Term 2 Individual Report
| Global Business Environment|
Final Word Count: 3,387
Autumn Hall
Student ID: 16048853
26 Apirl 2017
Table of Contents
1. Purpose and Aims………………………………………………………….2
2. Introduction To Unilever…………………………………………………2
3. Ethical Issues in International Business……………………………………3
3.1 Introduction to Business Ethics…………………………3
3.2 Unilever’s Ethical Issues………………………………..4
3.3 Unilever’s Ethical Standards and Their Success………..4
4. Global Expansion, Profitability and Growth………………………………5
4.1 Business Strategies……………………………………….5
4.2 Unilever’s Business Strategies……………………….…..5
5. Country, Technological, and Product Factors………………………………6
5.1 Logistics and Production…………………………………..6
5.2 Factors International Businesses Must Consider………......7
6. Summary of Key Findings……………………………………………………8
7. References………………………………………………………………….......9
1
1. PURPOSE AND AIMS
The purpose and aims of this report is to focus on the multinational enterprise Unilever
and how it runs its operations in various parts of the world. Through evaluation of the company’s
performance by using various theoretical models and frameworks. The report will provide a
concise and relevant introduction to Unilever, including the company size, the nature of
Unilever’s business interests, the industries Unilever competes in and where their performance
places them in relation to competitors. This report will also cover and briefly explain what
comprises an ‘ethical’ issue in an international business context. The report will then discuss
what ethical issues are mostly likely to take place within Unilever based on the company’s
operations, and what measures they have put in place to combat the issues and how successful
these measures have been. This report will explain what Unilever has done to achieve global
expansion, profitability and growth. As well as explain the geographical (country), technological
and product factors a global business must consider when expanding to new countries and
deciding where to locate production facilities by focusing on a specific product that Unilever
sells and explaining which factors apply. The last section summarizes the key findings of the
research from this report.
2. Introduction To Unilever
Margarine Unie, a Dutch margarine company, and the Lever brothers, English Soap
producers, in the 1920s came together in a transnational merger to create Unilever (Our Unilever,
2011). Unilever is structured by two holding companies Unilever PLC based in London and
Unilever N.V. Based out of the Netherlands. Unilever is a fast moving consumer goods company
(FMCG) with over 169,000 employees and more than 400 brands selling in over 170 countries.
Unilever is considered a global giant and one of the world’s leading competitors in home care,
personal care, and processed food (Maljers, 1992). With over 13 of its 400 brands earning more
than 1 billion euros each year and the total company turnover of 52.7 billion euros...
