Group 10_unilever

Unilever’s Lifebuoy in India

Submitted by: Shreyas Venkatesh (19PGDM193) Shubham Bansal (19PGDM194) Shubham Khandelwal (19PGDM196) Shubham Todi (19PGDM197) Walid Ansar (19PGDM280)

1. How would you evaluate Samir Singh’s first three years as Global Brand VP for Lifebuoy soap? How difficult was the situation he inherited? How effective has he been in dealing with those challenges? Where has he fallen short? 

•Samir Singh as Lifebuoy’s global sales increased by 17%p.a. and gross profit by 22%p.a. from the period 20092012. •The key features of his role as VP in the first 3 years were: • To improve the health and hygiene of a billion people by 2015 • Unilever had an uneven performance in the recent decades • He managed to reverse the decline in market share that Lifebuoy was experiencing • Lifebuoy had to be the standard bearer of the goals that the top management wanted to achieve

Singh dealing with the concerns: Integrating the social mission The challenges faced by Singh were: Unilever had an uneven performance in recent decades Competitors like Dettol were into price and promotional competition The new CEO wanted to make strategic and organizational changes Lifebuoy was into continued reinvention, repositioning and launch

Defining a global strategy to reclaim Lifebuoy’s status How to go about implementation of plans in India among the following KKD Rural Outreach Campaign MP Partnership Model Urban Schools Liquid Initiative

2. What do you think of Paul Polman’s USLP strategy? How realistic is it to overlay USLP’s bold sustainability goals over financial objectives? What implications does it have for middle managers like Singh and frontline managers like Sitapati?

Paul Polman’s strategy was to: Halve the environmental footprint of it’s products Help 1 billion people improve their health and well being Source 100% of it’s agricultural raw materials sustainably He believed that growth at any price is not viable It was launched as a part of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan

Rationale behind overlaying USLP:

Implications on managers:

Tackling sustainability challenges provides new opportunities for sustainable growth

They set unrealistic targets

It creates preference for brands Builds business with retail customers Drives innovation Grows potential markets Generates cost savings

Constantly under pressure to perform Even Unilever did not have all the answers and was aiming to form partnerships They had too many parameters to lay focus on, varying from finances to sustainability to sales to profit margin They had a limited time period to show whether what they were doing was translating into results

The KKD Rural Outreach Initiative :

3. As Sitapati, what decision would you make regarding the three handwashing behavior change programs that have been proposed? What risks and benefits are associated with each? 

Risks – • The reach to remote villages becoming decreasingly cost effective. • The Lifebuoy demonstrations to housewives is not resulting in sustainable behavior change. Benefits – • Ability to reach remote rural media dark areas. • Prominent Product Placements in the village shops.

The MP Partnership Initiative Risks – Time Consuming with a long payback period The training and materials could not be branded with Lifebuoy’s name Benefits Training children could influence the family behavior. The scope of expansion to other Indian States.

The Urban School Liquids Initiative: Risks The total size of the liquid hand wash market -> 5% of the total soap market. Distraction from the organization attention towards the behavior change. Reach of only 1.5 million people. Benefits – High growth segment – Growing at 40% annually. And is also having high profit margins. Less payback period – 3.5

4. As Singh, what action, if any, would you take to influence Sitapati’s decision? What would you do if he chooses not to implement either of your preferred Jakarta models?

The option of the Urban schools Liquid Initiative could be chosen It focusses solely on Lifebuoy, not on multiple products It targets children not housewives It is aimed at increasing the use of liquid hand wash rather than the Lifebuoy soap   So, to influence Sitapati’s decision one factor that could be brought to notice is that liquid handwash market was only $65 million which is just 5% of total soap market, and expected to reach only 1.5 million people, which won’t be helpful if the company wants to achieve the USLP target of changing lives of 1 billion people in the country