Business ethics and social responsibility of my given company

I have been asked to write an essay on the Business Ethics and SocialResponsibilityof my given company, Unilever. The purpose of this essay is to give a good understanding of what Ethical Business practise and corporate Social Responsibility is and how my company personally goes about fulfilling all their obligations to their stakeholders of Unilever. I will do this by obtaining information on both the terms in the question and then about the company and then explain it in my words and complete the question as deeply as I can.

I will obtain the information by various means such as websites, textbooks, newspapers, business journals, etc. In addition, the Unilever annual report and other company literature has been collected from the Unilever website. I’m going to start of by briefly explaining what the terms Business Ethics, Corporate Social responsibility and Stakeholders mean so when you go onto reading the essay you know what you’re reading about. The general meaning of Business Ethics is knowing what is right from wrong in the place you work but then more importantly making sure you’re doing the right thing.

Corporate Social Responsibility is grouping various corporategoalsand then evaluating the outcomes by both profitability and the judgements of social desirability. Stakeholders are usually people who have any sort of interest in the business, this don’t necessarily have to be financial such as shareholders just general. This can vary from suppliers, Board of Directors, and founders to even customers. I will now go on to about my given Company, Unilever. Every company has its own work style. Unilever is an international producer of foods, home products and personal care products.

It has a worldwide turnover of more than 47 billion Euros for the year 2000, with 295, 000 employees and branches in more than 100 countries. Every day, millions of British consumers choose from Unilever’s range of branded products. They have an annual UK sale of over i?? 2. 3 billion, and range’s of household-name brands includes UK market leaders such as Persil, Flora, Magnum and Lynx. The UK is home to one of Unilever’s two corporate centres, and to two world-leading Unilever research centres. As a whole, Unilever can be divided into two entities.

Unilever NV and Unilever PLC are the twin parent companies of the Unilever Group. They have separate legal entities and separate stock exchange listings for their shares, but operate, as far as is practicable, as a single entity. In a competitive global economy, the success of a company depends on the way the organization handles information. Both main commodities of Unilever belong to the category of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). In this market, quick acquisition and processing of information about the state of the market, customers and competition can highly influence further sales.

As a company that is fully aware of its wider responsibilities, Unilever is ready and willing to take a clear position on major issues of public interest. Invariably, many of these topics have a direct impact on business, given the position as part of a major global research-based foods and consumer goods company. Some of the issues Unilever are facing in the UK – such as the need to be vigilant infoodsafety, and to protect and promote theenvironment- are common to businesses the world over.