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Strategic Management TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3 TASK 1 ................................................................................................................................................3 Similarities and differences in strategy development and Implementation ....................................3 Identification of strategy approach in relation to Porter's Generic Model ......................................4 Identification of the outcomes of the selected strategy....................................................................4 TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................4 Identification and discussion the possible future strategic direction ..............................................4 Justification of actions using Porter's Generic Strategy..................................................................5 TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................6 Implementation challenges faced by Unilever.................................................................................6 Recommendations............................................................................................................................7 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8 TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
INTRODUCTION Strategic management is the process of planning, monitoring and analysing the strategies formulated by a company. This is done so as to assess whether the goals and objectives envisioned by the organisation are achieved or not (du Toit, 2016). Strategic management is done to also analyse the internal and external environment. This is done with the objective of achieving competitive advantage for a organisation over it's competitors. Formulation of strategies is done to enhance the current performance and skills of employees as well as the company. The report studies how Unilever achieved competitive advantage by designing and bringing strategic developments in an organisation. TASK 1 Similarities and differences in strategy development and Implementation Strategy development is the first phase of the strategic process. It refers to evaluation of the strategies currently been used by Unilever. This is because only after evaluation certain measures can be created to improve the current potentials of the organisation (Kumari, Pundir and Ganapathy, 2016). On the other hand, strategy implementation is the final phase of strategic management process. While implementing management make sure to put the designed strategy to its action. Similarities Differences Strategic development and Strategy development refers yo implementation are done to design a designing whereas implementation deal structure in Unilever so as to handle with execution of strategies in Unilever. strategic change in the organisation Apart from this, Strategic development (Ertek, Tokdemir, Sevinç and Tunç, is a logical process thus it is done by 2015). the top management (Heiyantuduwa, Other then this, implementation and Wannisingha and Rupasinghe, 2015). In development is done to achieve contrast to this implementation is a competitive advantage over operational thus it is initiated by the competitors. functional management of the organisation. The process of strategic development TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
emphasis on generating effectiveness. On the contrary implementation emphasises on bringing efficiency in Unilever. Identification of strategy approach in relation to Porter's Generic Model The Porter Generic strategic model was created by Michael Porter in the year 1980. As per this model a company must create strategies that have an competitive approach to them. Unilever have adopted this model to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. Porter sub divided strategies into cost leadership, differentiation or focus. The main aim of Unilever PLC was to become and better by bringing product development and innovation (Unilever in the UK, 2016). In order to do that company tried to enter to market and on the same times focused on expanding in the domestic market as well. This strategy was exponentially huge due to the large economic size. It is evident that expansion is a very time consuming and expensive method to achieve market size. In contrast to this Unilever kept on endorsing and marketing on a huge level. In addition to this the company also made new products with the existing products. As there was a lot happening, it can be argued that company faced huge deficits. In order to cover the cost of strategy employed by the company, Unilever's product were much costly then its competitors (Top 10 FMCG Companies in the World 2015, 2016). However companies branding and loyalty helped Unilever to grow exceptionally well in both domestic and international market. Identification of the outcomes of the selected strategy The outcome of this strategy was very much in the favour of Unilever. The company was able to expand in various new markets. This gave Unilever PLC a good brand image. Unilever is present in more then 160 counties with a market capital of $72.6 billion. The global revenue of the personal food segment was €17,739bn and revenue of food segment was €3,607m (Statistics and facts on Unilever, 2015). This is because company not only developed its product but simultaneously increased its market from one country to other. The positive outcome for Unilever is that its a household name not only in United kingdom but worldwide. The strategy developed by the company provided customer's with more choices which led to increase in revenue for Unilever. TASK 2 Identification and discussion the possible future strategic direction Unilever is famous for it's uniqueness to provide multiple products, each highly qualitative TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
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from one other. The company is making multiple products in the sector of fast moving consumer goods. These products varies from Surf, Dove, Vaseline, Bovril, Cif, Cornetto, Lipton and many more (Kaifeng, Xiaoqing and Jianping, 2015). Although company has a range of products, it is important for the company to identify as to how it could improve its strengths over its competitors. This identification helped company to evaluate its current market position with its competitors. Unilever found that although all the products were doing successfully it still had hopes in increasing its strengths in the market. Strategist at Unilever found that company can bring low cost product with cutting edge innovation to achieve higher USP. This will also help the company from distinguishing itself from its competitors. The Procter & Gamble Company, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC and Nestlé s.a. are one of the top competitors of Unilever (Rabe, Sari, Fechteler and Ruini, 2015). Although competitors were rising day by day it was important for the company to bring an cutting edge differentiation among its product. This was important so as to create differentiation among its image in the company. After identification of the strategic direction, Unilever found that it had to bring cost leadership as a advantage towards it. In order to do this company would have to bring innovation in its product. This will help the company to manufacture products with low cost (Gould, 2012). In order to produce low cost product company will have to acquire skilful innovators. They will help Unilever in achieving innovation in the technology. Innovation in technology refers to adopting methods that will help an organization in reducing cost of manufacturing products. In order to that Unilever first made its internal structure strong by enhancing its capital structure. This was done so as to raise investment to support manufacturing and operational activity. Unilever was successfully in implementing this strategy. The main advantage for the company was to be able to reduce cost and simultaneously achieve reasonable profit margin (Fuchs, Bender and Glen, 2015). Being technologically advanced and strategically smart Unilever was also able to to achieve grater market share. There are many potential market which served to be a beneficially source of revenue for the company. Unilever not only achieved market share in United Kingdom but also was acclaimed to achieve superior customer support from various new countries. Justification of actions using Porter's Generic Strategy The application of above strategy is justified with the success of Unilever all around the TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
world. Unilever not only was able to improve its presence in United kingdom. It was able to enter new market in various new countries (Eden and Ackermann, 2013). Low cost is considered to be an ideal of reducing cost of a product. It should be noted that reducing cost does not mean reducing sale price even. Cost and selling price are two different component. By reducing cost and maintaining stagnant selling price company made it possible to improve its global revenue model. As Unilever was able to achieve higher and denser market its supply system also improved. Company was able to focus in improving its internal capacity to meet with the rigid components of the external environment. By reducing the cots of its manufacturing product Unilever maintained its growth factor as well. Saving money by reducing cost helped the company to divert its financial resources to developments and research (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter, 2012). Unilever was able to conduct new research so as to bring new innovation in its technology and product. Unilever was able to improve its performance by improving the functionality of various departments. As cost reduced company enhanced its ability to focus on advertising and marketing products (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2012). Marketing and advertising helped Unilever in getting more customer base. Thus is important so as to achieve attraction of customers. This further helped the company to increase its customer traffic. As customer increased companies sales also increased simultaneously. In order to handle this Unilever brought improvement in its supply chain. Company was able to improve its logistics so as to deliver goods in a faster time. By doing so Unilever improved all of its operational process. Thus it can be said that strategic development not only brought revenue but also improved the structure and capabilities of its internal departments. TASK 3 Implementation challenges faced by Unilever While implementing strategies there are various challenges and issues faced by the company. These challenges are refereed to as implementation issues as they grates barrier for the company to apply its strategic decisions in the internal structure. This is also due to the fact that strategic decision bring change in the organisation (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014). Change of any form affects the work culture and environment of the country. The main issues faced by the company was making its employees resistance to change. Bringing low cost strategic development led to decreased employee participation. Employees were not able to accept the new developments brought in the company. This brought a negative and chaotic environment. It was difficult for the managers to make the employees accept the changes that were incorporated in the structure. Due to innovation and technological advancements Unilever was forced to write off its human resources. TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
This made many employees dissatisfied as only the most skilled employees could be retained by the company. Another barrier was implementing strategic change ion the allotted time one (Kaifeng, Xiaoqing and Jianping, 2015). Each department was provided with a set guideline in which they had to achieve their targets. It was difficult for the manager to be able to motivate all the employees so they could achieve the targets and objectives of the company. Another barrier that brought major challenge for the company was to be able to effectively manage the issues that were arising due to lack communication problems. Employees were eager to know as to what is happening in the organization. This created a environment of commotion and myths. The flow of communication disrupted when disrupted when management failed to provide information about decision making in Unilever (du Toit, 2016). Employees felt as they were not part of the process which de-motivated them. The main barrier was exercising application of technological developments in the organisation. It was very difficult for the manager to provide training and development to teach about the new technology been implemented in the organisation. Employees felt over burdened to learn new technology that was implemented in the organisation. Another issue was to conduct effective monitoring in the organisation. Monitoring was important as to check the effectiveness and success factor of the strategies appointed by Unilever. This was due to the fact that a lot was happening at the time of implementation (Heiyantuduwa, Wannisingha and Rupasinghe, 2015). It was lengthy and chaotic procedure. It was very difficult for the manager to monitor activities by each employee. Recommendations It can be said that to improve efficiency of the implementation programme Unilever must exercise few recommendation. Proper mentoring can be given to the employees to make them them technologically capable. The manager can introduce training and development to raise awareness about the changes been brought in the organisation (Fuchs, Bender and Glen, 2015). Apart form this Unilever can also try to conduct analysis to identify strengths and potentials of the employees. This will be helpful in accessing delegation of authority. Unilever can also access performance analysis to motivate and inspire employees working under strategic change. The performance results can be used to develop the skills and capabilities by enhancing the work quality of the employees in Unilever. TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
CONCLUSION From the above report it can be said that strategic management played an important role ion brining revenue advantage for Unilever. The company was able to make strategies that would enhance its market space and product development. Strategic management nit only improves the growth of the company but also brings competitive advantage. By improving the internal capacities can can bring advancements that can help it to grow over its competitors. Thus it can be concluded that strategic management helped Unilever to achieve cost advantage by reducing cost and achieving customer support. TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA
REFERENCES Books and Journals du Toit, A.S.A., 2016. Using environmental scanning to collect strategic information: A South African survey. International Journal of Information Management.36(1). pp.16-24. Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013. Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. SageAmit, R. and Schoemaker, P.J., 2012. Z STRATEGIC ASSETS AND ORGANIZATIONAL RENT. Strategische Managementtheorie,.14. pp.325. Ertek, G., Tokdemir, G., Sevinç, M. and Tunç, M.M., 2015. New knowledge in strategic management through visually mining semantic networks. Information Systems Frontiers. pp.1-21. Fuchs, J.E., Bender, A. and Glen, R.C., 2015. Cheminformatics Research at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics Cambridge. Molecular Informatics. Gould, G.W., 2012. New methods of food preservation. Springer Science & Business Media. Heiyantuduwa, M., Wannisingha, W.M.N.N. and Rupasinghe, T., 2015. December. A Strategic Analysis of the use of Third Party Logistics Providers (3PLs) in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Industry: A Systematic Review of Literature. In 12th International Conference on Business Management (ICBM). Hill, C., Jones, G. and Schilling, M., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Hitt, M., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R., 2012. Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning. Kaifeng, M.A.O., Xiaoqing, C.H.A.I. and Jianping, O.U., 2015. On the Reform of FMCG Customer-Oriented Marketing Organization. Management Science and Engineering.9(3). Kumari, M., Pundir, A.K. and Ganapathy, L., 2016. Managing Demand Variability at Customer Level in a FMCG Company. In Managing Flexibility. pp. 323-331. Rabe, M., Sari, M.U., Fechteler, T. and Ruini, L.F., 2015. Discrete event simulation as a strategic decision instrument for a CO2–and cost-efficient distribution chain applied in the FMCG sector. International Journal of Advanced Logistics.4(1). pp.47-53. Swayne, L.E., Duncan, W.J. and Ginter, P.M., 2012. Strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons. Online Statistics and facts on Unilever., <http://www.statista.com/topics/1397/unilever/>. [Accessed on: 30thJanuary, 2016]. Top 10 FMCG Companies in the World 2015., 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.statista.com/topics/1397/unilever/>. [Accessed on: 30thJanuary, 2016]. Unilever in the UK., 2016. <http://www.unilever.co.uk/aboutus/introductiontounilever/Unilever_in_the_UK/>. [Accessed on: 30thJanuary, 2016]. 2015. [Online]. Available through: [Online]. Available through: TOLL-FREE NO: +61 879057034 EMAIL: help@assignmentprime.com WHATSAPP NO: +61 424715655 WEBSITE: https://www.assignmentprime.com ASSIGNMENT HELP & WRITING SERVICES AUSTRALIA