Research about the company “Colgate-Palmolive”

Research
Use following questions as a guide for your research. You can use this as a framework.
• What does the company do (mission, purpose)?
• What are their main product/service offerings?
• Discuss their core competencies and their competitive advantages vis a vis their
competition.
• Discuss the direct (task) and indirect (general) external environments that affect the
company?
▪ Who are their stakeholders?
• What type of corporate and business strategies does the company pursue? (growth,
diversification, differentiation, low cost). Provide evidence of their strategies (i.e. pricing,
management discussions found in their annual reports, brand/image, market niches etc.).
• What type of an organizational structure does the company have? (discuss their org. charts
(if available) or create one from the information available about the company)
• Does it have any distinct organizational culture (innovative, rigid, bureaucratic,
entrepreneurial). Provide stories, rituals, and norms to support your assessment of their
culture.
• Which school of thought does the organization adopt on social responsibility? What type of
ethical issues does the company face or has faced in the past? (environmental, industry
practices, safety). Give 1-2 examples.
• What type of policies does the company have regarding equal employment opportunity,
sexual harassment, employee safety? Summarize their policies and relate them with
concepts in the text.
• Discuss the company’s leadership and how it has influenced their corporate culture. What
type of leadership style does s/he practice? Provide convincing evidence and relate them to
the leadership.
• What type of managerial controls (concurrent, feedback etc) do they use? (financial and
non-financial)
The above framework should assist you in your research, however, do not limit yourself. You can
use additional information from your research if you think will add to the depth and understanding
of the company.
Application:
Consider using these analytical tools:
1. SWOT analysis (provide a summarized SWOT table).
2. BCG matrix.
3. Porter’s 5 forces (for the industry) and its relevance to the company.
4. External environment analysis (PESTLE) factors.
Paper:
The paper should be at least 10 pages long, double spaced and not more than 20 pages, (excluding
Cover Page, Executive Summary, Table of Contents and other appendices), font size 12, Times
New Roman. You can use visual tools (charts, graphs, flowcharts, images) to explain your content
but NOT to make up for space. APA style citation and references should be used. Consult with the
library resources in the ‘Resource’ folder in BB). Your research should include a minimum of five
different sources (annual report, business magazines, trade publications, book and newspaper
articles etc.)

Last Completed Projects