question archive Ethics focus on Business Unilever "Enhancing Livelihoods" through Project Shakti According to management guru Peter Drucker, whose ideas significantly contributed to the foundations of thought about the workings of the modern business corporation, workers "need to know the organization's mission and to believe in it
Ethics focus on Business Unilever "Enhancing Livelihoods" through Project Shakti According to management guru Peter Drucker, whose ideas significantly contributed to the foundations of thought about the workings of the modern business corporation, workers "need to know the organization's mission and to believe in it
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Ethics focus on Business
Unilever "Enhancing Livelihoods" through Project Shakti
According to management guru Peter Drucker, whose ideas significantly contributed to the foundations of thought about the workings of the modern business corporation, workers "need to know the organization's mission and to believe in it." How do organizations ensure this commitment? By satisfying workers' values. A program undertaken by Unilever, the Dutch-British multinational company co-headquartered in Rotterdam and London, illustrates the kind of values-oriented corporate endeavor Drucker describes. Project Shakti is a Unilever CSR initiative in India that links corporate social responsibility and financial opportunities for local women.1 It is considered a leading example of micro-entrepreneurship, and it expands the concept of sustainability to include not only environmental issues but also economic opportunity and financial networking in underdeveloped areas. The goal, according to Unilever, is to give rural Shakti women the ability to earn money for themselves and their families as micro-entrepreneurs. Unilever's subsidiary in India, Hindustan Lever, has started training programs for thousands of women in small towns and villages across India to help them understand how to run their own small sole proprietorships as distributors of the company's products. With support from a team of rural sales managers, women who had been unable to support themselves are now becoming empowered by learning how a supply chain works, what products Hindustan Lever produces, and how to distribute them. The sales managers also act in a consulting capacity to help with business basics, money management, negotiations, and related skills that help the women run their businesses effectively. The program was so successful that Unilever expanded it to include Shakti men, typically the sons, brothers, or husbands of the women already running businesses. The men, who are essentially like delivery drivers, sell Unilever products using bicycles for transportation, enabling them to cover a larger area than women cover on foot. The women spend most of their time running the business. Project Shakti has enlisted more than 100,000 rural participants, which includes about 75,000 women. The project has changed their lives in ways that are profound, and not only because of the income earned. The women now have increased self-esteem based on a sense of empowerment, and they finally feel they have a place in Indian society. According to the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, Project Shakti is one of the best and most sustainable ways the company can address women's social concerns. It allows Unilever to conduct business in a socially responsible manner, helping women to help themselves while extending the reach of its products.
Critical Thinking question:
- If Unilever has mixed motives, does this discredit the company in your eyes? Should it?
- Could this model program be duplicated elsewhere, in another area and with different products? Why or why not?
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Answer 1.
In terms of size, long-term viability and significant social effect, Hindusan Unillever Limited has built a rural distribution and public recognition movement. Unilever has mentioned high potential targets. Consequently, CSR won't offer a couple million dollars to charity anymore. This intertwines the very structure of the market and forms an important part of the business concept of each organisation. If multi-billion - dollar companies contribute to meaningful societal transformation, it's important to achieve something.
In two factors, Shakti is an outstanding representation of CSR. Firstly, for 60,000 to 70,000 people it created a whole different way of living and the potential to live comfortably. Their social status had a strong influence. Yet millions of residents have access to personal nursing yet community treatment. Four, from the company it produces it is self-supporting. This is the safest form of CSR!
No, this does not discredit the company. CSR should be profitable to the community and the company. CSR is not charity, but sustainability that Shakti program has made possible. Shakti is Selling with a Purpose, thus the best CSR.
Answer 2
A model can be implemented anywhere if the core values are understood well. The project Project Shakti was initiated in 2001 and helped HUL enter the so-called dark media regions by converting rural people into direct distributors of their mass consumer goods.
Unilever's Fortune 500 food, home and personal care goods company with companies in about 100 countries bets on Shakti to the bottom of the pyramid in European, Africa and Latin American economies, with developing markets contributing about 44 percent to their global sales. The aim is to create a micro sustainable environment and trust on the manpower. The model is already being replicated in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
