Introduction

This individual portfolio based on the analysis of the strategic planning and the implementation of a global crisis. This report will also contain details related to the leadership and its principles that support the aims and objectives of the global crisis. The global crisis that will be supporting all the evidence in this report is the epidemic of Covid 19. The outbreak of the pandemic left a lot of room of innovation for the application of better measures in order to bring more efficiency to the whole system of the Unilever company. This report will also comprise of the application of various methods in Unilever in order to bring about positive changes in the management sector. Identification of various strategic leadership styles and critical evaluation of the effect of ethics and beliefs along with the advantages and disadvantages of each method implemented in Unilever will be discussed in this report as well. According to a survey conducted in the late 2022, there was a decline in the sales of the UK companies in general from the year 2019-2020. The figure was around 7% to 6 % decline in the sales and the revenue sector. Lastly, the report will also discuss the ethics and the values responsible for the implementation of such a change in the market of the UK in general.

Strategic Approach Adopted During the Covid Pandemic

Competitive strategy is usually defined as being unique and innovative. It generally means selecting a unique set of activities or tasks that promise a particular set of values. The 5Ps of Strategy is usually defined as the Mintzberg’s 5Ps of Strategy (Iglesias et al., 2023). It is further classified into PLAN, PATTERN, POSITION, PERSPECTIVE and PLOY. Since the crisis chosen for the e-portfolio is the Covid-19 crisis, there are various approaches as to how to tackle the whole problem (Sheehan et al., 2014). In case of Unilever, the strategic approach chosen during the pandemic was based upon the Mintzberg’s five principles (Hax, 2010). The PLAN is to win the hearts of its customers by the help of the impressive brand, utilization of superior products, innovating various ideas and integration of technology in the products and the services offered by the Unilever. According to figure 1, it is seen that usually in terms of deploying new products, Unilever aims to implement the pull strategy which in turns is helpful in the encouragement of the customers to buy products and services of the company.

Macroeconomic Impact of the Crisis (PESTLE)

According to the business studies, the layers of the business environment are divided or classified into two main parts; the macroenvironment, or the microenvironment which is basically the internal environment of an organisation (figure 3). The main factors for the success or the failure of an organisation are competitive forces, life cycle of an organisation and the competitive cycles (Humphries-Kil, 2019). The Macroeconomic impact of the crisis is based on the three factors as well such as PESTLE, key factors and the various scenarios etc. The PESTLE analysis of any organisation is the combination of six factors such as Political, Economical, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. In order to determine the business effectiveness of the Unilever company during the Covid, a PESTLE analysis according to figure 2, was conducted in order to determine the worth and effectiveness of the company in terms of its products and services it offers.

Political Factor

Since the country that is under study regarding Unilever is United Kingdom. UK is generally known for having quite a stable political environment. Only after the new rules regarding the post-Brexit era will lead to more higher prices of the products and problems in the retailer industry (Ginting et al., 2022). After the Covid-19 pandemic, a proper strategy is developed by the UK to enhance the trade with countries such as India and Israel.

Economic Factor

There was a decrease in the per capita GDP of UK after the Covid pandemic. The inflation rate has also increased, thus increasing the unemployment rate in the UK to 4.1%. Also, the GDP was decreased to around three thousand Pounds in the years of 2020-2021 due to the aftermath of the covid pandemic (Hax et al., 2010). Since the buying power of the people is directly related to the employment rate, therefore there was a decrease in the sales revenue generated during the year of 2020-2021. Also, the unemployment rate of the Unilever company and other companies in general was also low, so people mainly focused on only keeping themselves limited to bare essentials.

Social Factor

Since the United Kingdom is a developed country, the private consuming of goods is more than 63% of the country’s normal GDP. Also, the UK has literacy rate of 99% which implies that the customers are well aware of the latest products launched in the market. Since UK was one of the countries that were most affected by the Covid19, it resulted in more unemployment thus reducing the purchasing power of the people in general (Frost et al., 2014). Apart from that, more of the customers are also preferring more online purchases as compared to the physical purchasing. Also, more of the people of UK are in demand for only 4 days work. All of these demands and uprisings are giving rise to effecting the industry in an adverse manner

Technological Factor

Since the United Kingdom is an advance country in terms of technological infrastructure, there is always room for more innovative technology and advancements in the retail and the sales department (Grachev et al., 2004). The country sets asides around 1.8% of its GDP to its research and technological advancements in the retail sector. Unilever also aims to spend 20 billion pounds by the year 2025 which will be a major achievement for the retail sector.

Legal Factor

According to Competitive Act of 1988, anti-competitive activities in the UK are prohibited. Activities such as price-fixing and rigging can get a penalty of around 10 percent. This ensures that the monopoly is not allowed in the market (Hax et al., 2010). Other factors such as the labelling and packaging is strictly monitored of any product in the United Kingdom

Environmental Factors

The government of the United Kingdom has also associated itself with the Paris law that ensures the reduction of the emission of Carbon House gases.

These are some for the factors of the PESTLE analysis of the Unilever company that were implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. These business measures taken at the right moment were proved to be quite effective in the business of the Unilever company.

Industry/Industries Most Affected by the Covid Pandemic

There were a lot of sectors/industries that were affected by the Covid Pandemic. United Kingdom was also one of the countries that was affected by the pandemic in general. There were many industries that were directly or even indirectly affected by the Covid Pandemic (Van Beek et al., 2010). Some of the industries that were affected by the pandemic was Airline industry, automobiles industry etc. the least effected industries or sectors due to Covid were health care industry, life support tools and equipment, pharmaceutical, insurance companies, electronic items and household supplies.,

The credit score for an airline company in the beginning of the year 2020 was 29.6% which was further reduced to 6% by the end of 2020 (Khan et al., 2020). Apart from that, the air traffic congestion was further reduced by around 45%. Even though this number has increased by the end of 2022, still it has a lot of path to cover.

Since the automobile industry was another one that was most effected by the covid pandemic, the losses it faced was huge (Boyle et al., 2005). Since there was a shortage of the supplied goods and parts related to its manufacturing, the company was forced to receive a lot of orders. This in turn created more congestion and increase in the inflation. Also, the inventory of the automobile industry was increased by around 37.4% in the year of 2022.

Main Causes/Contributors of the Covid19 Crisis

The main cause for the outbreak of the covid crisis has yet to be determined. Even though the initial factor is still unknown, there are some contributors that lead to the outbreak of the covid disease. Close contact especially without mask is one of the leading factors for cause/contribution of the outbreak of this crisis. Even though the government of the United Kingdom has overcome this crisis, it is essential that the company still follow the rules and regulations implemented during the Covid outbreak. Also, meetings and conferences should be held in open vicinity or where there is no stale air present (Frost et al., 2014). This will ensure that there is less chance for the outbreak of the crisis again. Sanitizers and face masks should be placed in the organization in order to maintain less spread of diseases respectively. In accordance with the covid crisis, Unilever has also issued and released several products that are basic necessities of the pandemic.

Strategic Leadership and its Role During the Covid Crisis

Strategic leadership means the capability of an individual related to a company or organization to influence its decisions in a way that it brings the best in the favor of the organization. Similarly, high quality leadership skill was observed in the Unilever company and how they stood up and faced the whole challenge. There were both the internal and the external factors that were faced by the Unilever company during the Covid outbreak (Wubs, 2008). The external factors included the economic conditions of UK along with the increased competition in the market. Whereas the internal factors include making the people in the organization motivated and coaxing them to bring about a positive change in the organisation (Nahar et al., 2019). It also helps the people belonging to the organisation to have clear idea about the futuristic aims and objectives. Therefore, it can be said that skilled and strategic leadership includes the identification and the delivery of the real aim of an organisation (figure 4).

Also, the success of the Unilever is also related to the company’s prime focus on the leadership skills (Jones et al., 2005). The Unilever company is proudly committed to the leadership via corporate level. Since the unilever company is a diverse organisation, it strives to maintain strategic leadership (Putri et al., 2021). This was visible especially when the whole world was under the Covid crisis. With the help of correct leadership skillset and the required actions taken in accordance with the whole situation, the leaders were able to pull the company out of the greatest setback that was based in the world especially the UK (Tien, 2019). Unilever was also able to show how committed the company is in terms of organizational culture and practices. There is a famous quote that is followed in the organization which states that each and every individual belonging to the organization is a leader himself/herself as long as he/she is able to bring about any positive change to the organization.

The capitalization of the market has only been possible due to the organization’s commitment to the leadership skill. According to the annual report of the 2022, the strong base of the company is due to the placing importance of the important values and principles such as the trustworthiness, integrity, perseverance, investments to people, and performing decisions that directly affect the betterment of the organization. Unilever also focused on the Leadership Growth Profile (LGP) which itself is a direct connection between the Unilever’s leadership efficiency and the strategy that is adopted by the company itself (Owen et al., 2008). The LGP was mainly responsible during the Covid crisis as it combined the essential business related tasks for efficiency and betterment of the company in the long run. With the help of the LGP implemented in the management and the leadership domain, the behavioral impact on the employees have proved to be the basis of the Unilever’s growth (Smith, 2009). The concept behind the Leadership Growth Profile has also enabled the Unilever company to take into account the better actions that are going to provide better opportunities to the company in the global marketplace.

Conclusion

In the report of the e-portfolio, it was concluded that the Unilever company faced much losses during the Covid pandemic in the year 2019 and 2020. But with the help of proper implementation of the strategic approaches, many of the losses were overcame and the company became strong once again. Also, with the help for doing business analysis via PESTLE analysis, the Unilever company was able to determine and eliminate the hindrances in the path of its success. Apart from this, the macroeconomic and the microeconomic effect of the Covid crisis on the industry and he country in general was discussed effectively. The effects of the implementation of various management approaches were also discussed in this report respectively. The role of leaders and the effect it has on better management of the whole system when it is under crisis has also been discussed in this report. This report in general is a whole summary of the various business approaches that can be applied when the country or an organisation is under crisis. The Covid pandemic has left almost all the industries or sectors in tumoil, and Unilever was one of them. Only because the required measures were taken according to the evaluation of the whole scenario, Unilever was able to fully be functional in the future. This report was able to identify and collect information regarding the impact of Covid crisis in the UK which directly affected the Unilever company. It also provides an insight of the challenges that the Unilever company had to face during the crisis. Therefore, with the help of this report, one can easily determine the business strategies that are useful in making any company successful and striving

FIGURE.4