Colgate Palmolive Company Analysis

Colgate Palmolive upholds the most basic and universally accepted human rights and freedoms in interactions with its various stakeholders in more than 100 countries where it has operations. It respects the universal human rights as contained in the Bill of Rights. It honors the various freedoms and rights of its stakeholders, especially employees, by supporting the freedom of association and the freedom of speech. The company also ensures that its policies enable employees to pursue equal opportunities without discrimination.

On the social realm, the company is fully committed towards corporate social responsibility organizing various community initiatives, such as sponsorships, donations, and project activities in support of the local communities. Colgate Palmolive ensures compliance with corporate governance policies and other legal provisions that safeguard the interests of the shareholders. Such laws as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission ensure adherence to guidelines that protect public interests.

In the economic sector, Colgate ensures that most of its affiliates in the value chain, such as distributors, adhere to the set of competition laws and policies within their areas of jurisdiction. It also ensures that there are no price discrimination practices among the members of its value chain. In addition, the company offers cost justification among its customers, by which low prices are justified by cost savings to the company. Colgate Palmolive also has provisions for functional discounts to those customers who provide differentiated services which present varying benefits to the company. Qualification for such functional discounts is often based on valuation of cost savings to the business. The company is also open to significant changes in its operational activities under special circumstances, for example, charging lower prices for the products that are expiring or the products that are being recently introduced. The company also ensures that it does not limit trade between the members of the European Union.

Colgates project management policies require employees to safeguard the companys proprietary information. The employees are instructed to uphold the highest standards in regard to confidentiality of the companys information and documents at all time. The staff is not supposed to engage in any surveys or data collection without having prior approval from the authority of the company.

The company constantly adheres to the set project timelines. It is done through the efficient communication of project needs. Projects undergo the planning process, in which all stakeholders, including managers and subordinate employees, are well instructed about their tasks. Each participant of the project clearly knows his roles and obligations. Role clarity ensures that there is no conflict or ambiguity in what each employee should do.

Before the commencement of the project, the management ensures that there is a proper scheduling, i.e. a list of the projects deliverables, milestones, and main activities. Managers also ensure that there is a proper work breakdown for each project so that the resources and personnel can be properly deployed. Such planning eliminates any misallocation of resources or personnel to a project. After planning the work breakdown, the management then focuses on preparing the project schedule. The management ensures that it obtains the buy-in of those involved so that project timelines can be met in a more proactive manner. As the result, the involvement contributes to the enhancement of employee motivation and enthusiasm.

The company recognizes the contribution that its employees make to the business performance and to the satisfaction of its customers all over the world. Thus, it commits itself to ensuring that its employees are fully empowered, feel comfortable, and are motivated to perform their duties. The company adheres to health and safety guidelines ensuring that its employees work in a safe and clean environment. This minimizes the exposure of employees to the risks. A safe and healthy working environment contributes to the cultivation of a positive public image, improving the motivation and self-esteem of the employees. Another area of employee empowerment that Colgate Palmolive focuses on is compensation and rewards. The company ensures that its employees are fully compensated for their work. The compensation packages for employees are competitive and accord to the industry standards. There are also special rewards for employees who demonstrate additional efforts in achieving their targets. Such rewards ensure that employees get recognized for their additional efforts. They spur motivation and enthusiasm of the employees and cultivate a competitive culture within the company. Such competition leads to increased productivity and greater certainty in meeting the business goals and objectives.

In addition, Colgate Palmolive supports employee growth and promotion in their careers. Employees are sponsored to attend various courses that are commensurate with their roles at the company. Employees also attend conferences and seminars in various regions of the world. This ensures that each and every employee can growth in his career This plays an important role in ensuring the company attracts some of the best talent from the market. The potential employees are assured that they will grow in their careers, which has a direct impact on their marketability in the labor market. Employee empowerment at the company also contributes to employee retention. The employee confidence in Colgate Palmolive makes it rank at the top of the industry.

The company also supports the preservation of the environment. It is evident through the policies that the business adopts in its production and product packaging. The company has a policy of eliminating any raw materials that have heavy metals, such as lead, from its production and packaging processes. Any hazardous residues are disposed through incineration or through landfills. The company also uses recyclable materials in most of its packaging to reduce potential pollution of the environment.

On environmental sustainability, the company aims at reducing the emission of green house gases in its production processes, reduce the amount of water used in its processes and also reduce its waste water loading. They also work in close collaboration with their suppliers whom they require to disclose their climate change information on their supplies. This is because the company is alive to the detrimental impacts that emissions and effluents from industries have on the environment.

Moreover, the company makes contingency plans in the course of its operations. This is mainly done through preparing risk management schedules for various operational activities that are carried out in the business. The company management evaluates the degree of exposure to risk while devising or implementing various operational activities.

Implementation of the contingency plan is controlled by a thorough analysis of various predisposing factors in political, legal, social, technological, and economic fields. This ensures that the proper mitigating measures are done to reduce risks.

The company implements a competitive staffing process. Its human resource department advertises the available positions and attracts its talents from all over the world.

In addition, the company adopts changes in its strategies due to various internal and external constraints in order to meet the demands of its shareholders and be competitive. There may also be a need for change in the culture in order to accommodate the diversity faced by the business during the implementation of its global strategies. The company invests heavily in technological developments to realize various benefits arising from the adaptation to current technology in response to structural and market constraints. It also adapts to the various legislative frameworks in the diverse geographic regions where it operates in order to ensure the satisfaction of its customers.

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