Reflection On Attachment To Unilever Nigeria
During my attachment to Unilever Nigeria, I was introduced to International business and the opportunities within as well as its ability to influence basic economic indicators like inflation, which usually has effects on the living standard of citizens. It was this realization that convinced me to utilize my position at such a huge company to cause change in my community.
I came up with a plan to focus the social purposes of our well-known brands on prominent slums in Lagos State with the mutual benefit of developing a market for the business and improving the standards of living of the inhabitants of the slums. I and a colleague that I had brought on board the plan approached the company sustainable projects manager and told her about our desire to use our attachment year to launch a project in the most prominent slum in Lagos state, Makoko. She was skeptical at first, citing the various barriers to entry including inability of the inhabitants to afford our products and the scale with which we would have to operate to make a significant impact. But she encouraged us and told us we shouldn’t take this as a deterrent but that we should work to overcome the several challenges she had pointed out and that It would serve us well to crack it. We then went back to the drawing board and liaised with several internal stakeholders, tapping into their areas of expertise, to find a way around the barriers to entry that had been highlighted for us.
The result was an execution plan that involved making key partnerships with relevant entities that would give the program the much needed scale and help to resolve regulatory and financial issues that had earlier been raised. We were going to partner with relevant NGOs and governmental bodies to reach out to the inhabitants of the slums and educate them on simple personal and environmental hygiene practices that would greatly reduce their susceptibility to diseases, improve their quality of life and make their environment more suitable for living. We would also make our hygiene brands readily available at affordable prices to help drive these practices effectively thereby building brand equity for our brands as well as tapping into the growing need that has been created. With the program, we were able to make profit as a business while also improving lives.
In my opinion, this was the most valuable part of my attachment because this was where I learned that I derived fulfilment in executing projects that not only put smiles on people’s faces but also changed their way of life for the better. This helped me find my purpose. Through this experience and several like it, I have learned that my approach to leadership is by fostering partnerships and ensuring all parties, irrespective of values or interests, work towards a common goal which should be a better and more sustainable world.
