International business management topic unilevers international business and strategy

The report layout includes: PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNILEVER PART 2: UNILEVER’S INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY PART 3: ANALYZE ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN GLOBALMARKET PART 4: ANALYZ

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HOA SEN

Members : Nguyễn Bá Vinh-2170553

TP Hồ Chí Minh, tháng 01 năm 2022

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HOA SEN

Members : Nguyễn Bá Vinh-2170553

TP Hồ Chí Minh, tháng 01 năm 2022

“We have read and understood the academic integrity violations We pledge withpersonal honor that this work is our own work and does not violate academic

integrity.”

Currently, statistics show that the percentage of students who are unemployed upongraduation accounts for a high proportion and most of the main reasons are notequipped with enough practical knowledge beyond books, not attaching importance

to the issue of high school students practical problems or lack of soft skills onteamwork, problem-solving skills, writing skills and opinion presentation, etc.Therefore, in order to create favorable conditions for students, students haveoutstanding advantages compared to other students With the common ground inVietnam, Hoa Sen University has included in the training program the subject "International Business Management " - an important subject that gives studentsknowledge about relevant social realities Regarding foreign trade, import and exportactivities are happening all around us

The report is a summary of our team's experience through research and synthesisunder the guidance of Ms Pham Thi Bich Ngoc with the main objective ofresearching the multinational company Unilever, specifically here Unilever's businessactivities During the implementation of the group, we had the opportunity to learnthrough the skills of gathering, searching, selecting, and synthesizing information Ofcourse, certain difficulties cannot be avoided But with determination and solidarity,our group has successfully completed the research and drawn for each member what

he lacks

THANK YOU

With this report completed, we would like to extend our special gratitude to Ms.Pham Thi Ngoc Bich - Lecturer of International Business Management at Hoa SenUniversity, who contributed to guide and answer questions, correcting andcommenting on errors throughout the group making this report

In addition, thank you to all team members who actively contributed time, knowledgeand ideas to the report

Our team would like to thank all the members of our class for their mutual support,contribution and building on the course over the past semester

LECTURES’S EVALUATION

VII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD 1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNILEVER 2

1.1 Unilever International Corporation 2

1.2 Unilever's history 2

1.3 Unilever's mission 2

1.4.Unilever's leadership 2

1.5 Unilever's brands 3

PART 2: UNILEVER’S INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY 5

2.1 International strategy 5

2.2 Multinational strategy 5

2.3.Transnational strategy 6

2.4.HR strategy 6

2.5.R and D strategy 7

Summary 7

PART 3: ANALYZE ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN GLOBAL MARKET 8

PART 4: ANALYZE AN ACTIVITY IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 12

4.1.Global Human Resource Management in Uniliver 12

4.2.Working environment at Unilever 12

4.3 Create an open working environment 12

4.4 Unilever's HR training strategy 12

4.5 Human Resources Department is a strategic partner department 13

4.6 Human resources system at Unilever 13

4.7 Differentiated senior staff training plan 13

4.8 Training future human resources of Unilever company 14

4.9 Actively promote corporate culture and comprehensive HR care 14

POLICY IMPLICATION 16

CONCLUSION 18

REFERENCE 20

IX

TABLE OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: UNILEVER ORGANOGRAM

LIST OF IMAGES

Picture 1: “Unilever’s Executive Leadership Team (ULE)”

Picture 2:“ Product brands at Unilever”

Picture 3 :“ Unilever Vietnam and strategic partners carry out the launching ceremony of the survey "Best place to work in Vietnam 2020”

In recent years, it can be said that Unilever is one of the leading multinationalcompanies in the world When it comes to Unilever, everyone knows how influentialand influential this company is to everyone It is also the fear of rival companies inthe consumer goods market To become what it is today, Unilever has had the rightbusiness strategies, creativity and innovation, the company has brought into full playits inherent strengths to be able to make the most of opportunities in the market,bringing huge source of revenue Therefore, our team decided to analyze and researchUnilever's international business strategies, in order to know and learn what thecompany brings

Research Methods: Research and conduct actual surveys By searching forinformation and knowledge in books and the Internet, combining the knowledgelearned in school Through the survey method, we can draw relevant data from which

to summarize the data and draw our own conclusions

The report layout includes:

PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNILEVER

PART 2: UNILEVER’S INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY

PART 3: ANALYZE ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN GLOBALMARKET

PART 4: ANALYZE AN ACTIVITY IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNILEVER

At the time of the company's founding, the founders of that time set Unilever's mission

to Invigorate Life, that is "to energize people to live well, and ever since Unilever putthat mission first.And The meaning of this mission is that Unilever hopes its productswill be used by people in a useful and useful way Up to now, Unilever has done whatthey want is to create useful products from children to all ages Proof of this is thatUnilever's famous brands are very diverse from washing powder, shampoo, toothpaste,tréseme, "

1.2 Unilever's history

Unilever is a leading multinational company specializing in FMCG The company hasits headquarters in two cities London, England and Rotterdam, Netherlands.Explaining this, Unilever is the result of the merger of two businesses Lever Brothers

of the UK and Margarine Unie of the Netherlands in 1930 The products that Unileverspecializes in manufacturing are very diverse, including: Cosmetics,shampoo,toothpaste, washing powder, and more

1.3 Unilever's mission

At the time of the company's founding, the founders of that time set Unilever's mission

to "To add vitality to life", that is "to energize people to live well, and ever sinceUnilever put that mission first.The meaning of this mission is that Unilever hopes itsproducts will be used by people in a useful and useful way.Up to now, Unilever hasdone what they want is to create useful products from children to all ages Proof ofthis is that Unilever's famous brands are very diverse from washing powder, shampoo,toothpaste, "

1.4 Unilever's leadership

At Unilever, the 25-person leadership team is divided into three main groups and foursubgroups: CEO, non-executive director and secretary

Group of CEOs: 2 people

Mr Alan Jope – CEO

Mr Graeme Pitkethly – Chief Financial Officer

Executive Leadership Team (ULE): 10 people

Picture 1: “Unilever’s Executive Leadership Team (ULE)”

(Source: Unilever)

Picture 2:“ Product brands at Unilever”

Unilever grew strongly because of acquisitions and acquisitions taking place on aglobal scale Big names in the world such as Lipton (USA and CAN), Pepsodent(USA), Bachelors (UK), have been acquired by Unilever Making good use of itsopportunity, Unilever has continued to expand into many industries in canned andready-to-eat foods such as ice cream and bottled water with brands that are trustedaround the world

PART 2: UNILEVER’S INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

STRATEGY

Unilever is a famous multinational corporation To become successful in foreignmarkets, Unilever has developed and implemented effective international businessstrategies

Unilever has implemented its international strategy as follows:

+Using a market approach that is essentially the same in every country in which thegroup is present (only minimal local requirements are met)

+Sell many of the same products everywhere (make necessary minor adjustments tosuit the preferences and needs of local countries)

+Build a global brand and centrally coordinate your business activities around theworld

=>For this international business strategy of Unilever, the company has transferred itsadvantages abroad, taking advantage of production experience as well as advantages

in products and skills to compete in the market However, with an internationalstrategy, Unilever has not been able to meet the unique needs of each differentlocality and country

2.2 Multinational strategy

Multinational strategy is a competitive strategy that aims to increase the value ofproducts (and thereby increase profits) of enterprises by adapting products to eachforeign market

Unilever's international business strategy at this stage allows each overseas subsidiary

to take over the production, sales, marketing and distribution of products in that

5

market Each company will be a separate profit center and is solely responsible for itsown business.

A multinational strategy allows managers in each company to develop products andimplement marketing strategies tailored to local preferences and tastes, and to adjustsales strategies and distribution systems coordinated with the retail system in eachmarket

=>However, this strategy also has certain limitations such as: difficult to specialize,

or overlap between departments and resources Duplication of work in each regionbecause subsidiaries have similar value-creating activities in different locations,rather than focusing on the most efficient location

2.3.Transnational strategy

A transnational strategy is a competitive strategy that aims to increase profits byreducing costs The transnational strategy will be chosen when businesses are at risk

of facing great pressure to cut costs and adapt to local conditions

Business units have high decision-making power in applying the form of basicbusiness activities such as production and marketing (to adapt well), and at the sametime have linkages with each other (to reduce costs)

The reasons why Unilever chooses a transnational strategy for its internationalbusiness strategy can be mentioned as follows:

+Pressure for local adaptation is high: due to different tastes in each country anddifferences in the policies of the host country

+Pressure to reduce costs is high: there are more domestic manufacturers with largeand modern production lines to compete

Some of the key transnational activities in Unilever's international business strategyinclude:

+Research & development

+Production

+ Logistics and supply chain activities

+ Marketing activities

2.4.HR strategy

Unilever always attaches great importance to human resources as a breakthrough inquality for sustainable and long-term development for the company.Unilever has built

a team of professional local staff who regularly check the market so that it can beeasily done grasp the market needs quickly and clearly so that the company canpromptly make appropriate strategies

Unilever regularly has training programs for employees to improve their skills andaccess to new technology In addition, Unilever also has a very effective policy ofattracting human resources, which is looking for human resources from universityand college students

In addition, the company's remuneration policy for specific staff in terms of salary,bonus and welfare regimes is very attractive and worthy Unilever's point of view is''development through people''

2.5.R and D strategy

Contributing to Unilever's success, it must be mentioned that the R and D department,Unilever always focuses and promotes R and D.Unilever builds RD in most regionalmarkets to be able to stick to and understand the needs of customers in market Fromthere, the analysis is accurate and convenient Currently, Unilever has 31 global Rand D centers and 90 regional R and Ds

The R and D division often conducts thorough analysis before entering the market.For example, Faith And Lovely lotion, Wall.Unilever cream all have careful analysisand evaluation before launching products and this has brought success for thecompany, because all customers trust

=>Summary

To become one of the famous multinational corporations, Unilever has built andimplemented effective international business strategies Key strategies in Unilever'sinternational business strategy include:

PART 3: ANALYZE ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN

GLOBAL MARKET

Unilever’s organizational architecture is responsible for ensuring adequate support forproduct innovation in the firm’s global business, and at the same time, also adapts tothe customer need in each locality At present, the firm maintains an architecture thataddresses corporate needs in terms of managing product types across the world

A product type divisional organizational structure is put to use in Unilever that isdivided into components based on their product center For instance, the company has

a division for food and refreshment products and another division for personal careproducts The following are the main characteristics of Unilever’s organizationalstructure:

+Geographic divisions (least significant feature)

+Corporate executive teams

+Product type divisions (most significant feature)

The secondary characteristic of Unilever’s organizational structure is corporate teamswhich are found on business functions For instance, Unilever has a team forcommercial and another team for personnel These teams make up the UnileverLeadership Executive (ULE) group The following are the corporate executive teams

in Unilever’s organizational structure:

Figure 1: Unilever OrganogramGeographic division is a small but equally important feature of Unilever'sorganizational architecture The company uses this architectural feature to support areastrategies For instance, Unilever's marketing strategy for Americans differs from thatapplied to the Asian consumer goods market In addition, this corporate structurefeature is used to analyze a firm's financial performance The following geographicdivisions are maintained in Unilever’s organizational structure:

+Asia/AMET/RUB (Africa, Middle East, Turkey; Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)

environment, Unilever has implemented organizational restructuring With the aim offocusing on the strengths of the company's products and diffenrentiate their productsfrom the opponents, Unilever has transformed from a worldwide area structure to aglobal matrix structure The global matrix structure is organized as follows:

Unilever maintains the following product type divisions in its organizationalstructure: personal care; home care; foods and refreshment For instance, Unilever'sfood group in Europe, headquartered in Rotterdam, focuses on trading food brands inWestern and Eastern Europe Within the same product group within the same regionthere are still differences, for example, many food brands in North America aredifferent from those in Europe

+Consolidate 300 companies into 10 group

+Catalog of goods reduced from 1600 to 400

+Acquisitions and mergers of well-known brands, such as Paula's Choice

+Reduce the number of factories from 380 to 300 (in 2018)

+Apply new management theories

Implementing the global matrix structure that helps Unilever save production costs,maximize production lines, and at the same time, for each territory and country, butalso differentiate the products

On the other hands, product differentiation is more challenging and difficult tomaintain than cost minimization, especially for essential commodities Even thoughgeographic divisions are one of its structural features, the company focuses more onproduct type divisions As a result, support is limited for specific market or territorialstrategic reforms

Most multinational companies as Unilever have a very cumbersome and complexorganizational structure, following the current trend of multinational companiestrying to streamline their organizational structure to become more flexible Unilever

is no exception, currently the business is implementing a plan to merge the functionalparts of the headquarters in UK and the Netherlands, this plan helps Unilever savehuge costs for businesses

Thus, to enhance this organizational architecture, a suggestion is that Unilever