Bechelor

1.1 Outline the company profile of Unilever and identify its vision, mission, and key objective of its business operation.
Unilever first began in the 1890s, William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros, wrote down his ideas for Sunlight Soap, his inventive new product that helped popularize cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England. It was meant for foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who are hygienic.
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 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.

Unilever 's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. What Unilever is now doing is accordingly to their mission, since Unilever is mainly a consumer goods retailer, Unilever sells product such as toothpaste, facial soap, various nutritious foods. By doing this Unilever has fulfill their mission by helping everyday needs of people for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care

The four concept of Unilever vision if for the long-term direction of the company where Unilever want to go and how Unilever are going to get there * We work to create a better future every day * We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. * We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world. * We will develop new ways of doing business with the aim of doubling the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact. (Unilever, 2012)
If we take a closer look at Unilever action, Unilever is doing what they state on their vision. Unilever has help to create a better future by completing the hygienic needs of the society. By creating the deodorant and Unilever has helped each individual to stay confident and to have better appearance. Unilever also has set up an example that shows small action can add up big. (Trevor Gorin, 2011)

1.2 Describe Unilever’s internal, connected & external stakeholders. Set up possible objectives of each stakeholder and explain Unilever’s attempts to fulfill those stakeholders’ objectives.

Internal stakeholder are individuals who are a part of the company board of directors, Internal stakeholders include employees, shareholders, and managers. They are all affected by their salary, wages and bonuses, but there are also other alternative by treating employee with respect employee will be more enthusiastic to work. Both owner shareholders want the best for the company so they make more money. Internal stakeholders are also who benefit directly from their contribution to the growth of the company Unilever take responsibility of all employees. Unilever provides their internal stakeholders with health insurance, the cost of compensation, and bonuses to employees when exceeding the desired target. (Wardono B, 2012).

The internal Stakeholders of Unilever have an objective of gaining more profit, in order to receive bonus, additional salary because of the good performance. Promotion also is an objective for these internal Stakeholders since promotion is higher salary and bonuses, so Unilever should consider this matter and start giving promotion for employees bonuses and even health insurance. External stakeholders Is an influential group within the company but will not give a direct impact on the company the company, such as government, society, local councils and local communities (Wardono B, 2012). Unilever put a certain respect for the people working for the company, and Unilever maintain a good relationship with government, suppliers, customers in order to maintain Unilever reputation, Unilever treat everyone very friendly and the environment is always maintained.
An external stakeholder has different objectives, depending on which external stakeholders. Governments would want the company to grow and to employ more people, moreover government’s objectives would also for Unilever to have more profit, so that tax income of the governments is higher. The society objective for Unilever is for setting an affordable price with the best quality Unilever can afford.

1.3 Explain the responsibilities of an organization and strategies employed to meet them. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a crucial process a company should consider, it is to manage the company to give a positive impact to the society, social, environment, communities and members of stakeholders. CSR activities undertaken are contributing funds to the institutions that need and to give alms to the people who cannot afford in an advanced state (Wardono, 2012). CSR where there is no right and wrong. When there is a problem that has not been found and resolved or unprecedented. And must be resolved by considering or judgment not tried or tested (FitzGerald, 2003). Unilever has done the CSR system since the early 2000 and that system of CRS changes became complex. The chairman of Unilever was challenge to be a good corporate in a society and give a positive impact. Unilever has a goal not only to be profitable, their aim is also to be responsible for its surroundings and its employee, by giving health insurance and taking care of the trees and waters. This concept may differ in since different business has different purpose, motive, and values, mission and vision. “Not only for the community investment, but also the positive impact to the surroundings such as the operation inside the company and the outside which is societies “ (FitzGerald, 2003). Unilever give a huge impact on the society because 75% of Unilever profit goes out again to pay for goods and services from suppliers. The money received by Unilever each year by adding value to those goods and services, around 70% of it is distributed back into society through employee wages, dividends, government taxes and community investment (FitzGerald, 2003). At the most basic level, Unilever produces products that raise the quality of life and those products enable people to feed themselves and live clean and hygienic lives. The hygienic concept may seem to be very common but for many in the poorest parts of the world, washing hands literally saves lives by decreasing the spread of disease. So the chairman of Unilever believe the very business of doing business responsibly can have a positive impact and contribution to make to society (FitzGerald, 2003).
“The very business of doing business responsibly can have a positive impact and contribution to make to society” FitzGerald Unilever plan to have raised the bar for corporate social responsibility. The company has been commended for their Sustainability Living Plan, unveiled in November of 2010. Under this plan, which is expected to run into 2020, the company hopes to improve the health of 1 billion people. It plans to buy 100% of its agricultural materials from supportable sources as well as half the environmental impact of its products, its greenhouse gas emissions and water associated with product use Unilever has also made it a goal to source 40% of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020 (Palos, 2011).

2.1 Explain how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively.

Unilever is a multinational company this term means that is saying that Unilever operates in more than one country. Unilever is available in very many countries, over 180 countries in the world, and making Unilever the 4th biggest consumer goods retailer company in the world. (Linkedin, 2012) There are advantages by being a multinational company, Unilever can allocate its resource efficiently that will make Unilever more profitable company. Unilever ad a consumer goods retailer can imports and exports goods from other countries which cause cheaper in cost of raw material.
Technologies in different countries are different, all countries have their own advantages of technology, but then ad a multinational company Unilever can adopt technologies from different country and use it as one. This will make Unilever to become a very advance business, since technology is very crucial in the recent days. The development of technology keeps on happening, but the development that accrue in various countries are not the same, and by being a multinational company Unilever can make be very advance if they are willing to adopt these improvements of technology that happens in countries all over the world. The situation is that the headquarter of Unilever in London and Rotterdam has a very explicit technology which make them more advance compare to other company. For example, Unilever Ghana does not have an adequate technology, the Unilever headquarter will send provide technology, advance technology that will make Unilever Ghana the most advance consumer retailer goods of Ghana. This happen in most countries Unilever are available, this is also one of the key success of Unilever.
Technology is only one thing they can adopt from being a multinational company, the second thing that they can adopt the managerial expertise from different countries in order to be competent in the global market. Year | Income (Million €) | 1996 | 1.908 | 1997 | 1.957 | 1998 | 2.944 | 1999 | 2.771 | 2000 | 1.105 | 2001 | 1.838 | 2002 | 2.129 | 2003 | 2.942 |
Assembling for a company is very important, and Unilever should consider this matter very closely since assembling has high cost Unilever should consider their choice of assembling country. Currently Unilever assemble their goods in Thailand. Thailand is considered to be one of the cheapest on their labor, second to china. Thailand is a good choice of labor force, although not all Unilever goods is assemble in Thailand, Unilever have other resembling points, like India. Unilever has done a good job in selecting their assembling points of goods, Unilever has succeed in choosing the cheapest labor cost to work on assembling their goods.

By being a multi national company Unilever can filter their employee from all over the world in order to make Unilever the best company. Every business has a plan, and mostly the plans are not the cause of failure in the business, the executor of the plan is the biggest reason of a plan that fails. By being a multinational company Unilever can create an overseas carrier opportunity for employee who are the best from all over the world, and these employee will make Unilever the best and most profitable business.
Out of all the advantages of a multinational company the main reason why a company decides to go multinational is because of the inflow of outcome from over seas profits. It is proven that multinational company gains more profit compare to business that stays only at its origin country. (Wardono, 2012)

2.2 Assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on Unilever’s business activities.

Fiscal policy is all about decisions by the government usually related to taxation and government spending, with the goals of full employment of the country, price stability, and economic growth which are very crucial for the country’s economic benefits. By changing tax laws, the government can effectively modify the amount of disposable income available to its taxpayers. For example, if taxes were to increase, consumers would have less disposable income and in turn would have less money to spend on goods and services. This difference in disposable income would go to the government instead of going to consumers, and government would pass the money onto companies. Government could choose to increase government spending by directly purchasing goods and services from private companies. This would increase the flow of money through the economy and would eventually increase the disposable income available to consumers. (WebFinance, 2012)
The policy will give a direct impact on Unilever, since it is mostly about taxation. The fiscal policy will cause tax to rise and the drawbacks will be very drastic. Unilever will have less net profit, since Unilever will have to pay more tax. The less profit will leads Unilever to fired a bunch of employee to increase their profitability, more over now that Unilever have less profit, they will have less money for their capital investments that slow the company from expanding. The fiscal policy will gives bad impact to Unilever, but then it will stabilize the country’s economic. Monetary Policy is the regulation of the money supply and interest rates by a central bank, such as the BI in Indonesia, in order to control inflation and stabilize currency. Monetary policy is one the two ways the government can impact the economy. By impacting the effective cost of money, the Federal Reserve can affect the amount of money that is spent by consumers and businesses. One of the primary impacts of monetary policy is on inflation. The goal of monetary policy is to control inflation, or the value of currency, through changes in monetary policy tools. When inflation rises, the central bank typically raises interest rates. High inflation makes the costs of goods higher. Central banks want to keep inflation low to keep the prices of goods stable relative to the value of the currency (WebFinance, 2012) Monetary policy directly impacts interest rates. The central bank raises or lowers the prime rate, or interest rate the central bank loans money to other banks, as a tool to impact the economy. These actions have a trickle down effect on the interest rates charged on loans, credit cards and any other financial vehicle that is tied to the prime rate. (DemandMedia, 2012) Unilever as a business generally needs more capital to grow and bank is the one of the best source of finance. The government sets monetary policy and so the interest rate of banks will increase in orders to maintain inflation. This matter will gives a direct impact on Unilever since this matter will limit the money they can borrow from the bank in order to expand their business. (DemandMedia)
2.3 Evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanism on the activities of a selected organization. Competition policy is meant to make for businesses that have a great power to control their own industries or another word called monopoly. The government create this policy and apply this regulation seriously. This rule is made for healthy competition between the suppliers, to whom no one has a price that is much more expensive to get a bigger profit (Riley, n/d). Indonesia has a 1945 statute stated, "That everyone who tried in Indonesia must be in a situation of fair competition and fair, so it does not cause the concentration of economic power in a particular business, with no regardless of the agreements executed by the Republic of Indonesia to the treaty - international agreements.” In Article 5 of the 1999 written, there is also a standing group it is Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha (KPPU). It is the group to manage the operation of business in Indonesia. KKPU can call as regulatory mechanism or competition policy. With the presence of KPPU, PT. Carrefour Indonesia proved to dominate the retail market in Indonesia and imposed a fine of 25 billion of against the constitution or the rules that are apply in Indonesia. This matter happen since Carrefour is a marker leader and Carrefour buys, Alfa Retail Indo, and cause because of this KPPU consider this action an act of monopoly. (Wardono, 2012). The impact of competition policy and other regulatory on the activities of a selected organization is to create healthy competition and fair and do not cause the concentration of economic power in a particular business or monopoly. In the near past, Unilever attempts to buy Sara Lee, but there is regulation that needs to be taken under consideration before any further action is taken, since Unilever should avoid the monopoly regulation in Indonesia. Before the purchase Unilever take a visit to KPPU to ask weather or not is it okay for Unilever to buy Sara Lee, weather is it an act or monopoly or not, because Unilever want to avoid the mistake that Carrefour did in the past. KPPU take it under consideration and stated that it is an act of monopoly and in this case the government will not tolerance the act of monopoly if Unilever buys Sara Lee. The decision has been made by KPPU so that Unilever cancel their plan to buy Sara Lee (Wardono, 2012).

References:
*Linkedin 2010. Unilever Company Profile. Last accessed 24.3.2012
From: http://www.linkedin.com/company/unilever

*Web Finance 2012. Fiscal Policy. Last accessed 25.3.2012
From: http://www.investorwords.com/1983/fiscal_policy.html

* Web Finance 2012. Monetary Policy. Last accessed 25.3.2012
From: http://www.investorwords.com/3097/monetary_policy.html)

* Demand Media 2012. Monetary Policy. Last accessed 25.3.2012
From: http://www.ehow.com/about_5076330_effects-monetary-policy.html

* Bagus Warhono. 2012. BE – Outcome 1.3 & 2.1. Last accessed 27.3.2012
* Unilever, 2012. Our Vision. Last accessed 28.3.2012
From: https://www.unilever.com/aboutus/ourmission/
*Trevor Gorin 2012. Our Mission Statement. Last accessed 27.3.2012
From: http://www.csrglobe.com/login/companies/unilever.html

* Bagus Warhono. 2012. BE – Outcome 1.1 & 1.2. Last accessed 27.3.2012

* Bagus Warhono. 2012. BE – Outcome 2.2 & 2.3. Last accessed 27.3.2012

* Fitz Gerald, n/d. CSR: Rebuilding Trust in Business. Last accessed 29.3.2012
From: http://www.unilever.com/Images/A%20Perspective%20on%20Corporate%20Social%20Responsibility%20in%20the%2021st%20Century_tcm13-5520.pdf

References: * Bagus Warhono. 2012. BE – Outcome 1.3 & 2.1. Last accessed 27.3.2012 * Unilever, 2012 * Bagus Warhono. 2012. BE – Outcome 2.2 & 2.3. Last accessed 27.3.2012 * Fitz Gerald, n/d