Unilever's Range of Goods
Unilever offers a wide range of goods. Over 400 brands total, including those for food, drinks, personal care, and home care, make up the company's portfolio. Some of the company's well-known brands include Omo, Knorr, Dove, Lux, Sunsilk, Rexona, Magnum, Lifebuoy, Cornetto, Domestos, Blue Band, Lipton, and Heratbrand. The majority of the aforementioned brands are market leaders available in more than 100 countries, and they greatly increase the business's overall revenues (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Simplifying Business Procedures
To attain high performance, Unilever is simplifying its present business procedures. The company launched the "One Unilever," which is a transformation program directed towards the simplification and standardization of operations and business processes across the entire organization. The "Sirius project" deployed and harmonized process model based on SAP solution in all Unilever plants in Europe. The solution also streamlined the company's supply chain and currently 62 plants across Europe and approximately 17,000 users have access to the SAP solution. As a result, Unilever has streamlined its operations, significantly reduced operation costs, and optimized business processes (Accenture Consulting, 2017).
Investing in Human Capital
Unilever constantly invests in its human capital. The company has a well-established training and development program designed to develop its workforce. According to the Unilever leadership, employees are valuable assets, which need skills, equipment, and favorable environment for them to be creative and innovative. As a result, the company constantly develops new products and as at 2016, it has registered 20,000 patents (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Enhancing Employee Relations
Furthermore, in order to enhance employee relations, Unilever has leadership-training programs directed at top managers, middle managers, supervisors, and employees. The company centers on nurturing leadership qualities in its management to ensure it directs and controls a productive, creative, innovative, and efficient workforce for the benefit of the organization (Unilever, 2017).
Weaknesses (negative external)
The company is marred with product recalls. In August 2016, the company recalled its Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 500ml ice cream due to potential pieces of metal in the product. In May the same year, Unilever Australia recalled all the flavors of its 1.25 liter and 2-liter tubs of its Blue Ribbon ice cream due to possible presence of plastic pieces. Additionally, Unilever Israel's production-line license was revoked after 150,000 units of cereal were reported to have salmonella. Such weaknesses hurt the company's goodwill and this negatively affects profitability (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
External Portion of SWOT
Opportunities
Economic development in the developing world is an advantage for Unilever. Economies are doing well and households are getting higher disposable incomes that can support their lifestyles. Currently, Unilever should tap the emerging economies in Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. Brazil, China, Russia, India, Turkey, Indonesia, South Africa, and Mexico exhibited strong economic growth and this led to a 7.1% increase in market share for the FY 2015 and accounted for more than 55% of the company's turnover in that particular year (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Unilever can also explore the present changes in socio-cultural factors. Currently, consumers have depicted growing concerns over health-related issues such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart diseases, which have shifted their food preferences. More than 70% of consumers prefer healthy, fat-free, and sugar-free processed foods. Thus, Unilever can tap into the growing market for healthy and nutritious foods, which is bound to be profitable.
Technology trends are imperative for an organization that wishes to minimize the costs of operation, enhance customer satisfaction, and streamline operations. Unilever embraces technology in its global plants. The company spends more than $1.1 billion in R&D activities in its six strategic laboratories, which have over 6,000 professionals whose focus is to deliver solid technologies for the organization (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Unilever's main suppliers are farmers from places like South America, the US, and East Africa. The company controls its supply chain from the source to the consumer to avoid possible breakdowns.
Threats
The main competitors are Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Products manufactured by competitors are potential substitutes so there is intense competition. Thus, Unilever should constantly improve its products to retain its portfolio of customers (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Unilever also faces potential legal battles especially after P&G accused it of copyright infringement. However, the company has maintained good ethical standards in most of its production plants and has had few legal battles (Unilever SWOT Analysis, 2016).
Strategic Goals for Unilever
To attract, train and develop the right talent for the company
Build a broad brand portfolio for customers through extensive innovation and creativity
Reduce environmental impact through sustainable sourcing and manufacturing
References
Accenture Consulting. (2017). Unilever: Transforming Business Processes with SAP Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/success-unilever-sap-solutions-summary. July 12th 2017.
Unilever SWOT Analysis. (2016). Unilever SWOT Analysis, 1-10.
Unilever. (2017).Sustainable Living Plan. Retrieved from https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/our-strategy/about-our-strategy/
