EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Unilever Limited is one of largest multinational business firm in the world. Over the last four decades, Unilever Bangladesh has been constantly bringing new and world-class products for the Bangladeshi people to remove the daily drudgery of life. Over 90% of the countrys households use one or more of our products. It provides sixteen verities brands and try to mitigate all types of human demand by introducing with new innovative products. Unilever Operations in Bangladesh provide employment to over 10,000 people directly and through its dedicated suppliers, distributors and service providers. 99.5% of UBL employees are locals and they have equal number of Bangladeshis working abroad in other Unilever companies as expatriates. Unilever Bangladesh has a certain connection with the consumers. Among others, Closeup inspires confidence, Lux believes in star power and Surf Excel encourages all to learn through new discovery and exploration. Unilever believe in all these insights as well. They believe the people who work with them are confident of their capabilities, believe in nothing less than star performances and of course are not afraid to work hard at achieving goals. This report enlightens the key issues involved with UBL. This includes the financial position, management styles, marketing strategies, HRM issues, technology, etc. In addition to the strengths in these aspects, we have also evaluated them and identify the problems and challenges in each issue. So, it is recommended that Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. reduces the costs and think actively about the threats.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PARTS
INTRODUCTION BUSINESS AT A GLANCE FINANCIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STYLES HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MARKETING STRATEGIES TECHNOLOGY CONCLUSION APPENDICES AND REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND: Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch company, with a history of colonial exploitation, on which it has gradually built its capital. Today it owns most of the world's consumer product brands in food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever employs more than 247,000 people and had worldwide revenue of 48 760 million in 2002. Unilever has two parent companies: Unilever NV in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. This arrangement is similar to that of Reed Elsevier and that of Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structure. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of UnileverN.V. and PLC is Antony Burgmans, while Patrick Cescau is Group Chief Executive. Unilever's major competitors include Nestl and Procter & Gamble.

HISTORY: Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is one of the worlds most successful fast moving consumer goods manufacturing companies with local manufacturing facilities, reporting to regional business groups for innovation and business results. Lever Brothers Bangladesh Ltd. as a subsidiary of Unilever is leading the home care, personal care and food product market of Bangladesh. On 25th February 1964 the eastern plant of Lever Brothers Pakistan Ltd. was inaugurated at Kalurghat, Chittagong with a soap production capacity of approximately 485 metric tons. It was a private limited company with55% share held by Unilever and the rest by the Government of Pakistan. After independence the eastern plant was declared abandoned. But on 5th July 1973 it was registered under the name of Lever Brothers Bangladesh Ltd. as a joint venture company of Unilever PLC and the Govt. of Bangladesh with a share arrangement of 60.75% to Unilever and 39.25% to the Bangladesh Govt.

Unilever brands are trusted everywhere and, by listening to the people who buy them, they've grown into one of the world's most successful consumer goods companies. In fact, 150million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product.UBL have a portfolio of brands that are popular across the globe - as well as regional products and local varieties of famous-name goods. This diversity comes from two of their key strengths: Strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of the local culture. World class business expertise applied internationally to serve consumers everywhere.

BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
Type of business: Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company with local manufacturing facilities, reporting to regional business groups for innovation and business results. Operations: Home and Personal Care, Foods Constitution: Unilever - 60.75% shares, Government of Bangladesh - 39.25%

Product categories: *Household Care *Fabric Cleaning *Skin Cleansing *Tea based Beverages *Hair Care *Oral Care *Skin Care *Personal Grooming

Brands:

*Wheel *Fair & Lovely *Sunsilk *Clear *Rexona *Lakme

*Lux *Pond's *Taaza *Vim *Dove *Vaseline

*Lifebuoy *Close Up *Pepsodent *Surf Excel *Axe

Mission: Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. They meet everyday needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Manufacturing Facilities: The Company has a Soap Manufacturing factory and a Personal Products Factory located in Chittagong. Besides these, there is a tea packaging operation in Chittagong and three manufacturing units in Dhaka, which are owned and run by third parties exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh. Over the last four decades, Unilever Bangladesh has been constantly bringing new and worldclass products for the Bangladeshi people to remove the daily drudgery of life. Over90% of the countrys households use one or more of our products.

Employees: Unilever Operations in Bangladesh provide employment to over 10,000 people directly and through its dedicated suppliers, distributors and service providers. 99.5% of UBL employees are locals and we have equal number of Bangladeshis working abroad in other Unilever companies as expatriates.

Logo and Slogan:

Slogan: FEEL GOOD, LOOK GOOD AND GET MORE OUT OF LIFE

FINANCIAL INFORMATION
As, being one of the top multinational company in the world, they are very optimistic about their share holders and theirs owners. Also from the companies point of view unilever has been consistent, about earning their revenues.

DIVIDENT PAYMENT SYSTEM

Previously, unilever was paying its dividend on the yearly basis, but now unilever pays its dividend on the quarterly basis. The dates that the dividends are declared are different each year. Unilever pays dividend according to the dividend calendar.

DIVIDENT RE-INVESTMENT PROCESS

Unilever offer

dividend reinvestment plans that are a convenient, easy way to build your shareholding by using your cash dividends to buy additional shares.

MAJOR TAXPAYING ORGANIZATION

Unilever is one of the biggest tax payer to BANGLADESH GOVT.

MAINTAINS INTERNATIONAL RATTING STANDERD

Unilevers current long-term credit rating is A+/A1 and current short-term credit rating is A1/P1.

MANAGEMENT STYLE & PRACTICES

INTRODUCTION
Functions of Managers: Planning: According to Robbins and Judge (2009), planning is a process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities. As a decentralized organization most of the planning decision of Unilever is taken by the regional top level managers. Organizing: Managers of Unilever organize their employees by assigning them appropriate work that is related to their designation and abilities as well. Leading: Managers in Unilever lead motivate and inspire their employees in times of disappointment and guide them in certain matters of work. Controlling: Managers make sure that their department is working according to the instructions and they are not involved in any time wasting activities and also evaluates work of employees that weather they are working accordingly or not if not they take immediate action. Departments in Unilever:
During my visit at Unilever office I come to know that there are following departments are currently working:

Research and development Information technology Human Resource Supply Chain Marketing Customer development Business to Business Finance Department

Managers of Unilever have some managerial which helps them to accomplish their goal efficiently. The distinctive skills of the managers of Unilever are: 1. Technical skill : the ready-to-use expertise to perform a task with proficiency as defined by Schermerhorn, J. R. (2010). 2. Human skill : ability to work well with people both individually and in a group 3. Conceptual skill : ability to see big pictures and understand the elements in a situation 4. Design skill : skilled to design and effective solution in any kind of problem which amplifies the development of Unilever

Evaluation As Unilever is a decentralized organization, decisions are taken by the regional top level managers. This means that particular regions will be having particular managerial strategies and decisions. This will decrease the uniformity between the different branches of the different regions. For example, in one branch of a particular region, some workers may have complains regarding the autocratic management styles of the organization. Workers wont have any say in the work style and moreover the work stress is significantly high. The management always keeps them under huge pressure. All these facts created a negative impression about the organization. So naturally, the employees will also think that the same kind of situation will also be present in other branches of the organization. Thus, it proves that a consistency among the management decisions and strategies are required. And this will only be possible if everything is centralized.

MARKETING STRATEGY
Product Strategy: Household Care Fabric Cleansing Skin Cleansing Skin Care & Personal Grooming Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Rexona, Vaseline, Lakme Oral Care Hair Care Tea Based Beverage

Vim

Wheel, Surf Excel

Lux, Lifebuoy, Dove, Vaseline

Pepsodent, Close up

Dove, Sunsilk, Clear

Taaza

Price Strategy: Unilever is going for competitive pricing strategy because it has got high competition with Proctor & Gamble and Square Toiletries. So, if prices are raised, it might face a fall in the demand for their products. Promotional Strategy: Unilever is highly involved in advertising their products in TV, newspapers, billboards, etc. Moreover, they are giving sales promotions, like giving one product free with another. They are arranging competition, like, recently Sunsilk arranged for a free trip to Paris competition. Unilever always tries to create events and stories, which

automatically come to press attention public gets to know about their product. Here, the diagram shows working with the Friendship charity, Unilever Bangladesh sponsored the complete transformation of a French oil-barge into a comfortable residential boat with proper amenities for medical procedures.

Placing Strategy: Unilever have their own distributors who are working as wholesaler, and they are selling the product to the retailers, from them consumer buys the product. Therefore, we can say two level of distribution channel is followed by the Unilever. They are using conventional distribution channel as this company consists of independent producer and one or more independent wholesalers and retailers and also they have no negotiation method to resolve the problem. Evaluation: Despite having many strengths and opportunities in every aspects, they also face many problems and challenges, like: Problems: Reliance on outside raw materials So many substitutes available in the market Lack of control in the market. If an y disruption arises between compan y a n d distributor then the whole market suffers. Lack of informational reliability, since the market is too large The paradox of choice between Unilevers products has to be addressed.

Challenges: Threats of the market challengers Existence of political unrest though out the country

As a market leader there is always a risk to be attacked by the market challengers. The Unilevers strategy is to defend their market share by being premium in service, having full-line strategy, extensive and efficient dealership system and good financing. In Bangladesh the major two challengers for Unilever is Square Toiletries Ltd and Proctor & Gamble Ltd.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Like every company, UBL has two types of recruitment procedure. They are involved in internal recruitment as well as the external recruitment. The ways in which external recruitment take place in UBL are: Walks- ins and write- ins Employee referrals Advertising Private placement agencies & Professional search firms Educational institutions & Professional associates International recruitment

After accomplishing the recruitment process, Unilever go to the selection process where they start the process with the reception of application form filled up through internet online form. After scrutinizing the data, they select applications for written test, which measures analytical ability, computation ability, verbal skill, written skill and general knowledge. More above 65% marks ensures applicants pass. In an official website of UBL, we found an employee named Delwar Hossain, informing us about the training facilities provided by UBL. He said, In 1995, I joined UBL as Management Trainee in Commercial function. I believe it is the number one company for training and development of individual. Investment behind human resources is one of the key priorities for Unilever. Evaluation: In spite of the excellent HR duty, it is found that many applicants are complaining that most of the time, the organizations employers try to appointment their relatives, familiar person. This biasness is seen to be very common in UBL. It is also found that turnover in UBL is increasing. This is because when one existing employee

goes for any international project, he or she might not get his position back as UBL may find more attractive applicants. Moreover, the existing employees face a slower rate of promotion. All these problems are found from a conversation of an UBL employee.

TECHNOLOGY

From a website of Linkedin, where we can find all the information about personnel in different companies, we came to know that an employee named Rokanujjaman Rokan, software engineer at AL-Hiyal Softwares was hired for In House Software Development Team, which was involved in Innovative Business Partnering for Unilever Bangladesh Ltd (Billing, Budget, Purchase, Promotion and daily business activities). He created Audit Tracking System and Legal Work flow System for Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AND UNILEVER
Unilever used the technology called cloud computing for few years now and recently they have built a private cloud computing setup for its key basic applications, using the new Microsoft system center 2012 platform. Recently Unilever has been very aggressive in standardizing their systems to improve their day-to-day activities. Unilever also has a plan to double up their revenues using latest technologies without hampering their image and product quality.

CONCLUSION
Unilever Bangladesh limited is one of the leading multinational companies in Bangladesh. This report has attempted to point out the key issues of Unilever Bangladesh. It says about the history of Unilever Bangladesh, then, all the brands provided by them. This also includes financial condition, management styles and practices, marketing strategies, HRM issues, technology, etc. along with those key issues, the problems related to the issues are also recommended. So, it is suggested to focus on maximizing its benefits and reducing its problems. This will help them to go neck to neck competition with their major competitors and also reduce other new competitors to enter the market.

REFERENCES:

Business at a glance, retrieved from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54582101/Internship-Report-onUnilever-Bangladesh Corporate Commercial Manager Finance and IT, retrieved from: http://unilever.freeservers.com/html/career/delwar.htm Management Style, retrieved from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/40598565/Unilever-ManagementAssingnment Marketing Strategy, retrieved from: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Comparison-Unilever-PgMarketing-Strategies/76387 Overview of Rokanujjaman, retrieved from: http://bd.linkedin.com/pub/rokanujjamanrokan/20/480/42b

Robbins, S & Judge, T. (2009). Organizational Behavior (13th ed.). New Jersey, Pearson Education Hall Schermerhorn, J. R. (2010). Inroduction to Management (10th ed), John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd
SWOT Analysis, retrieved from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53673615/Marketing-Plan-Unilever