Case Study Description of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations
The executive director, human resources, at Hindustan Unilever Ltd., a market leader in the Indian fast moving consumer goods sector and the Indian subsidiary of the major multinational, Unilever Ltd., is concerned that the company may be losing its position as the "dream employer" for graduates from the top Indian business schools from which it recruits its management personnel. The shifting demographic profile of employees and their changing expectations have already resulted in changes in the company's employment model. These include on-the-job training and classroom and e-learning program facilities at all levels of the organization and at all stages of one's career; mentoring by senior management; communication of vision and goals throughout the company, especially through regular meetings with the CEO; a focus on corporate social responsibility; and an emphasis on work-life balance, such as offering sabbaticals and providing health and recreation facilities at the new headquarters. While the company has changed its traditional employment value proposition, in a highly competitive and talent-scarce job market, can it continue to be relevant in order to attract and retain the best talent in the country?
Authors :: Shashank Shah, Ajith Sankar, David J. Sharp
Swot Analysis of "Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations" written by Shashank Shah, Ajith Sankar, David J. Sharp includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Unilever Hindustan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Unilever Hindustan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Unilever Hindustan operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Unilever Hindustan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Unilever Hindustan
Strengths Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Unilever Hindustan in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Unilever Hindustan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Unilever Hindustan has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Innovation driven organization
– Unilever Hindustan is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Unilever Hindustan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Unilever Hindustan has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Unilever Hindustan are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Unilever Hindustan is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Shashank Shah, Ajith Sankar, David J. Sharp can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Unilever Hindustan has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Unilever Hindustan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Unilever Hindustan in the sector have low bargaining power. Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Unilever Hindustan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Training and development
– Unilever Hindustan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Unilever Hindustan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Unilever Hindustan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Unilever Hindustan 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations, in the dynamic environment Unilever Hindustan has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Unilever Hindustan has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Unilever Hindustan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Unilever Hindustan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Unilever Hindustan, firm in the HBR case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Unilever Hindustan has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Unilever Hindustan needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Unilever Hindustan has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Unilever Hindustan has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Unilever Hindustan even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Unilever Hindustan has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Unilever Hindustan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Unilever Hindustan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Unilever Hindustan to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations are -
Loyalty marketing
– Unilever Hindustan has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Unilever Hindustan to increase its market reach. Unilever Hindustan will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Unilever Hindustan has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Unilever Hindustan to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Unilever Hindustan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Unilever Hindustan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Unilever Hindustan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Unilever Hindustan can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Unilever Hindustan can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Unilever Hindustan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Unilever Hindustan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Unilever Hindustan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations case study. Unilever Hindustan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Unilever Hindustan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Unilever Hindustan to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Unilever Hindustan can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Unilever Hindustan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Threats Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations are -
Regulatory challenges
– Unilever Hindustan needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Unilever Hindustan
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Unilever Hindustan.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Unilever Hindustan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Unilever Hindustan.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Unilever Hindustan with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Unilever Hindustan can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Unilever Hindustan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Unilever Hindustan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Unilever Hindustan in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Unilever Hindustan demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Unilever Hindustan high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Unilever Hindustan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Unilever Hindustan needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Meeting Employee Expectations is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Unilever Hindustan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
