Term Paper on Unilever Bangladesh Lltd

Introduction:

Unilever is one of the world’s largest suppliers of fast moving consumer goods across foods, home and personal product categories. Unilever’s portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands.

Today, Unilever still believes that success means acting with ‘the highest standards of corporate behavior towards its employees, consumers and the societies and world in which we live’. Over the years it has launched or participated in an ever-growing range of initiatives to source sustainable supplies of raw materials, protect environments, support local communities and much more.

Through this timeline you’ll see how it’s brand portfolio has evolved. At the beginning of the 21st century, Unilever’s Path to Growth strategy focused us on global high-potential brands and Unilever’s Vitality mission is taking us into a new phase of development. More than ever, our brands are helping people ‘feel good, look good and get more out of life’ – a sentiment close to Lord Leverhulme’s heart over a hundred years ago.

 Background of the Term Paper:

In preparing my term paper and make it successful. I had take help and guidance of some Bonaire person. First of all, I would like to offer my deep gratitude, complements and heartfelt thanks and regard to our respective supervisor Mr. Mahbub Parvez, Senior Lecturer, Daffodil  InternationalUniversity. I express our profound indebtedness and gratitude to our other classmates for their valuable advice that helped in preparing this term paper.

I have collected data and information’s from the website of Unilever of Bangladesh, Internet, media, and newspaper to preparing my term paper.

Significance of the study:

The purpose of my preparing term-paper is I can know practically social responsibility of the company Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. and become familiar with their activities.

 Methodology:

Necessary documents are prepared by the Web Site. All data’s and information are collected from secondary sources.

Limitation of the study:

The term-paper was about the changes of the financial condition of the company, but as the company is not listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange, proper financial data has not been found. I could not get remarkable information related my topic. Even no article was received in that way from Internet.

Analysis of Unilever Bangladesh:

Introducing Unilever:

150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. From feeding your family to keeping your home clean and fresh, our brands are part of everyday life.

Life partner:

With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people’s lives in so many different ways.

Its brand portfolio has made us leaders in every field in which we work. It ranges from much-loved world favorites including Lipton, Knorr, Dove and Omo, to trusted local brands such as Blue Band and Suave.

From comforting soups to warm a winter’s day, to sensuous soaps that make you feel fabulous, our products help people get more out of life.

We’re constantly enhancing our brands to deliver more intense, rewarding product experiences. We invest €1 billion every year in cutting edge research and development, and have five laboratories around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help develop our products.

Continuous development:

Consumer research plays a vital role in our brands’ development. We’re constantly developing new products and developing tried and tested brands to meet changing tastes, lifestyles and expectations. And our strong roots in local markets also mean we can respond to consumers at a local level.

By helping improve people’s diets and daily lives, we can help them keep healthier for longer, look good and give their children the best start in life.

We also believe that the very business of conducting business in a responsible way has a positive social impact. We create and share wealth, invest in local economies and develop people’s skills – both inside our organization and in the communities around us.

Today Unilever employs 223 000 people in 100 countries worldwide, and supports the jobs of many thousands of distributors, contractors and suppliers.

 Heath & personal care:

• First launched in France in 1983, our leading male grooming brand, Axe, now gives guys the edge in the mating game in over 60 countries
• Our oral care brands Mentadent, Peposodent and Signal have teamed up with the world’s largest dental federation, the FDI, which represents over 750,000 dentists around the world
• Lux became the first mass-marketed soap when it launched in 1924. Today it achieves annual global sales of over €1 billion
• Domestics is a best-selling brand in nine of the 35 countries in which it’s sold
• Hindustan Lever in India has launched a hand-wash product, Surf Excel Quick Wash, with a low foaming formulation, reducing the amount of water needed for rinsing by up to two buckets per wash
• Recent breakthroughs at Rexona include Rexona Crystal, a deodorant that eliminates unsightly white deposits on dark garments.

 Foods:

• Knorr is our biggest food brand with a strong presence in over 80 countries and a product range including soups, sauces, bouillons, noodles and complete meals
• They’re the world’s largest ice cream manufacturer, thanks to the success of our Heart brand which includes Magnum, Cornetto, Carte d’Or and Solero, and Ben & Jerry’s and Brayers in the US.
• Lipton’s tea-based drinks include the international Lipton Iced Tea range, the Lipton range in North America and Lipton Yellow Label, the world’s favourite tea brand
• Becel / Flora pro-active products have been recognized as the most significant advancement in the dietary management of cholesterol in 40 years
• in the mid 1990s we led the industry with our programmed to eliminate almost all trans fat from our margarine.
• Ads,  our soy-based fruit drink, has been growing at the impressive rate of 35% since its launch in 1997 in Latin America.

Mission of Unilever:

The mission of Unilever is to add Vitality to life. People meets everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life.

Vitality is at the heart of everything people do. It’s in Unilever’s brands, people and unilateral values.

Vitality means different things to different people. Some see it as energy, others view it more broadly as a healthy state of body and mind of alive.

Whatever their personal definition, millions of people around the world use unilever’s products daily to add Vitality to their lives – whether that’s through feeling great because they’ve got shiny hair and a brilliant smile, keeping their homes fresh and clean, or by enjoying a great cup of tea, satisfying meal or healthy snack.

Ever since the 19th Century when William Hesketh Lever stated that the company’s mission was “to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products,” Vitality has been at the heart of our business.

Vitality defines what we stand for: our values, what makes us different, and how we contribute to society. It’s the common thread that links our brands and it’s central to the unique way we operate around the world.

Health & nutrition:

Unilever’s Vitality mission commits us to growing our business by addressing health and nutrition issues. We focus on priorities including children and family nutrition, cardiovascular health and weight management.

Inside & out:

Unilever’s culture also embodies Vitality. Adding Vitality of life requires the highest standards of behavior towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch and the environments on which we have an impact.

The growing demand for more Vitality in life provides us with a huge opportunity for growth. The way Unilever works and the products the staff of the unilever has developed are shaped by consumer trends, along with the need to help raise health and hygiene standards in both the developing and industrialized regions of the world.

 History of Unilever:

Unilever’s corporate mission – to add vitality to life – shows how clearly the business understands 21st century-consumers and their lives. But the spirit of this mission forms a thread that runs throughout its history.

In the 1890s, William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros, wrote down his ideas for Sunlight Soap – his revolutionary new product that helped popularizes cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England. It was ‘to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use unilever’s products’.

This was long before the phrase ‘Corporate Mission’ had been invented, but these ideas have stayed at the heart of unilever’s business. Even  if their language – and the notion of only women doing housework – has become outdated.

In a history that now crosses three centuries, Unilever’s success has been influenced by the major events of the day – economic boom, depression, world wars, changing consumer lifestyles and advances in technology. And throughout unilever has been created products that help people get more out of life – cutting the time spent on household chores, improving nutrition, enabling people to enjoy food and take care of their homes, their clothes and themselves.

Social Responsibility for an organization:

Social Responsibility of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd:

The Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. is a well known business organization in our country. The business of Unilever is very old in Bangladesh. It has many products in local and world market. They have also good relationship with Bangladeshi general people by their social work. They are trying to involve many types of social responsibility. Like as:

• Close Up 1 Contest.
• Floating hospital
• Balancing profit with corporate behaviors.
• Education
• Education for all.
• Higher education scholarship.

Close up 1 Contest:

In this year close up 1 is a well known contesting program in NTV. First it was arranged    by Unilever in 2005. Now it is the second time to find out the best new singer in 2006.      The contesters will be 15 to 30 years old. Nolok Babu was the champion of close up 1    2005. For the contest of 2006 registration is running. The media partner of this contest in NTV, web partner is Bangladesh info.com and call centre partner is City cell.

This contest is helpful to find out our national assets. So it is too good social work to find out our assets. At last we can say that it is very helpful to our society. So we should help them and try to welcome this kind of social work.

Floating hospital:

Aklima now has one of the biggest smiles in her class. She wasn’t always so cheerful. Born with a cleft lip, Aklima used to feel self-conscious and shy when smiling in front of her classmates.

That was before the LifebuoyFriendshipHospital pulled up on her stretch of remote sandbank on the River Brahmaptura in Bangladesh. Aklima is one of over 172 000 people to have been helped by the Unilever-sponsored hospital ship since it set sail four years ago.

“None of my friends calls me ‘cleft lip’ anymore after my operation at the LifebuoyFriendshipHospital,” she beams.

Balancing profit with corporate behaviors:

In the late 19th century the businesses that would later become Unilever were among the most philanthropic of their time. They set up projects to improve the lot of their workers and created products with a positive social impact, making hygiene and personal care commonplace and improving nutrition through adding vitamins to foods that were already daily staples.

Today, Unilever still believes that success means acting with ‘the highest standards of corporate behavior towards our employees, consumers and the societies and world in which we live’. Over the years we’ve launched or participated in an ever-growing range of initiatives to source sustainable supplies of raw materials, protect environments, support local communities and much more.

Through this timeline you’ll see how our brand portfolio has evolved. At the beginning of the 21st century, our Path to Growth strategy focused us on global high-potential brands and our Vitality mission is taking us into a new phase of development. More than ever, our brands are helping people ‘feel good, look good and get more out of life’ – a sentiment close to Lord Leverhulme’s heart over a hundred years ago.

Education:

Promoting equal opportunities:

Faria Lara Foundation is a voluntary organization working in the remote village of Halta Dawatala in Bamna Upozila, Barguna District, in the south of the country.  FAL Foundation came forward to work with this organization to assist semi-urban female students to acquire spoken/written English and basic Computer skills after their SSC Exam and help them to compete with their urban peers.

Three month training programmer:

In April 2005,  UBL Chairman Sanjiv Mehta officially handed over a cheque of Taka 5 Lakh and 10 computers to Selina Hossain, Executive Director of the Faria Lara Foundation.  Under this project 40 female SSC students from 16 secondary institutions in the district went through a three-month training program on basic computer skills, spoken and written English.  The courses were conducted by Certified IT professionals and English language professors.  The effectiveness of the course was evaluated by a final exam conducted by Adcomm, UBL’s agency for executing the various projects related to FAL Foundation.

 Education for all:

Working with SSKS:

Unilever came forward to support an institution that provides free primary education to children of lowest income families. There exist some institutions that provide education to these hapless children and one such organization is Shathee Samaj Kalyan Samity (SSKS), an NGO working for the slum residents in the city’s posh residential area- Banani.

Besides entrepreneurial training and other activities, SSKS runs a free evening school for children residing in slums and was funded by an international NGO thus far. Towards the end of 2004, the supporting organization wrapped up its activities from Bangladesh which left SSKS floundering for funds.

With Education as one of UBL’s primary focus in CSR, UBL felt that it would be a shame to see such a wonderful initiative, providing education to over 300 underprivileged children, close down.

In January 2005, Unilever Bangladesh initiated the sponsorship of the school’ major expenses. The sponsorship would help to cover salaries for the teachers and staff, uniforms and books for the students, and other administrative outflows

Higher education scholarship:

Rewarding talent :

Fair and Lovely Foundation undertook many initiatives to encourage women to become empowered with skills for economic independence in life and self fulfillment. The scholarship program was one such initiative that supported the dreams of talented women from economically disadvantaged families.

Bringing out the best:

In the scholarship program FAL Foundation provided a scholarship worth Taka 25,000 to 200 female students (who have passed their HSC Exams in 2003) to pursue 4 year under-graduate studies in the fields of Arts, Commerce, Science , Engineering, Higher Agro–Science, and Medicine. More than 2000 applications were received.

After a rigorous need and merit assessment and a final interview conducted by renowned professionals from various fields, the final 200 were selected and awarded at a grand event at Hotel Sheraton in Dhaka in June. The scholarships are disbursed in installments following submission of academic records showing good performance every year by each awardee.

About Unilever:

In this section I can find out how the business is organized and details of our corporate strategy and Vitality mission.

 Company structure:

Unilever’s new organization provides single point accountability and has fewer management layers to deliver faster decisions and faster execution.

Unilever challenges:

Here are a few examples of the everyday challenges we face. They’re why we need highly creative people who want to make a difference and work with some truly exceptional brands.

Toothpaste tubes into tables:

At Unilever, we know that visionaries are as valuable as magicians. If you could look at the waste from a toothpaste factory in Brazil and see an opportunity to make chairs, tables, floor tiles and even roofing sheets, you might fit right in (99% of all solid waste generated at the factory is re-cycled).

A crocodile in the sump:

When the manager of our Ponds skincare plant in Central Africa got to work one morning, he found a rather large problem with the drains: a crocodile in the sump, no less. But he saved the day (and the crocodile) and got the plant running again. Then again, we expect our people to rise to any challenge – even if they’re not all as scary as this one.

Iodine deficiency:

Could you solve a nation’s problem by thinking very small? Iodine deficiency in India is serious, particularly among children, as it is detrimental to their development. Our solution was a small but clever one: refined iodized salt sold in small, affordable sachets that would not last long enough to degrade in the sun.

Yellowstone Park:

We’re looking for people who believe this is the best place to dump four million plastic detergent bottles.

Striving to be number one:

When your business is striving to be number one, you need people who can’t bear coming second.

 Egg yolks & oil:

Unilever produces 101 new things to do with egg yolks and oil?

Dirt is good:

We believe ‘dirt is good.’ Not surprisingly we’re looking for people who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

 Overview of Unilever Ltd:

• Its worldwide turnover in 2003 was €42,942 million.
• It has employ 234,000 people in around 100 countries worldwide.
• Every day, 150 million people choose its brands to feed their families and to clean themselves and their homes.
• Over half of its sales are generated by our Foods brands, which include Knorr, Flora/Becel, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Igloo / Birdseye / Findus, Rama / Blue Band, Slim Fast, Bertolli and the ice cream ‘heart’ brand.
• In many parts of the world it leads the home care market with brands such as Omo, Surf, Skip, CIF and Comfort.
• Its leading personal care brands include Dove, Lux, Sunsilk, Pond’s, Axe/Lynx and Rexona.
• In 2003 it spent €1,065 million on research and development – 2.5% of its turnover.
• It spent over €66 million on a wide range of community projects in 2003, equivalent to 1.5% of pre-tax profits.
• At the end of 2003, it was buying more than half our fish from sustainable sources.
• It has 114 manufacturing sites certified to the international environmental management standard, ISO 1401.

 Unilever today:

The company’s 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, 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product.

Look in your kitchen, or on the bathroom shelf, and you’re bound to see one of our well-known brands. We create market and distribute the products that people choose to feed their families and keep themselves and their homes clean and fresh.

People’s lives are changing fast. As the way we all live and work evolves, our needs and tastes change too. Unilever aim to help people in their daily lives. So it keep developing new products, improving tried and tested brands and promoting better, more efficient ways of working.

It has 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 our 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.

Focusing on performance and productivity, it encourages its people to develop new ideas and put fresh approaches into practice. Hand in hand with this is a strong sense of responsibility to the communities it serves. Unilever don’t only measure success in financial terms; how it achieve results is important too. It works hard to conduct its business with integrity – respecting our employees, our consumers and the environment around it.

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast-moving consumer goods. Here are some recent highlights from our three global divisions – Foods, home care and personal care.

Other operations:

To support its consumer’s brands, it has invested tea plantation in India and Africa and palm oil plantation in Africa.

Corporate venture activities:

In 2004 Unilever reviewed the purpose of its venturing activities and decided to increase the funds available for investment to €250 million and to extend the period to five years (2002-2006). These funds are invested in venturing activities to build business interests in Foods and Home and Personal Care. Up to €120 million will be invested over the five years, in two venture funds of it’s own, Unilever Ventures and Unilever Technology Ventures. As at 31^st December 2004 it has invested €100 million in all its ventures activities.

 Technology and innovation:

In 2004 Unilever spent €1040 million on research and development, representing 2.6% of its turnover. Its R&D groups respond to emerging consumer insights-and supply a stream of innovation.

Corporate Research and Unilever Technology Ventures search out and identify new technology, which is fed through to the divisional R&D programs.

Foods and HPC also use external scientists who are at the forefront of their own fields to review their R&D programs and ensure that they are at the leading edge of scientific excellence.

In Home Care, it continued to roll out new technologies under the Omo brand, including laundry bars optimized for great cleaning performance in Africa and Asia.

The Radiant brand launched new formulation to improve fabric color protection in South Africa.

In Personal Care, there have been important global initiatives. Dove has been freelanced with new graphics and packaging across skin, hair and deodorants. Lax launched a new range of bars, with step change in sensorial benefits, together with outstanding fragrances and new packaging. Axe deodorant in North America now offers longer-lasting fragrances, while in other regions 24-7 and the new Touch variant have been launched.

Findings:

We have mention earlier that, due to the company is not listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange market, so we could not produce the actual financial data of the company to find out the cost efficiency.  But after collecting some economic information, our logical thinking has come out with this concept that, the company has reduced its cost tremendously during last four years. It has reduced its cost by its supply chain management and now it is become a very important department of the company. In every steps of its supply chin management it is reducing its costs, which brought high profits to the company. We can explain the fact by emphasizing its supply chain factors and the negotiations of the company with its suppliers of raw materials.

Results:

It is obvious that, Unilever Bangladesh has reduced its cost by its supply chain management. If we look at the inflation rate of the country from the financial year 2000 to 2004, we can easily understand why prices of the products increased. The following chat shows the inflation rate of Bangladesh.

Inflation rate of Bangladesh:

From the above mention chat, we can see that inflation rate has been increased gradually. It is obvious that the price of the product in the year 2000 has increased in the year 2004. That means, suppose in the year 2000 we could buy one kilogram of rice by 15/-tk, but in the year 2004 we cannot buy the same quantity of rice with the same price. Because the value of money has devalued, which means the worth of money is not the same as before. We cannot buy same product which we used to buy with the same amount of money earlier. As the exchange rate has also been rose during last couples of years, the inflation rate is also the same. Due to inflation rate, the price of any product will increase and if the raw materials are to be brought from abroad, it will cost much more because side by side, exchange rate has also been increased.

Considering the above facts, the products of Unilever should have increased which would be an obvious matter. But the amazing part is that, it has kept the same price level during the last five years. As we all know, that ‘Lux Beauty Soap’ is a well known and popular product of Unilever. If we recall five year back, we will see the price of the soap was at the same price level, in which level it is still now.

Secrete of this miraculous activity of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is its effective supply chain management. It has managed its supply chain in such an efficient manner that it has able to keep its price level of its products at the same level throughout last five years. So, we can say that, supply chain management has put a great effect on reducing the cost of the company.

 Definitions & Acronyms:

 Inflation:

It may be defined as percentage increase in price level. According to Coeburn, inflation is a situation when too much money purchases too few goods.

 CNG:

Compact Natural Gas

 OEE:

Overall Equipment Efficiency

Suggestion and Recommendation:

If the services more good the demand of the customers will be increasing day by day. The quality of product should be better and price should be less. As Unilever is a multinational company. It will be more developed if it opens more branches in more countries of the world.

Conclusion:

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. is very popular organization of Bangladesh. They are trying to social work for Bangladeshi’s people. In my opinion they are doing some important work for this society. And they will also improve in future.