APPENDIX A: ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
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Global Business and Strategy
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Assignment Number
Tutor’s Name
Examination Venue
Date Submitted
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First Submission
.resubmission
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Declaration: I hereby declare that the assignment submitted is an original piece of work produced by myself.
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Table of Contents
Question 1: Give a critical account of Unilever’s success by meeting modern content demands.. 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1
Body ............................................................................................................................................ 1
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 2
Question 2: Examine the global political systems existing in a business environment using your
own examples.................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3
The global political systems........................................................................................................ 3
Democracy .............................................................................................................................. 3
Totalitarianism ........................................................................................................................ 4
Theocratic totalitarianism ....................................................................................................... 5
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 6
References ....................................................................................................................................... 7
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Question 1: Give a critical account of Unilever’s success by meeting modern content
demands.
Introduction
The international market entails the marketplace of many countries with different systems and
approaches. Business operations need to adopt strategies based on the country's cultures and
systems to improve the productivity of the business operations. There are various modern
techniques introduced to target the audience in the global market. For example, digital marketing
is one of the marketing plans of modern business strategies. The world economy, particularly with
the advent of the Internet, is moving ever faster toward a highly interrelated, interdependent state,
in which no nation will be immune from the forces of the global market. (Fatehi, 2019: 65).
This short essay will give a critical account of Unilever’s success by meeting modern content
demands through launching of U-studio.
Body
Firstly, the marketing ventures of Unilever were not able to provide full benefits to the company.
Therefore, Unilever initiated the approach of U-studio. It is a digital marketing concept targeting
the global markets. The globalized concept of the U-studio approach has used the modern content
demands of the population. Unilever has not only adopted the global approach, but it has also
considered the local needs of the people. The marketing content is personalized to match the fastmoving digitalized world. Various companies adopt digital marketing approaches to target
customers at the global level. This is not only the cheapest way but also helps in targeting larger
potential customers.
By being truly global, in every sense of the word. Every U-Studio can tap into a partner studio at
various Unilever sites to generate the best results. Each is focused on local requirements, yet are
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able to lean on other U-Studio sites for ideas, support and talent. This makes the content vibrant
and interesting, not to mention helps circulate ideas that work. Thus, as mentioned from the case
study, this will ensure that Unilever penetrates the global market is it will be able to utilize the
market requirements and attracts the new customers around the globe.
Lastly, the launch of U-studio will also leads to reduce business costs of advertising. It was
mentioned that Unilever was not receiving the full benefits from many of its marketing ventures.
This means that it was making losses to the money invested in the advertising of the business. With
the launch and success of the U-studio, this means that it made a considerable success in reducing
these operational costs.
Conclusion
U-studio had many success to Unilever and it made a considerable impact to the business of
Unilever. It thus can be seen that digital advertising is the way to go for modern businesses.
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Question 2: Examine the global political systems existing in a business environment using
your own examples.
Introduction
A political system is essentially the framework for a nation's politics and administration. It
oversees a comprehensive set of laws, ordinances, organizations, and mind-sets. Political systems
vary significantly in their philosophies regarding the roles of the person, the collective, and the
authority. The political environment includes issues such as the political system of government in
a country, the nature of the Constitution and the government environment encompassing the
economic and business policies and regulations. As can be expected, these factors vary
significantly between different nations. But of more importance to us at this point, is the fact that
these different political systems affect business considerably. The political system make up a part
of the macro-environment of the business and this macro environment affects the business
differently. Changes within the macro environment make it necessary for managers to make
adjustments to the business’s planning. For example, new government regulations may require a
business to plan to install pollution-control devices. Or, in response to changing social attitudes,
businesses may plan to alter traditional work practices to accommodate more family-friendly
policies and fewer discriminatory policies. (Richardson, 2017: 60).
This essay will examine the global political systems existing in a business environment giving the
relevant examples.
The global political systems
There are a variety of global political systems and these will be explained in this section.
Democracy
Democracy refers to a political system in which the government is by the people and is exercised
either directly or through elected representatives. Democracy is based on the belief that citizens
should be directly involved in decision making. In representative democracy citizens periodically
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elect individuals to represent them, called members of parliament in most countries. The
representatives then form a government to make decisions on behalf of the electorate. According
to Folbre, N. (2020: 22), democracy, in the broadest sense of rules guaranteeing both personal
rights and equal participation in collective decision-making, represents an institutional structure
designed to minimize exploitative outcomes. Not that democracy necessarily escapes hierarchy:
even groups that forego leaders and make decisions by consensus typically enforce rules of
membership and behavior, drawing boundaries that define their purview. Democracy seldom
functions effectively when it remains incomplete. Still, democratic ideals provide a crucial
benchmark for the critical analysis of hierarchical institutions that create arbitrary and unfair forms
of inequality. Most countries in the world are democratic states, with Switzerland as one of the
main countries employing a democratic government. Democratic governments do minimizes
exploitation of both labor and resources as all are accounted for with the knowledge of the public
and thus this results in improved economic activities in these economies. Pure democracy is based
on the belief that citizens should be directly involved in decision making. Most modern democratic
states practice representative democracy where citizens periodically elect individuals to represent
them.
Totalitarianism
In a totalitarian country, all the constitutional guarantees on which representative democracies are
built- such as an individual’s right to freedom of expression and organisation, a free media, and
regular elections- are denied to the citizens. Political repression is widespread and those who are
seen to challenge the rulers are either imprisoned or killed. Four major forms of totalitarianism
exist in the world today- communist totalitarianism, theocratic totalitarianism, tribal totalitarianism
and right –wing totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is of form of government and a political system
that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individuals and group opposition to the state and its
claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control and regulation over public and private
life. These forms of totalitarianism will be explained as below.
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Communism
Communism is the first version of totalitarianism. It advocates that social equality can be achieved
only through totalitarian dictatorship. Karl Marx described communism as a society in which all
the people, irrespective of their class own the country’s resources and methods of production. In a
communism, the people through the government own and operate the factors of production and
businesses. Centralized government planning determines the type of goods and services required
by its citizens and the best way to distribute the goods. According to Karl Marx, mode of
production, defined by the way surplus is appropriated, is a central concept within Marxian
political economy. From this perspective, a social structure labeled “capitalism”—a set of
institutions including private property, production for profit, and wage employment—develops the
forces of production. Modes of production succeed one another in a stylized sequence or some
variation thereof: primitive communism, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. From
the end of World War II until recently, many countries, and particularly the United States, were
preoccupied with the threat of communism and the danger of another world war. The United States
served as a great security force against communism and provided the much needed stability for
world trade to flourish. This then led to the end of most communist government around the world.
Today communism is the official form of government in only five countries: China, North Korea,
Laos, Cuba, and Vietnam. (Fatehi, 2019:5).
Theocratic totalitarianism
A second form of totalitarianism is referred to as theocratic totalitarianism. Theocratic
totalitarianism is found in countries where a party, group or individual monopolizes political power
and governs according to religious principles. The most common form of theocratic totalitarianism
is based on the Islamic Faith and is found in states such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. These states
restrict both freedom of political and religious expression. The laws of the country are based on
the principles of Islam. Theocratic leaders are thought of as appointed by God and whether they
are not leading the nations effectively or not, the people represented do not have powers to choose
new leaders or type of governments as they are guided by the laws in their respective religions.
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Tribal totalitarianism
A third form of totalitarianism is referred to as tribal totalitarianism. Tribal totalitarianism is found
mainly in African countries such as Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The borders of
many African states reflect the administrative boundaries drawn by the old colonial powers, rather
than tribal realities. As a result, the typical African country contains a number of different tribes.
Tribal totalitarianism occurs when a political party that represents the interests of a particular tribe
(and not always the majority tribe) monopolizes power. Such one-party states exist in many
countries in Africa. However, most of these tribal totalitarianism have policies usually dictated by
their governments and the majority were colonies of Britain in the late twentieth century. Most of
these countries then went on to be liberated in the beginning of the twenty-first century but
however could not develop their economies further with Zimbabwe as the main example.
Right-wing totalitarianism
Last but not least, another form of totalitarianism is called right-wing totalitarianism. Although it
permits individual economic freedom, generally it restricts individual political freedom on the
grounds that it would lead to the rise of communism. One feature of most right-wing dictatorships
is the intense hostility to socialist or communist ideas. Many right-wing totalitarian governments
are backed by the military, and in some cases the government may be made up of military officers.
Right-wing totalitarianism was found in Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore
and Indonesia. In the last twenty years, however, this form of government has been in retreat. The
majority of these countries are now functional democracies. Political power is monopolized by a
party, group, or individual that generally permits individual economic freedom but restricts
individual political freedom, including free speech, often on the grounds that it would lead to the
rise of communism.
Conclusion
It can be seen that totalitarianism is mainly tribal in Africa and communist in Asian countries as
outlined from the essay. However, the majority of colonialist countries are democratic and this is
particularly due to advancement in the development of these economies.
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References
1. Folbre, N. (2020). The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems: An Intersectional Political
Economy. 1st Edition. CPI Group (UK) Ltd.
2. Fatehi, K., Choi, J. (2019). International Business Management: Succeeding in a
Culturally Diverse World. 2nd Edition. Springer.
3. Kopalyan, N. (2017). World Political Systems after Polarity. 1st Edition. Routledge.
4. Louka, E. (2020). The Global Economic Order: The International Law and Politics of the
Financial and Monetary System. 1st Edition. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
5. Nelson, M. (2018). The Presidency and the Political System. 11th Edition. SAGE
Publications.
6. Otani, T. (2018). A Guide to Marxian Political Economy: What Kind of a Social System Is
Capitalism? Springer.
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