...interpretation of the parent-subsidiary network 4 3.1 Betweenness Centrality 5 3.1 Density of Network 7 3.3 Degree Centrality 8 4. Analysis of the organization’s Network 8 4.1 Locational aspects 8 4.2 Activity aspects 9 4.3 Size aspects 9 5. Implications for the innovation strategy of Unilever 9 5.1 Meeting consumer needs 10 5.2 Introduction of new products 10 5.3 Sustainable Innovation 11 6. Conclusion 11 References 12 Global Networks and Innovation of Unilever Company 1. Introduction Unilever is one of the best companies with its headquarters in London, UK that focus on the wellbeing and health of people by providing products such as affordable soaps, ice creams, household care products and luxurious shampoos (Weingardt, 2007). Unilever has been recognized as a leading provider of brands such as Omo, Knorr, Lipton, Hellmann’s and other trusted local names such as Suave, Pureit, and Blue band. The company has presence all over the world and increased sales gave accounted to increased turnover that hit €53.3 billion in 2015. There are more than 172,000 workers who work for Unilever, and the company has been selected as number one as the fast-moving consumer goods employer, according to the selection of students in 26 countries (Wolf, 2011). 2. Internationalization strategy Unilever being one of the strongest companies in the world has expanded in foreign markets to access more customers. Unilever being supported by its key brands such as Lux, Rexona...
Words: 2565 - Pages: 11
...Proceedings - LEAD 2009 Conference CULTURAL BOUNDARY SPANNING IN GLOBAL PROJECT NETWORKS Melissa Di Marco, 1 John E. Taylor 2 and Pauli Alin 3 ABSTRACT Projects are increasingly global in scope and outsourcing on projects increasingly common. Along with globalizing trends in projects, the workforce is also globalizing. It is common for engineers to move to other countries as expatriate workers or as emigrants to pursue job opportunities in other firms. Where much is known about global networks of engineers collaborating on projects, little is known about the mediating role played by individuals that share the same nationality as an international partner on a project. In this paper, we examine two project teams executing complex, reciprocally interdependent design projects in India. One team was comprised of Indians and Americans. The other team was identical, but also contained an Indian national who had studied and worked in the U.S.A. Both teams worked on similar design schedule optimization problems. Over the duration of three days we examined the interactions of the teams assembled to finalize their designs. Through quantitative network analyses and qualitative observations of the cross-cultural interactions, we found the Indian expatriate to play a cultural boundary spanning role resolving cross-cultural knowledge system conflicts and increasing collaboration effectiveness. We induce a propositional theoretical model of cultural boundary spanning in global...
Words: 5008 - Pages: 21
...Power and Influence in the Workplace The Meaning of Power * Power is the capacity of a person, team or org to influence others * Not the act of changing someone’s attitudes or behaviors * Based on the target perception that the power holder controls * Involves the asymmetric dependence * Depends on some minimum level of trust * Trust indicates a level of expectation that the more powerful party will deliver the resource Sources of Power in Organizations * Legitimate Power * An agreement in orgs that people of certain roles can request a set of behaviors from others * Manager telling an employee what tasks to perform * Restrictions * Range in which power can be asked * Zone indifference (set of behaviors that individuals are willing to engage in at the other person’s request * Employees have this power over their bosses and coworkers through legal and administrative rights and informal norms * Norm of reciprocity: feeling of obligation to help someone who has helped them; informal rule of conduct we are expected to follow * Information Control: potent form of legitimate power * Information is a resource and those who need it depend on the gate keeper * Gate keepers gain power by selectively distributing information * Reward Power * A person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by other to remove negative sanctions ...
Words: 1425 - Pages: 6
...focusing on all functions within a company. This plan is important to an organization’s long-term success because it gives the company a direction or purpose in which to set goals and carry them out. A strategic business plan assists a company in providing products and services in a more efficient and effective manner. Without a strategic business plan a firm will have a difficult time maximizing the potential of its resources. New opportunities and key resources for growth or improvement will be limited or perhaps even missed. A strategic plan is important to both small and large businesses. I believe that for any company, no matter the size, it is equally important to have a strategic business plan in place. This will assist in understanding customer needs and be able to adapt to constant changes and new trends taking place within the company. With a successful strategic plan, a company has a great opportunity for becoming very successful. Innovation plays a key role in developing a company that has potential for growth and success. Innovation provides the company with ways to maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors. It also allows the company with different ways to meet the needs of its...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...Customer service excellence Introduction Organizations are increasingly beginning to recognize that to deliver superior service they must instill a sense of pride in their internal customer (employees) and motivate them. How to influence employee behavior through internal marketing is very important for organization get success in the external marketing. However, now economic environment means that it is something no company can afford to ignore (Mortimer, 2011). This essay will be evaluating the role of internal marketing in ensuring the delivery of excellent customer. And suggest ways in some companies like TESCO, Enterprise and FedEx can successfully engage and motivate staff. Such as: internal communication, empowerment, and motivation. Also discusses the relationship between internal marketing and internal marketing, and how does it could enhance the external marketing. Internal marketing Internal marketing is a means of involving staff at all levels in effective marketing programmers by enabling them to understand their role within the marketing process (http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation). A key premise underlying Berry’s (1981) ‘employees as customers’ concept in internal marketing is that similar to external customers, internal customers desire to have their needs satisfied (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2003: 1177). Internal marketing theories state that the business emphasizes the importance in employee need satisfaction, and approaches...
Words: 3187 - Pages: 13
...5-Star Hotel Customer satisfaction Part1: Customer satisfaction Task Output A list of stakeholders and their expectations 1. 1 Identify at least 10 for relevant stakeholders 2. Identify and describe at least 5 methods that can be used for capturing customer needs. Apply one of these 5 methods to your product/service 3. Identify customer requirements using the Kano analysis 5 methods including explanations. A completed example of the use of one method List of customer requirements/needs: minimum 10 WANT i i WANTs minimum 10 MUSTs minimum 5 DESIRABLEs Customer satisfaction Stakeholders and their expectations Service: Hotel Guests Reliability Good i G d price Employees Compensation/ reward Job security Owners Profit P fit Solidity/Stability Contractors Good business relation Safety Suppliers Long term relationship Timely payments Government: Compliance with regulations Human Safety Competitors Information sharing I f ti h i Benchmarking Advertisements companies Payments on time Adequate information Communities such as city council. Social service Follow ethical conduct. Share Holders Profit. Stability Customer satisfaction Tools for capturing customers needs 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 6 7. Service: Hotel Tools for capturing customers needs p g Customer surveys (Questionnaire) Focus group Customer Interviews Customer F db k F C t Feedback Forms Warranty...
Words: 1819 - Pages: 8
...takes to satisfy you, the customer” (Perreault, 2009). An organization must take the initiative to be able to know their customers and what their needs are, as well as using innovation to develop new ideas and goods. “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (Gundlach, 2009, p. 90). Organizations offer goods and services to consumers and customers, but finding a way to market those goods and services to prospective clients is the major key to success for any organization. Marketing is a main point included within business management. Organizational Success Marketing has a high importance involved with organizational success. The purpose of marketing is for organizations to adapt their, “marketing strategy to changing market conditions” (Perreault, 2009). Based on the definitions stated in regard to marketing, different areas of organizations are affected including career opportunities, innovation, and standard of living. Marketing goods or services, if it goes well can provide new career opportunities because of growth within the organization. Innovation inspires new ideas in which organizations develop better ways to gratify customer’s needs. These innovations that organizations work toward to provide customers with bigger and better options also changes the standard of living for those customers. “Marketing is the performance...
Words: 880 - Pages: 4
...Strategic Plan Strategic planning is an important tool for any organization. By having the right strategic plan, a company could reach their goal as well as meet their customers’ demands. A strategic planning helps a company develop basic goals which company will try to reach in certain a time period. In the strategic planning, company will usually consider the mission statement, vision, and values of company. Through this paper, an individual will gain information how US Airways business, product the airline provide, and services US airways. The reader will also gain information about how US airways work on developing right mission statement. The reader will also gain information how important mission, vision, and values to US airways in direction of their strategic plan. Mission Statement The mission statement is short and memorable, like a catch phase. The purpose of a mission statement is to endorse the meaning of the company and associate with company business. The company main customer’s bases are individual who like to fly. The mission statement of US airways is “Fly with US”. It is very obvious that the company is an airline operator, providing travels all around the world for its valued customers. The mission state or the slogan “Fly with US” could vary with different meanings for individuals. The individual could perceive this statement in many different ways. An individual could look at US as top airline for United State . This could also mean by flying...
Words: 1312 - Pages: 6
...issues of transformation. In the overview, Intersect Investments has acknowledged a new vision to enhance the company and be competitive. Intersect Investments will try to meet the goals by creating new services and products by using the customer intimacy model. This model will assist in Intersect Investment improving customer satisfaction and increasing sales. In this paper, Team C will benchmark different organizations to provide guidance regarding the modifications needed to meet these goals. Introduction Intersect Investment Services is afforded the opportunity to company’s and benchmark successes from like similar companiesy’s and apply this insight to reach their goals and objectives. A mission statement represents the “reason” an organization exists, and an organization’s vision is a long-term goal that describes “what” an organization wants to become” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004). CEO Frank Jeffer’s decision to implement this vision has the makings to increase profit and regain the trust of the consumer base. This vision encompasses “providing a broad set of products and services to consumer and small business customers using a model of customer intimacy that will build long-term relationships based on trust and value to the customer” (Intersect Investments, 2008). This paper will analyze several organizations, focusing on their ability to build strong organizational cultures, motivate through goal setting,...
Words: 2068 - Pages: 9
...retention ratio due to attendance issues is about 75%. These new employees study the handbook with diligence and find every possible loophole to their benefit. The mindset is not to work as hard as they can and do a good job, it is to do the least they can to get by. Instead of being grateful for the great benefits the company offers, they complain about having to be called in when necessary. There is no more the thought that they will make a career with a great company, but it is just used as a method to pay the bills and if this doesn’t work out, they will go somewhere else. We are in the customer service environment and the philosophy, “The customer is always right” is very difficult to get the new hires to embrace. They feel if the customer is rude to them or if the customer continues to ask them the same question over and over again, they have the right to get an attitude with the customer. I believe though that part of this is the home training that some of these employees come to the work place with. I have two teenage daughters and they are employed....
Words: 1632 - Pages: 7
...exposure leading to the company growing. Food-Lion is seeking to expand its operations by improving their quality and providing enough quantity. Food-Lion is seeking to take their business in a whole new direction with a Most Valued Product (MVP) program. The proposed system requirements are the system shall have three tiers of users; customers, users, and managers. Users in the “customers” tier represent customers of Food-Lion and account holders. They will be able to view their MVP savings and instantly get other coupon rewards. Users in the “Users” tier represent employees of Food-Lion. They will be able to view their MVP savings from each customer in their area. This would allow them to track pacific items. Every customer will specifically be assigned one account number that will identify the customer within the Food-Lion MVP Program. Whenever a purchase has been made and the customer uses the MVP Card account number, the savings will automatically be credited to customer purchase. When customers want to use their MVP Cards, they will receive a weekly list of all MVP items offered that week. Food-Lion system will allow the option for customers who have lost or forgotten their MVP card, so that they be allowed to still purchase items at MVP prices. There are three methods that an employee can use to search for an account. The three ways are to search by first and last name, the account number, and the...
Words: 1205 - Pages: 5
...power to Karachiites. Our Values – Hamari Aqdaar We BELIEVE We speak as a professional, committed to helping the customer. As an organization we have a long way to go to provide the service we all deserve, so we cannot boast. We can do what we say we will do. Be accountable and continue to do better. We are TRUSTWORTHY We speak simply, but never patronize. Long and complicated explanations are confusing and can appear as if we have something to hide. We are OPEN We speak clearly and concisely. If the customer needs our assistance, or if we need to give them Information, we don’t waste their time. We tell the truth and are completely open and transparent. By explaining the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’, we can gain the customer’s trust and respect. We always ask for their involvement, never demand it. We are DEPENDABLE We can be relied upon to do the right thing by everyone we come across and act in a responsible manner to people, places and the environment. We think about YOU We take time to listen to you and understand your needs. You are at the heart of what we do. We speak with a welcoming human smile in our voice. A conversation that begins this way shows that we are approachable and are here to help the customer. \ To generate, transmit and distribute electricity for theprogress and prosperity of the city and of the country. • To extend our customers expectation with reliable,stable and affordable electricity. With a service tomatch. • To enhance the performance...
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
... The concerns presented by Dirt Bike’s management regarding the cost of communication and keeping up with the latest industry developments can be easily solved by getting rid of outdated modes of communication and investing in current technology. In order to take advantage of new technology management may have to upgrade the current computer system to be compatible with current software. The company should take a look into the advantages of Intranet. Intranet is like the Internet except that it is a private and protected network for use by employees only. The use of Intranet will help to increase employee productivity by allowing them to access information faster. Being able to access information faster will help to improve customer service from the Sales and Marketing departments. If Dirt Bike also uses a Web browser interface employees can access data in the database from any workstation allowing them to perform their jobs more accurately and efficiently. Intranets are also a good tool to improve communication within an organization. Each department will be able to be kept up-to-date on current information, strategies and decisions. Salesmen would be able to post leads, share product information and training videos. HR would be able to store documents like handbooks, insurance benefit changes, sales and marketing strategies, company policies and so much more. The marketing department would be able to post the latest marketing trends and advertising information...
Words: 1221 - Pages: 5
...who is about 19. She tells you that her daughter is into the latest popular music and asks you what CD you recommend. Her budget is £15. Customer: Hi Employee: (Smiling) Employee: Hello, How’re doing? Customer: Fine, just looking for a CD for my daughter Employee: Okay. Employee: Do you need any help? Customer: Yes, I need help; it will soon be my daughter’s birthday and I am looking for a gift for her . Employee: Okay, how old she is? Customer: She turns 19. Employee: Okay (Walking towards the CD Department) Employee: Do you know what genre of music she listens to? Customer: Not really; Employee: You don’t know if she likes electronic, pop or hip hop music. Employee: (Still walking around the CD department) Employee: Sorry, How old she is again? Customer: She turns 19 and she likes music that is popular at the moments and that is regularly in the radio. Employee: Okay (Showing to the customer a CD) Employee: I recommend to your daughter a new Double CD album of Lady Gaga, it is popular right now and it costs £20 . Employee: (Showing the CD to the customer) Customer: Sorry, I forgot to tell you; I can only spend £15. Employee: Oh that’s okay; I think your daughter will like this one. Customer: What is it? Employee: It is Lady Gaga again, this one is a single CD and cost only £8.99 Customer: (Looking at the CD) okay, I will take this, are you’re sure she will like this? Employee: Yes, I am sure she will like it, it’s very...
Words: 602 - Pages: 3
...business | | | • | Local presence | | | • | Local community presence | | | • | Limited Internet website | | • | Service oriented tradition. | | | • | Small online selection | | • | Established tradition | | | • | No internet business knowledge | • | Has established customer base. | | • | Limited staff | | | • | Management is committed to company. | | • | Limited budget | | | • | Qualified and knowledgeable staff | | • | Don't have a detailed plan yet. | | | | | | | • | We would be a small player. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | SWOT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Opportunities | | | | | Threats | | | | | | | | | | | | | • | Increased internet exposure | | | • | Increased competition from brick and | • | Increased sales | | | | | mortar stores like Home Depot. | • | Larger customer base | | | • | Increased competition from online | • | Profit margins will be good. | | | | retailers such as Amazon. | | • | Could seek better supplier deals. | | • | Competition can...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
