CRAFTING YOUR FUTURE: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

CRAFTING YOUR FUTURE: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

ELEMENT - 1

INTRODUCTION

While working as a consultant in Unilever the research essay includes the advice to an organisation to get the business opportunities. This advice would be helpful for individual to enter in the organisation who is looking to develop his professional career in Unilever. Unilever is the British multinational consumer goods company. The products of the company are energy drinks, candy, soft drinks, baby food, personal care products, cleaning agents, health products beauty products and etc. Unilever is one of the largest producers of soap in the world (Unilever, 2019).

The essay will provide brief discussion on competitive environment of Unilever and its response towards the trend. To collect the information about Unilever, researcher will conduct a proper a research according to the preferred methodology.

MAIN BODY

AIM

The aim of the research is to study the competitive business environment of Unilever and to assess emerging trends and the need for ethical and creative leadership and career opportunities in the sector

OBJECTIVES

• Analyse existing information regarding the market to understand the past and present trends in the industry.

• Critically analyse leadership, management, and operational skills in the industry.

• To assess career opportunities and skills gaps in the sector.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

There are two types of research methodology used in the research project such as qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The quantitative analysis is the first-hand data which could be collected with the help of conducting survey. In this method, the researcher targets the population and collects their opinions. This data is presented in the form of tables and graphs. Qualitative research is done by collecting the information from the secondary resources such as library, books, newspapers and etc. in this research, the researcher has implemented secondary research methodology as world is suffering from pandemic situation in which conducting survey and conducting primary research is not possible. The data has been collected from various literature sources like text book, Unilever official website, internet search, journals, magazines, newspapers and etc. The secondary research helped the researcher to identify the various factors like business opportunities, business environment, competitors, and problems faces by Unilever.

UNILEVER COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Unilever is the global brand which has excellent presence in the world. The company sells its products in across 190 countries (Murphy & Murphy, 2018). This shows that Unilever implements best distribution strategy to expand the business and gain profit. To gain the business opportunities Unilever differentiates the products after analysing their business strategy which makes their products different from rivals (Unilever, 2019).

The FMCG market has developed to a great extent with continued demand. The overall global FMCG market has grown and estimated to reach up to 64.6 billion by 2022 (Murphy & Murphy, 2018). Sales of FMCG in the UK has further boosted up by 3.8% rise in prices paid by customers in second quarter of this year due to COVID-19 and lower production. Despite of various challenges and competition Unilever has increased its sales around 2.9% this year and make a good profit margin (Unilever, 2020).

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES

The Porter’s Five Forces is a powerful tool for identifying the competitiveness of the business. Unilever must implement five forces to use strategies to get profitability.

Competitive rivalry- Competitive rivalry is used to find the number and strength of the competitors. The key competitors of Unilever are P&G, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson and many others. The trend of increasing customized items has increased the market growth of Unilever. The personalized products like skin care products, beauty products, hair care products and other products have attracted customers towards Unilever. In the world of competition, every look for items that are specially personalized products for them. And Unilever has solution for all the customers. Research and development sector of Unilever has developed special hair care product called dove with unique solution of dry, rough, and damaged hairs. Unilever also provides hair conditioner which helps hair to shine and stay soft. (Ongdash, 2019).

Buyer power- The buyers of Unilever are agencies, shopkeepers, online websites. These are the middle sources who sell the products. The products of Unilever are available for all age group belongs from different locations. The customer goes for good quality of products with less prices. Thus, to attract the costumers, Unilever need to more focus on marketing and manufacturing strategies to attract customers and earn revenue.

Supplier power- The suppliers may increase the prices of the supplies which affects the cost of production of the company. Unilever must work to find out the best suppliers who can provide supplies to the company in less cost with good quality raw material. This would reduce the cost of manufacturing and increase the profit on products (Khurram et al., 2020). Due to pandemic situation, the company is finding difficulty in getting right supplies and to increase the production rate.

Threat of substitution- It refers to the process where customers find cheap products as substitution of costly products. For example, if the Unilever provides unique hair care product which is made up of more research with good quality and manufacturing styles. The customers go for the substitution of it which would be cheap. Thus, to gain competitive advantage Unilever needs to find out weakness of the product and improve it to gain competitive advantage.

Thereat of new entry- To gain competitive advantage, the company needs to focus on the new strategies that help the business to stand in market effectively (Khurram et al., 2020). There are various new entrants which enter in the market with low prices of the products which attract younger generation more as they look for cheap and good products. The rivals like Unilever have also a good presence in the market and sell various items in low prices which seek the business opportunities of Unilever.

To gain competitive advantage Unilever requires to more focus on the ethical leadership and creativity in the products. Ethical leadership is the term refers to leadership which revolves around respect, ethics and value with the right s and dignity. The ethical leadership allows organisation to work with honesty and trust to provide fair products and services to the customers. Ethical leadership is positively associated with the CSR. A leader’s strategic choices depends on values and experiences which have great impact on the performance of Unilever (Saha et al., 2020). The ethical leadership allows Unilever to keep the customers on highest priority. The social corporate responsibility of meeting the needs of the customers with highest quality of products provides sustainability to the organisation. Also, the ethical leadership allows Unilever to provide some policies which takes care the interest of customers. Ethical leadership and CSR activities for employees are different, the HR of the company provides flexible policies to the employees thus to satisfy them. This helps company to attract labour market in good rate. To gain the advantage against the competitors, the ethical leadership provides a strategic choice to the leaders of the company to provide the products to the customers according to sessions. For example, the personal care products like skin creams are required in winter to protect the skin on the other hand in summer season, people look for the skin care products which can protect their skins from sun burn. Thus, a good ethical leadership allows Unilever to implement CSR to find the needs of the customers (Saha et al., 2020).

REFLECTION ON THE IMPACT OF RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY ON FUTURE CAREER PLAN

The research has helped me to find the skills gap in the sector which is affecting the industry. The skills gaps like ethical leadership, understanding of CSR opportunities, and lack of efficiency in the marketing employees, company may time faces challenges in providing relative services to the customers for which they are actually looking, reaching to the right stores at the right time and no visibility of work and order management. These skills gaps are very effective to affect the productivity of the organisation. The ethical leadership is required to find the needs of the customers according to their demographics, sessions, age, occupation, and educational background etc. Thus, it is required to improve my skills related to the job roles which would be helpful for mw to gain competitive advantage. I would like to training in the various industries to learn various practices of improving marketing and selling. Thus, the knowledge that I will collect would be effective to understand the needs of the customers.

The ethical leadership skills like honesty, justice, respect, and integrity are required to enter in the sector. This will provide an opportunity to me to serve the customers in a better way. Also, the critical thinking and creative thinking skills are required. This would help to understand and critically evaluate the needs of the customers. Understanding the needs of the customers is the path of success.

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded the trend affects the business at a great extent. Understanding the trend of the business is very important as it allows the company to identify the needs of the customers. The research is important to build one’s career in Unilever. The research helps to increase the knowledge and understand various factors that affect the business. From the research it has been found that Unilever has various challenges and opportunities to expand the business. Unilever can gain business opportunities by diversifying the products and boost the production. The post COVID-19 strategy must include identification of needs of customers based on their demographics and gain the profit.

ELEMENT - 2

INTRODUCTION

This section is the reflection of the skills that an individual has developed while working in the organisation. The reflection will discuss overall experiences and skills that an individual has gained while working in the organisation. The reflection will also discuss to develop the action plan which would be helpful for an individual to improve the skills (Scott et al., 2020).

MAIN BODY

I would like to implement Gibb reflective cycle to demonstrate the experimental learning through my experiences. While working in the organisation with the help of Gibb reflective cycle I have both good and bad experience overall as I faced many challenges while working in the organisation. Unilever is one of the biggest brands in UK has a good presence in world. As the organisation sells the products in 190 countries, the products development according to the demographics is very important. Apart from this, it faced various challenges in developing the marketing and business strategies for different countries which is difficult part of the working in organisation (Scott et al., 2020). I also face various challenges while working with the team in the organisation. Gibb reflective cycle allows me to reflect on the challenges. I faced many clashes and conflicts while working with the team (Slepcevic & Stock, 2018). I have noticed that the almost problems were due to lack of leadership qualities. At the beginning of my journey, I have faced lots of problems related to team and time management. Again, Gibb reflective cycle allow me to evaluate the reason behind the challenges. The problem behind this might be it was first experience of working in the organisation and handling team in the organisation. The lack of transferable skills has created lots of problems such as due to lack of critical and strategic thinking skills I find difficulties in providing solutions to my team members and solving general conflicts in the organisation (Scott et al., 2020).

I have identified that I am good at communication skills, technical skills and following ethics in the workplace and my weakness are I am bad at leadership, time management, critical thinking and conflict resolving. To improve my skills, I would like to take some actions which would be helpful for me to build my personality strong and gain good career opportunities. The alternative to solve the problem is to identify the problem properly and find the solution of it. To reduce the stress of the employees I have continued talking with them and try to create a comfortable environment for the employees.

To improve my time management skills, I would like to make a schedule in the notebook according to which I could be able to manage my time and include all the activities that are essential for the day. Making a schedule will be effective to remove all the activities which are non-essential or time consuming (Slepcevic & Stock, 2018). Making the schedule is also important to complete the task on priority basis.

After analysing the challenges and issues faced in the organisation, I have implemented Gibb reflective cycle in order to find the proper solution to the problem. To improve my leadership skills, I would like to engage more with my teammates, this is helpful for me to identify their behaviour and needs which would be helpful for me to solve their problems which will not affect the work. I also would like to practice discipline in the organisation, take more projects from seniors and engage myself in work (Tymon et al., 2020). This would help me to improve my knowledge and develop critical thinking skills in me. To improve my leadership skills, I would like to participate in resolving conflicts to improve my critical thinking skills. To improve the conflict resolving skills I would listen the thoughts of both the parties and takes the decision accordingly (Slepcevic & Stock, 2018).

Gibb reflective cycle allows me to focus on my improvement practices. I have evaluated my improvement by taking reviews from my team and manager. As their reviews matters for me. I took their reviews seriously and worked to improve it. The improvement in the skills helped me to work effectively in the organisation. It has given me an experience of managing team and complete own task effectively. These skills are not only effective for me for my present situation it will also help me to work in future professional life. Conflicts are very common problem of any organisation (Slepcevic & Stock, 2018). Developing conflict resolving skills in me will be beneficial for me as it allows me to understand the situation of both the parties and takes unbiased decision which would reduce the major conflicts from the organisation. Eliminating conflicts from the organisation, allows employees to be focused on the organisational goals and improve the performance of employees. This would be helpful for me to gain competitive advantage in the organisation (Tymon et al., 2020). Thus, the Gibb reflective cycle allows me to evaluate every step of learning and experiences. This would be effective for me in future to identify the problems at the starting point and resolve it.

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that writing the reflection on own experience helps an individual to identify its strength and weakness. Working on the weakness always helpful for individual to improve the skills and gain future employment opportunities. The reflection also helps an individual to understand to develop an action plan which is helpful to improve the skills.

ELEMENT - 3

INTRODUCTION

The section includes the personal development plan for individual to improve its learning, performance, and achievement opportunities. The personal development plan includes SOAR model which would be helpful for an individual to identify his strength, opportunities, aspiration, and results. The personal development plan further includes setting goals and personal objectives which would be helpful for an individual to identify various opportunities that he can gain through working on strength and weakness. These action plans will also helpful for an individual to achieve career goals.

MAIN BODY

While working in Unilever as a consultant I would like to develop my skills to improve my knowledge. This would be helpful for me analyse all the factors and give advice to the company to gain competitive advantage.

1. PERSONAL ANALYSIS

B. SETTING GOALS

C. PERSONAL OBJECTIVES

CONCLUSION

The personal development plan of an individual is based on the experience that he gained while working in Unilever. This development plan will help and individual to identify its strength in order to gain various career opportunities. Working in a Unilever is a great opportunity and to maintain it researcher would make a personal development plan to improve the skills and gain competitive advantage.

REFERENCES

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