BACK TO CONTENTS Do consumers care about values and ethics?
Yes. There is a perception that they don’t, but it is increasingly clear they do. After the disaster in the clothing factory in Bangladesh, consumers spoke up. They are more educated now about what they buy. In general, citizens are driving change. You see it in the Arab Spring, and you see it in consumer goods. I understand that if you sell Lipton tea the price must be affordable and the product has to taste good, but consumers do care about how you treat people who work at the tea plantations. By its very nature the consumer goods industry represents the citizens of this world, so it should be in tune with their needs.
How much can Unilever do on its own? Doesn’t the whole industry have to come on board to make a real difference?
Yes. We want to take advantage of the size and scale of our company. What is unique about our plan is that we have taken responsibility for the whole value chain. We try to be a positive force, whether it be on illegal deforestation, in food security, obesity, nutrition or hygiene. Most
companies are working in the corporate social responsibility space if they are doing anything at all, but being less bad is just not good enough any more.
Many people have realized that the cost of inaction is often greater than the cost of action. We need partnerships across the industry – ones that probably haven’t happened before. Competitors need to say that it is in our own self-interest that we move to sustainable sourcing, stop illegal deforestation, and move to natural refrigerants. If the consumer goods industry does not move to a more sustainable model, most of its profi ts will be wiped out in 30 to 50 years, and if you are in food even earlier.
What do investors say?
The investor community is starting to come round, sometimes for risk or cost reasons. There has been too much chasing of short-term profi ts, which has caused long-term damage. We have to go back to putting business at the service of society.
FOCUS 7
You talk a lot about sustainability, but what about other ethical issues? Where do you stand on diversity, for example?
Of course this is important too. Just to take the example of gender balance, at Unilever we have a gender-balanced organization. Europe is very diverse and cosmopolitan, but it is moving much too slowly on this question. Instead of governments putting quotas in place, they should provide childcare and fl exible working: initiatives that enable women to work, rather than laws and regulations.
The reason we need more women in the workplace isn’t just about how many women buy our products, or recruiting from 100% of the population, or fostering creativity. It’s also because the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan requires long-term thinking, partnership and a purpose-driven way of working, and these are things that women are good at. We will not be able to solve the world’s problems if the gender mix isn’t balanced.
UNILEVER by numbers
(US$ 5.3bn) was the €3.9bn
value of Unilever’s free cash fl ow at the end of its last fi nancial year.
14.1% was Unilever’s
core operating margin in 2013.
2 billion © 2014 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, is a subsidiary of KPMG Europe LLP and a member fi rm of the KPMG network of independent member fi rms affi liated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
people use one of Unilever’s brands on any given day (the company has more than 400).
UNILEVER
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