Company Analysis : Hindustan Unilever Limited

                                                                        Hindustan Unilever Limited 

  

                                         Mr. Harish Manwani  Non-Executive Chairman of HUL


Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer GoodsCompany, touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages.

A few words to start with ............

•India's largest FMCG

•A subsidiary of Unilever which                                    

  holds 52% of the equity

•2 out of 3 Indians use its products

•Over 42 factories across India

•Around 45% of HUL’s sales turnover of

  Rs. 17,524 crore comes from rural markets,

  valued at around Rs. 8,000 crore

Brief History 

History:

Lever Brothers started its operations in India in the summer of 1888. Crates full of Sunlight soap bars, imprinted with the words "Made in England by Lever Brothers" were shipped to the Kolkata harbour from England. This was  the first product through which Lever Brothers made their presence felt in the Indian market.

Within few years Unilever started to expand their business in different parts  across India. Lever Brothers appointed agents in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Karachi(part of Undivided India). For the next three decades Unilever launched many varied products in the Indian market.

Milestones

1895 - Lifebuoy soap was launched

1902 -Pears soap was introduced

1903 - Brooke Bond Red Label tea launched

1905 - Lux flakes introduced.

1913 -Vim scouring powder introduced.

1914 - Vinolia soap launched in India.

1918 - Vanaspati introduced.

1922 - Rinso soap powder introduced.

1924 - Gibbs dental preparations launched

1996 -Formation of Hul

1969- Rin bar an  

1972 ClinicPlus were introduced both of which made HuL take a firm platform.

1968 - Mr. V. G. Rajadhyaksha takes over as Chairman from Mr. Prakash Tandon (the first indian director) 1982-  the Government allowed 51% Unilever shareholding.

1993 -HLL's largest competitor, Tata Oil Mills Company (TOMCO), merged with the company. Brooke Bond India acquired Kissan Business from the UB Group and Dollops icecream business from Cadbury . 2007- the company was renamed as “Hindustan Unilever Limited”.

VISION STATEMENT

The four pillars

• Create a better future everyday
• Help people feel good, look good & get more out of life with brands & services that are good for them & for others
• Inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world
• Develop new ways of doing business that double the size of the company while reducing environmental impact. 

Mission 

• Add Vitality to Life            
• Meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life
• Total commitment to exceptional standards of performance and productivity

Product Line

• Personal care products.
• Home care products.
• Food products
• ) HOME AND PERSONAL CARE:
  1) Personal wash
  
  Lux                              Breeze
  Lifebuoy                    Dove
  Liril                             Pears
  Hamam                     Rexona
  
  
  2) Laundry               3) Skin Care
  Surf Excel                  Fair and lovely       
  Rin                              Pond’s
  Wheel                        Aviance
  
  
  4) Hair care              5) Oral care
  Sunsilk naturals      Pepsodent                                        
  Clinic                          Close up
  
  
  6) Deodorants         7) Colour Cosmetics
  Axe                             Lakme
  Rexona
                         
  8) Ayurvedic Personal and health care:    Ayush
  B) FOODS
  1) Tea  :       Brooke Bond     Lipton                                2) Coffee                                           

  3) Foods :        Kissan     Knor  Annapurna      

   4) Ice  cream :   Kwality walls
                                                                           
  C) WATER PURIFIER                                                             
  Pureit

Brands.

Chief Command Chart

Swot analysis

• STRENGTH                                                
• ü Variety of products                                                          
• ü Distribution Network
• ü Brand image
• ü Quality Management
• ü Innovation and R&D strength
• 
  
• THREATS
• ü From High Class Competitor
• ü Proctor & Gamble
• ü Pantene
• ü Dabur                                                                                     
• ü  Babool
• ü Dabourlal Dent Manjan
• ü Reckitt Benckiser
• ü Dettol
• ü Palmolive
• ü Colgate, Nirma
• 
  
• OPPORTUNITIES
• ü Huge Market
• ü Increasing per capital income
• ü Increasing consumption pattern
• ü Potential for making more impact of brand image.
• ü Coming in technology e.g. in water purifiers
• 
  
• WEAKNESS
• ü Not able to compete with local competitor in the rural market
• ü Not focus on upper class population
• ü Pricing policy is not good

Integrated Management System

Marketing Strategies

• Straddling the pyramid & deploying full portfolio
• To meet every need of people everywhere

For Rural India

•       For long term benefits, HUL started Project Streamline in 1997

•       Integrate Economic, Environment & Social              objectives with Business agenda

•       Project Shakti, a partnership with Self Help Groups of rural women extended to about 15 states in 80,000 villages with 45,000 women entrepreneurs generating Rs.700 to1000 per month for each woman

 Focus on Service 

• Customer feedback is the best way to improve the product
• Add benefit schemes like discount vouchers for customers who give feedback
• Get feedback from customers on various products and on nutrition, health and hygiene education, empowering livelihoods and eco-efficiency 
• Company image will move from pure product based to product-service based company
• Customer will feel more valued in turn brand loyalty can be created and maintained
• Product is better accepted by customer would result in increased sales

Cost and waste Reduction

• Constantly monitor and re-engineer operations to reduce waste and improve production process
• Putting palm oil waste to good use
• Reusing waste plastic to make jewellery & flower pots

Benefits:-

• Reduced manufacturing cost & waste would result in high margins and more profit
• Better utilisation of resources
• Additional products from waste would add to product portfolio

Corporate Social Responsibility

Watch here Leena Nair , Executive Director of Hul, Speaking about the CSR activities :

•  Women empowerment
•  Water management
•  Rehabilitation of special or underprivileged children
•  Care for the destitute and HIV-positive
•  Rural development.
•  Plays active role in natural calamities

Observations

• Hindustan Unilever ltd. Is a leading FMCG company in India and from last three consecutive years has shown accelerated growth in FMCG portfolio. Customers in India are also spending more in FMCG as their standard of living is growing.
•  HUL has placed itself successfully in the position of market leader in FMCG products. Though there was some downfall in sales and profit of the company in the beginning of this decade but after that HUL has shown considerable rise in both sales and profit. The future of the company is also looking bright as FMCG market in India is still expanding and so we can safely conclude that HUL will be able to secure its number one position in FMCG product.
•  HUL has also started project SHAKTI that has provided it direct reach to rural market. This may be considered a revolutionary step since the urban market is reaching its saturation level and there is a huge scope exploring rural market. 
• This will also be helpful not only increasing its market share but also fight competition.

References :

1.       www.hul.co.in

2.       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Unilever

3.       www.moneycontrol.com

4.       www.managementparadise.com

5.       articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

www.scribd.com/.../CORPORATE-SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY-IN

The Three Monks

The essence of powerful and able management lies in Team-building.

Team management refers to techniques, processes and tools for organizing and coordinating a group of individuals working towards a common goal.

The video here, a story of three monks from a Chinese fable captures the essence of team dynamics. So, watch the video first before you move on. 

The First monk Comes :

The first monk comes in, he sees that the monastery is in dilapidated condition. Filled with enthusiasm, the monk takes all the burden on himself, for there is no one to fall back upon. He fetches two cans of water at a time and does it with glee. But soon, fatigue sets in. The initial enthusiasm is lost but still he has to carry his work daily .

Here the resource (human resource)proved to be useful and efficient. It gave good and productive results initially.But gradually  the motivation of the monk decreases and maximum utilisation of resource does not take place .

The Second monk Arrives

The first monk extends a warm welcome and shows hospitality to him.. Once the real work starts, differences set in. Now the first monk wants to establish his superiority and Bing does not cave in. 

Analyzing the root cause for their difference of opinion, we can understand that it is because no 'standards' are set to run the company. There is no higher authority nor is there a rule book for the Jing and Bing to follow. This is later sorted out when the first monk draws a scale and makes a fair ruling.

This is again a lesson for any company. 

The Third monk comes

After a while comes the third monk comes. He was very thirsty and drains all of the water. When the time comes to refill the water, he relents. Now the other two monks who have been doing their work religiously start fighting too and everything comes to a standstill. Harmony is lost, once and forever.

Such incidents are quite common in organizations. It is the managers to sense this enmity in the air and weed it at the budding stages.

Managers need to have the ability to coordinate the task among all the team members .

However, in the story, the "hand of god" does it for the monks. The monastery is set of fire by a mischievous rat and the monks are left running from pillar to post. In the spurt of the moment, they throw away all their differences and  put an "emergency system into place". Somehow they tune the fire down and sit back to think on devising a sustainable system and the rest is understood.

Valley Crossing Activity

In this exercise there is an important organizational lesson to be learnt. Organizations are meant to facilitate the impossible, unachievable.

Here the task is to cross a gap which can be between two tables, two roofs etc. The catch is that it needs to be done by 3 people as a team using a pole.  We were asked to give in the conditions in which the task be followed.

Real-time communication
This is most necessary for the proper coordination between many players as it helps in the maintenance of “Unity of Command” principle.Effective communication is a pre-requisite.

 Height and weight of the persons crossing the gap :
Height and weight would not play any hindrance in the activity.Whatever be the physical attributes of a person, that will not be a hindrance, if you have the desire to follow your dreams, and however big they might be.To fulfil your dreams you must have self belief.

Uniform gap-size
Gap between the individuals should be equal. This condition explains us that there should not be any discrimination in the organization and everyone should be equally-approachable.

Dynamic role definition for 3 people
This condition helps us in learning that in a team, everyone has to know how to do varied tasks for the over-all achievement of goals and more important than that all the people should get different roles leading to the growth of development of organisation.

The team must be told about these practices before they attempt the task and similarly management is supposed to inform the employees about what is expected from them and various aforementioned conditions which will help them in succeeding.

Synchronous movement
It is also necessary to make sure that team does not falter in-between the task and it helps us in learning the “Unity of direction” principle.

Khan Academy

                                       Khan  Academy

 Introduction:

Khan Academy is the brainchild of Salman Khan,  a Harvard and MIT scholar, who was working as a hedge fund analyst at the time of its inception . The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization.  The website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching  a wide range of subjects that include mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance,physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics and microeconomics, and computer science.

                                         
Khan Academy has eclipsed MIT's Open Course Ware (OCW) in terms of videos viewed.Its YouTube channel has over 150 million total views, compared to MIT's 38 million. It also has twice as many subscribers, at more than 320,000.

Mission :

The mission of Khan Academy is to provide a high quality education to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Innovation  :

The majority of students across the world are unable to bear the fruits of  education primarily because of any of the two factors - either they are too poor to afford this education or they are too slow to pick up with the teacher's pace in the class. Khan Academy tries to address this issue.In India these two problems are prevalent in large numbers. Some of the families especially in rural India are too poor to send their children to school. The teacher-student ratio in schools of this country is not adequate. Individual attention does not happen in schools most of the time.

To address this problem which is prevalent in the society Khan Academy came out with an innovative solution. They invoked the concept of virtual one-to-one teaching. To conceptualise the virtual teaching method, Khan made full use of the available technology. He created a website which now supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching a wide range of subjects.

Unique Technique.......


With high-quality lectures and an interactive format, Khan Academy empowers kids to set goals and learn at a comfortable pace. The most impressive part is the way Khan teaches those lessons. He never assumes beforehand that the student has some prior knowledge about the topic. He starts from scratch and teaches in a systematic yet simple way. It helps the students to grasp the core concepts that are dealt in the topic.

How my family benefited from Khan's videos ...........
 My cousin who was lacking behind his classmates in arithmetic in his 3^rd standard  developed a fear for maths. He took help from Khan’s videos and the video-teaching not only helped him to improve his arithmetic skills but also the fear of maths disappeared.

Interactive Features


The website has the interactive workpad feature combined with a dashboard application. The dashboard application tracks students’ individual statistics, showing them and their instructors how many videos they had watched, how many questions they had answered, and also shows them which questions they got right or which of them they got wrong. Khan uses technology and creativity in these applications.

At the heart of all this lies innovation. Khan was the first to visualise the large scale utility of virtual teaching. Without innovation and creativity on Khan’s part this would not have happened.

Globalization :

Anyone and everyone in the world can watch and learn from Khan’s videos. A student staying  in Mexico and a student staying in Russia will use the same video to learn the concept. Both of them can share their views on the topic in the Comments section. Many more students from different parts of the world can also join. The whole world is transforming into one large classroom.

The concept of globalisation is deeply ingrained in the functioning of Khan Academy. Khan Academy  embraces globalization indeed.