Situation Audit & TimeLine for UNILEVER FOOD SOLUTION Essay

Situation Audit & TimeLine for UNILEVER FOOD SOLUTION - Essay Example uilar (1967) was the first academician to discuss business analysis through a tool he called ETPS (Economic, Technological, Political and Social factors). According to him these external environmental factor influenced business decisions. From then onwards this has changed names to PEST, PESTEL etc and used extensively as an external analytical tool. (Aguilar 1967). Politically conditions and policies for companies dealing with food, even pre-cooked food are favourable and there are few barriers posed except for stringent health concerns. Therefore worldwide there is acceptance for Unilever foods. The economic factors are favourable too as with globalization of trade and industry more work is being created and incomes, specially of the middle class that consumes most of the pre-cooked foods, is rising. This is creating new markets for such products. Speaking of social factors it must be said that with the advent of industrial and trading activity, people of all classes, from executives to workers, are more actively engaged with work and have less time for cooking at home. This makes pre-cooked food a preferred item for its ease and ready to serve capability and is also less expensive than eating out. According to van Wylick (2007, pg. 1), Porters Five Forces model represents an ideal situational analysis of an industry. The central force is competitive rivalry that exists within the given industry. The other four forces that Unilever must deal with are the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitute products. In this time of economic turmoil, suppliers can have quite a bit of bargaining power over Unilever. A good supply chain can offset this problem. The bargaining power of customers is also strong in this unstable economy and drives the pricing of the products. The threat of new entrants is unlikely since the market is fairly saturated and the economy does not favor new