producer of soap all over the world. It contains 400 brands and is in 190 countries. Now it
would like to explain about few things that are related to Unilever and are as follows:
Corporative objective: This is an important and well defined realistic goal that has been
set by an company which has always influence Strategic decision making. In other words these
are targets that has been used by business organization with specific frame of time. Unilever has
a very wide vision to grow its business while decoupling its environmental footprint. Through
growth and increase of social impact. Objective of Unilever is to attain health and wellbeing of a
person. Also to improve livelihoods of thousands of people (Lim, 2017).
Business overview: This is one of the most essential part of an organization because it
helps because it helps in making an essential part of business plan which is going put an
overview about various important point of an organization that is management team, location,

mission statement and also of legal structure of an organization. Unilever is going to be effected
because of this in a manner that it is going to help in making of strategies that is going to boost
up each and every department that is going to make operations in much smoother manner to be
performed.
Corporate structure: It is that kind of structure which is going to help an organization and
various department to follow rules and regulations set up in it. These department are going to
contribute in achieving of overall mission and goals. Unilever is to have a strong corporate
structure that is going to help in building of an a strong team which leads towards success of the
company (Karamitri, Talias, and Bellali, 2017).
Business model: These helps in determining the rationale which helps in careting of
delivery and capturing of value in social, economic or other cultural context. This is going to
help in building a strong base to an organization like Unilever and is going to help in achieving
of goals.
2) Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges considering all the
environmental factors
For the businesses it is important to analyse the market conditions as with the help of this
they can determine the impact of such factors on their business. An organisation is surrounded
with various macro factors and micro factors that have direct impact on the operations and such
impact can be reduced with the help of strengths and capabilities of the organisation. With the
help of this they can reduce the challenges so faced by them as they can get over their
weaknesses with this. Unilever is an organisation that has been operating on a large scale due to
which it is important for them to improve their processes and grab the opportunities present in
the market. To facilitate this, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges will be
critically analysed for the company with the help of various models (Inkinen, 2016).
SWOT ANALYSIS: With the help of SWOT analysis the internal capabilities of the
organisation can be analysed along with the weaknesses of the company which they have deal
with. The SWOT analysis for the Unilever is given below:
Strengths Weaknesses
 The brands of the company are strong
and popular due to which they
 The declining grocery segment is a
weakness as the business of the
company is not diversified in different

contribute to the financial performance.
 The portfolio of the company is
evolving as they have been offering a
wide range of products with consistent
innovation (Hwang, Lin and Shin,
2018).
segments.
 The Unilever is highly dependent upon
their distributors and retailers.
Opportunities Threats
 The demand for the premium and better
specialised high-end products are
offered by them due to which they can
easily expand their market share.
 They have capacity to enter into new
market as they can customised their
products easily as per the needs and
wants of the consumers.
 The level of competition for the
company is high on both regional and
global level.
 The private label brand offered by
retailers can affect them as their
products are comparatively cheaper.
PESTLE ANALYSIS: With the help of this analysis the impact of various external factors
can be analysed which is given below:
 Political Factors: The political stability in the country and the expanding free trade
agreements with other countries by the UK government offers an opportunity to them for
expanding their business within the country and across globe. But the political issues of
the European Union can affect the consumer’s good market which is a threat for the
company (Hussinki, 2017).
 Economic Factors: The increase in the wage rate of the companies has positive impact
on the Unilever as with this the purchasing power of the consumers increases, but it may
have adverse impact on the performance of the business as it increase cost of materials
for all the manufacturing units of the Unilever.
 Social Factors: The taste and preference of the customers are changing due to which they
consider healthy products. Unilever has already been offering safe and healthy products
but they have opportunity to expand their business by adding more to this segment. But

the frequency in the change in preference can affect the operations of the Unilever (Syed,
2018).
 Technological Factors: The increasing need of business automation offers opportunity to
Unilever for improving their efficiency as with the use of various business processing
equipments the inventory management can be made possible, distribution can be
improved. But all this increases cost for the company as they have to invest a lot in R&D
to achieve this.
 Legal Factors: Various legal laws are imposed on the businesses due to which they can
outperform in contributing to the society by way of corporate social responsibility. Also
the strengthening of the patents law has positive impact as with this they can keep their
products safe and enhance the growth.
 Environmental Factors: With increasing complexity in the procedure and the
environmental programs is an opportunity for Unilever as they have adopted product
innovation and improved internal business processes which have ability to satisfy the
needs of various implications. This improves the image of the company before the
customers due to which their sales can be improved.
PORTERS FIVE FORCE MODEL: With the help of five force analysis model various
industry factors can be analysed which has capacity to affect the operations of the company.
Unilever has been operating on a large scale so it becomes important for them to consider the
impact of various such forces (Hislop, Bosua and Helms, 2018). Analysis of such forces for
Unilever is given below:
 Competitive Rivalry: This force is strong and has impact on the performance of the
company as Unilever has to bring changes in their strategies as per the moves of the
competitors. The force is strong there are a large number of firms exist that offers similar
products. It can be overcome by introducing differentiation in the new market and by
improving the services and the products with innovation.
 Bargaining power of the Suppliers: The power to bargain is low with the suppliers as
the size of the suppliers are moderate and a significant number of suppliers exist due to
which the company can easily manage their supply leading to get lesser influenced by
them.

 Bargaining power of the Customers: This force is also strong as the customers can
easily switch to other brand because of lower switching cost and with the increasing
promotional tools the knowledge of the substitute products is high that tends them to
switch.
 Threat of substitute: The impact of the substitute goods is high on the company as the
consumers can easily switch to other products. But the products which are offered by
Unilever do not have a large number of substitutes which reduced the power to influence.
 Threat of new entrant: Unilever has a strong brand image and higher economies of
scale due to which the new companies do not have much impact on Unilever. Also for the
new entrant it is not possible to meet with the higher cost of brand development in initial
stages (Giampaoli, Ciambotti and Bontis, 2017).
On the basis of the analysis of the three approaches it can e analysed that Unilever has
various opportunities along with greater strengths that can be used by them for overcoming their
weaknesses so easily. For this the focus of the company must be on the improvement of their
processes and operations which will enable them to achieve their objectives.
3) Recommendations of various knowledge management information system
An appropriate knowledge system is referred to as that kind of IT system which is used for
improving and retrieving of knowledge with the help of collaboration. It is also useful for
locating of sources of management and also mines responsibility of hidden knowledge. This is
very important for an organization that is helping in identifying, creating, representing,
distributed with an experience of insight (Massaro, 2016). There are certain types of approaches
that is related to an knowledge management information system which is going to help in rising
of an organization and is going to make it analyze upon those factors which is responsible for
upliftment of an organization. There are three types of approaches which are there under
Knowledge management and they are as follows:
Process Approach: Under this approach and attempt has been made to codify
organizational knowledge with the help of Formalized of controls, process and technologies. In
other words this means that and proper organizational knowledge is to be given that is going to
help in controlling of process and technologies (Dalkir, 2017). This approach is going to
frequently involve using of information and technologies for enhancing quality and speed for
knowledge creation and also distribution in an organization. It includes intranets, data

warehousing, knowledge repositories, decision support tools and groupware. Unilever is going to
be benefited out of this in a way that it going to helps in enhancement of technologies that is
going to bring ease in production and is also going to increase speed for creation of knowledge
with the help in storing of data in safe and better manner.
Practice Approach: According to this approach the management is assuming that deal
with organizational knowledge is tactic in nature and also formal controls, process and
technologies is not suitable for transmitting of such type of understanding. This is going to build
helps in building of new system rather than formal systems for managing of knowledge. Main
focus ofv these approach is upon building of social environment or communities that is necessary
for facilitating and sharing of tacit understanding. Communities of practice (COPs) are groups of
individuals with a common professional interest who work together informally. Within such a
community, individuals collaborate directly, teach each other, and share experiences (Tseng,
2016).
Such type of approaches is typically adopted by an company for providing highly
customized solutions over unique problems. More valuable knowledge is for firms tacit in
nature. This si going to be difficult to be expressed, capture and manage. In such case
environment and nature of problems is being find out from an extremely dynamic nature. As
knowledge is shared mostly. If problem has been encounter is very dynamic. Such firms
knowledge is shared most of the time from person to person contacts. Also collaborative and
computing method I going to be very helpful in communicating with people. These tacit and
knowledge is very difficult to extract, store and manage the explicit knowledge that points out
way of finding an appropriate tacit knowledge which is made available for an appropriate
situation. Unilever is going to be effected with this approach in positive manner that it is going to
help in gaining more valuable knowledge that is going to help out in those situations where
problems are unique in nature and is creating difficulty for the company to maintain its data
(Capilla, 2016).
Best practices are the activities and methods that the most effective organizations use to
operate and manage various functions. Chevron, for example, recognizes four levels of best
practices that include:
1. A good idea that is not yet proven, but makes intuitive sense.

2. A good practice, an implemented technique, methodology, procedure, or process that has
improved business results.
3. A local best practice, a best approach for all or a large part of the organization based on
analyzing hard data. In other words, the scope within the organization of the best practice
is identified: Can it be used only in a single department or geographical region, or can it
be used across the organization
4. An industry best practice, similar to the third level, but using hard data from industry
This is going to be helpful for an organization like Unilever in manner that it helps in
operating and managing of various function related to operations and management that is going
to increase profit in an organization like Unileveis going. Also because of this only various
objectives is going to be achieved that is going to lead towards growth of Unilever in better an
appropriate manner. This is going to be helpful in achieving of goals and objectives of a
company in a way that it is going to enhance techniques of dealing with problems related to
management. Marke out ways to do operation or perform task in easier manner. Also it is going
to help in achieving goal of an organization because eit is going to make certain strategies which
is going to increase profit of that company. as objective of Unilever is to help one billion people
to improve there health and wellbeing this going to be achieved only when proper data is
collected that is going to be attained through the Practice approach which is going to make the
company analyze reality that how these persons or individual can be helped and then comes
improve livelihoods of hundreds of people in the supply chain. This can be achieved by using
process approach that is going to help in talking out of stored data and make the company realize
the condition of employment in its country. These are the objective of an organization that has
been set-up by the company. Then comes objective of maintaining of supply chain that is going
to be achieved through best practices that is going to help in generating of those rules and
regulation which is going to boost the management of organization to perform better and faster
function. Make those strategies which help in improving of those problems which are acting as
barrier in achieving of goals and objectives. Also this approach is going to manage operations
which is going to help in maintaining of smooth flow of production. Also corporate objective is
going to be achieved in more faster manning r by improvising in various other departments like
research that is going to help in generating of inactive ideas that is going to enhance both the

function of mamngment. As management is improve the operation sis going to perform in better
manner and is going to lead to lead towards achieving of goals and targets within time period
decided (Au and Fung, 2019).
4) Key management implement challenges faced by the organisation
Or the improving the current and future processes and potential of the Unilever various
recommendations are mode in context of approaches that can be used by them. But the mangers
of the organisation may face various challenges while implementing such recommended
approaches. Various challenges are given below:
 Multiple source of information: The Unilever will have various sources from where
they will get the information about their customers. Due to this, it is important for the
organisation to have a systematic mechanism and information system with the help of
which they can organised the data so gathered. This is the problem which the
management of Unilever may face as this will lead to redundancy in the information and
will it unclassified and unclear. For this a check need to be implemented in the
information system so that only relevant information is stored.
 Approval of Imperative Knowledge: This is the challenge which may face by
Unilever as it is related with the approval for the authenticity of the information so
inserted in the system. The process approach is recommended on the basis of which
various processes will be integrated and all the knowledge so entered by the knowledge
management system will be used in all the departments for meeting up with their roles.
Thus the information so entered must be reliable so that decision making is done
efficiently. For this provision need to be introduced in the software so that data which is
been inserted is first approved on the basis of different conditions (Archer-Brown and
Kietzmann, 2018).
 Lack of employee Motivation: Another challenge which Unilever may face is related
with the motivation level of the employees as it is directly linked with the performance.
The company is recommended to adopt the practice approach in which they have to
adopt new formal system rather than old one as it is integrated and based upon the
designed knowledge management system. Due to this the employees may resist or may
feel demotivated while it is implementation because they may not have ability of

undertaking new roles and responsibilities along to ability to use the new technology.
For this they must held responsible the technical teams for dealing with the complaints
and technical problems. Apart from this the employees must be provided with the
various trainings.
5) Short introduction
For the organisation it is important to improve their performance as with help of this they
can achieve their goals and corporate objectives. To support this, various market factors will be
analysed which will support the determination of various opportunities and threats for the
company such as for determining the internal capabilities of the company the SWOT analysis is
undertaken by the Unilever. For analysing the impact of various factors related to the industry
the five forces model is applied that enables them to understand the impact of various forces such
as suppliers, customers, competitors, customers and new entrants. Along with the impact of
various external factors are identified such as political, economic, social, technological, legal and
environmental. With the help of knowledge management information system the improvement
can be mad possible as it will enable in gathering all the information, storing them and managing
them efficiently. This will enable Unilever to deal with the problems faced by the customer and
in the decision making of the company. For this different types of approaches are recommended
to Unilever such as Process approach, with the help of which formalised control, processes and
technology can be introduced which will facilitate in extracting relevant information easily and
efficiently; Practice approach facilitate to develop a new system for managing the knowledge so
that the tactic understanding can be facilitated.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that for improving the performance it is crucial for the
organisations to manage the knowledge that they have of the customers. This enables them to
serve better and to deal with their issues efficiently. To facilitate this various environmental
factors must be analysed with the help of various theories and model such as SWOT, PESTLE,
Five force model etc. so that efficient strategies are developed. Various challenges are also
identified that can be faced by the company while implementing such management system that
has to be overcome to achieve the desired objectives.

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