1

Appendix A
UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY AND MANAGEMENT ACADEMIC YEAR: 2010/2011 OCT 2010 TRIMESTER UKMM1011 SUN ZIS ART OF WAR & BUSINESS STRATEGIES

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Subject Code Subject Title Course Group Number : : : : UKMM1011 SUN ZIS ART OF WAR & BUSINESS STRATEGIES Bachelor of Science (Hons) Actuarial Science 70

Assignment Details: Company : Unilever Importance of leadership Creativity in offence Analyzing signs, symptoms and behaviour Attacking with fire 3497 FRIDAY, 26th November 2010 (WEEK 6)

Sun Zis Philosophy:

Word Counts Due Date

: :

Students Name 1. Chong Seah Li 2. Chong Seok Wah 3. Khoo Boo Yang (L) 4. Ong Kar Ping 5. Tang Wai Theng

Student ID No. 0904968 0904093 0904320 0904212 0904066

Course AS AS AS AS AS

Assignment Overall Marks:

Marks

Appendix B
UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY AND MANAGEMENT ACADEMIC YEAR: 2010/2011 OCT 2010 TRIMESTER UKMM1011 SUN ZIS ART OF WAR & BUSINESS STRATEGIES MARKING SCHEME FOR GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Assignment Assessment 1. Introduction Brief introduction of Sun Zi history. Brief introduction of the company. 2. Content Describe the selected Sun Zis philosophy (Students are allowed to adopt one or multiple philosophies). Describe the relevant and current business practices by the company (Students must be able to show the relevancy of the business practices with Sun Zis philosophy) 3. Findings Discuss the challenges and benefits gained when this company applied Sun Zis philosophy in their business. 4. Recommendations Suggest three to four recommendations on how this company can improve its business strategies and success. 5. Conclusion Summarize the report and explain what you have learned from the project. 6. Quality of the written assignment Structure, grammar, language, in-text citation and references. Total marks Marks Allocation 5 marks 5 marks Marks Awarded

15 marks 30 marks

20 marks

10 marks

5 marks

10 marks 100 marks

Comments:___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________ Name of marker: __________________________________________ Signature of marker: ____________________________ Date: __________________

Table of Content

1.

Introduction 1.1 1.2 Introduction of Sun Zi History Introduction of Unilever

04 04 04

2.

Contents 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Importance of leadership Creativity in offence Analyzing signs, symptoms and behavior Attacking with fire

05 05 06 07 08

3.

Findings

10

4.

Recommendations

12

5.

Conclusion

13

6.

Reference

14

Introduction
Introduction of Sun Zi History Sun Tzu was an ancient Chinese military general serving under King Helu of Wu. He is also a philosopher who is traditionally believed and most likely to have authored The Art of War. The Art of War is an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. Sun Tzu became a heroic general and his victories then inspired him to write The Art of War. (Sun Zi Bing Fa - The Art of War, n.d.). Western society viewed it and considered it to be the best text on strategy (Dean McNicol, n.d). The Art of War is originally called Sunzi Bingfa. It represents a philosophy of war for managing conflicts between countries and winning battles. Besides, The Art of War contains not only the writings of the original author, but also commentary and clarifications from later military philosophers such as Li Quan and Du Mu. After that, The Art of War is then invented into Sun Tzu and the Art of Business by men to be applied in business field to help business people apply Sun Tzus strategic philosophy to business problems. The Art of Business contains six strategic principles for managers to handle their problems in business and managing (McNeilly, 2001).

Introduction of Unilever Unilever is the company for our detailed analysis. Although Unilever wasnt formed until 1930, the companies that joined forces to create the business were already well established before the start of the 20th century. Meanwhile, Unilever was beginning with an idea of Willian Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros in the 1890s. He wrote down his ideas for sunlight soap which is helpful for cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England. In addition, Unilevers founding companies is first produced products made of oils and fats, principally soap and margarine in the 1990s. In a history that now crosses three centuries, Unilevers has overcome obstacles and problems to enable it be such a position in their market share (Introduction to Unilever, n.d.). Today, Unilever still believes that success means acting with the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards our employees, consumer and the societies and world in which we live. In 2009, Unilever announces its new corporate vision. That is working to create a better future every day with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life (Vision & strategy, n.d.).

Contents
Through the research on Unilever, we have found that Unilever adopts several philosophies, which are Importance of leadership, Creativity in offence, Analyzing signs, symptoms and behavior and Attacking with fire. Next, we are going to talk about those philosophies and how Unilever uses them.

Importance of leadership Sun Tzu defines five elements that are crucial to the success of an organization in competitive situations. These five elements include an understanding of the climate (Tian), ground (Di), methods (Fa), philosophy/culture (Tao), and the leader (Jiang) (Gagliardi, 2001). The first four elements deal with the situation and the follower while the fifth element, leader (Jiang) deals specifically with the leader. Sun Tzu had described the five attributes which would differentiate a leader from the mass. The five qualities that would make a leader are wisdom, kind, credibility, brave and discipline. Sun Tzus Art of War highlights the importance to win a battle without fighting. A wise leader would identify the weakness of the competitors and use it against them instead of fighting (Frankie, 2010). Thus, a good leader is needed in a company as it is a must for a company to work with maximum output. Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael Treschow (Michael Treschow, n.d.) while Paul Polman is Group Chief Executive (Paul Polman, n.d.). Unilever owns more than 400 brands as a result of acquisitions. However, the company focuses on 13 brands which achieve annual sales in excess of 1 billion each (2008 Annual Report and Accounts, 2008). This achievement had shown the importance of leadership in the management of Unilever. In order to keep up with the pace of change, the leader in the department of research and development of Unilever had strived continuously to reconnect with consumers, focus on brand portfolio and pioneer new channels through strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of culture. According to the research, on 9th August 2010, to acquire the activities of Diplom-Is in Denmark, Unilever has signed an asset purchase agreement with the Norwegian dairy group TINE. In the following

6 month, Unilever purchased Alberto-Culver, the maker of personal care and household products such as VO5, Nexxus, TRESemm and Mrs. Dash (Clementine Fletcher, 2010). In addition, on September 28, 2010, Unilever and EVGA announced that they have signed an agreement for an undisclosed amount, under which Unilever will acquire EVGAs ice cream brands and distribution network in Greece. All these facts show that Unilever is managing under a leader which contains all five quantities of a leader should have.

Creativity in offence Creativity in offence is underlying in Disposition of Army. The disposition of army states that if we are able to win over competitors then we must attack. Otherwise, we must defend. People who expert at war will first not letting themselves being defeated by their enemy and then they will seek opportunity to beat them down. The possibility of we defeating our enemy is depend on them while the possibility of us to prevent ourselves being defeated by our enemy is depend on us. People who are skillful always create some criteria that benefit them before they attack while people who not expert always attack first without any advantage then depend on luck to win the war. Practically, if we have ability to win over our competitors, for instance grab their market share or pull them down from the world ranking, then we can react first. Creativity in offense means we must attack in such a way that is very creative and would not be easily discovered by our opponent. In other words, our strategy to defeat our enemy must be creative, innovative and never been expected by our competitors. War between Unilever and Procter & Gamble had been very long time especially in detergent market. In 2010, Hindustan Unilever Ltd had brought down the price of a 1kg pack of Rin (Unilevers brand) by almost 30%. Other than that, Rin and Wheel (Unilevers brand) were also available with additional package of detergent with normal price. For example, 600g pack of Wheel costs Rs 20 only with an additional 50g pack attached and this means a 325g pack of Wheel costs only Rs 10. (Viveat Susan Pinto, 2010). It forced Procter & Gamble to do the same thing by attached free small pack of detergent to a heavier one but selling in normal price. Besides that Procter & Gamble had to apply price cut to Tide, Tide Natural and Ariel (Procter & Gambles brands) by 12% to 20% (Shailaja Sharma, 9 September 2010).

7 It was clearly showed that Hindustan Unilever Ltd took the action first before Procter & Gamble by selling its product with an additional attached pack in normal price. This never happened before and therefore Hindustan Unilever Ltd showed that it was using philosophy of creativity in offense because it showed its innovation and creativity in selling its products. As a result, Procter & Gamble had to follow path of their competitors and sell their product in the same way too. Procter & Gamble were forced to applied price cut to their product Tide, Tide Natural and Ariel to maintain their market share.

Analyzing signs, symptoms and behavior To apply this philosophy of Sun Tzu into business, it is important to anticipate correctly competitors reactions and monitor the changes in the business environment. Besides, the company must be extra sensitive to business environment. Furthermore, a company must always update the collection of data from a range of sources included market research, past sales data, market growth data, specialist analyst data and secondary data. With all these information, the company can do the business analysis and trend analysis. This philosophy also emphasizes that employees are company's valuable asset. In order to gain employees loyalty, leader should listen to the workers opinions, work closely with them to maximize output and use a reward system to increase the productivity. Other than that, the philosophy also says that customers loyalty is the strategic competitive advantage; a company should always conduct surveys to request feedback from customer and do suitable response according to customers requirements. Unilever had done some researches and launched a new vision to double the size of business while reducing the overall environmental impact across the entire value chain in November 2009. This new vision recognises that climate change represents a huge threat to economic and social stability. They must reduce the total environmental impact of the business to achieve their ambitious growth objectives. Thus, Unilever has carried out Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in 2009. Besides, Unilever fully recognises that it needs to develop a new model for business growth. Thus, they are embarking on a long-term programme to achieve this goal (Sustainable Development Overview 2009, n.d.). Research done by Unilever shows that consumers not only want to be reassured that the products they buy are ethically and sustainably produced, they also

8 want to choose brands that are good for them and good for others. Unilever had take actions on it and it is well placed to help people to understand how their brand choices and small actions can make a big difference across the environment (Sustainable Development Overview 2009, n.d.). In 2009, Unilever began an employee engagement programme that will ensure employees are involved in Unilevers vision and plans for the future. Besides, Unilever also gather feedback from its employees through A Global People Survey (GPS), which is conducted every two to three years (Developing & engaging our people, n.d). From then, Unilever can take action to fulfill the employees needs and enhance employees confidence towards the company. From here we can clearly see that Unilever has adopted the Analyzing Signs, Symptoms and Behavior very well by analyzing the environment, the awareness of public to the polluting environment, employees needs and customers feedback and then respond to the result.

Attacking with fire Literally attacking with fire means burns enemys soldier, heavy military equipment and supplies, armory and warehouses. There are some criteria to use this philosophy. The equipment must be readied. Then the time and date of attacking with fire must be chosen properly. Army which chooses to attack with fire must clearly know the characteristic and properties of fire. Practically, attacking with fire also means reinventing an industry when we able. In other words, we must come out an idea in which the opponent has never come out yet, that is to reinvent the industry by launching new style of business direction. By then, our opponent will be followed up our path that easily and causing us to dominate the new industry. In other words, we are using innovation to win over our opponents and this is the concept of this philosophy. Being one of the global consumer product giant, Unilever does concern about environmental issues which getting more and more serious nowadays. In 15 November 2010, Unilever officially unveiled their 2020 Unilevers Sustainability Living Plan. This plan will help more than one billion of people to improve their hygiene habits and bring safe drinking water to 500 million people. (Marc Gunther, n.d). Besides that, it will try to reduce impact to green house gases cause by it products, reduce water usage and wastage associated with the consumer uses of its

9 products and improve any material it uses to produce its product by 2020. This is no doubt will create a huge impact on environment. This is never been done by Unilever and so this is a very new and fresh plan from it. This plan brings many benefits not only to Unilever itself and also the environment. Unilevers effort on saving water and energy is very optimistic. Unilever said that they will try to change behavior of bath among 400 million people by 2020. (Marc Gunther, n.d). According to it, if 20 million people are persuaded in trying to reduce time of bath, for example one minute, it would save emissions of one million metric ton of CO2 a year and this is equivalent to taking 110 000 cars off the road. (Marc Gunther, n.d). Unilever also plans to launch Turn Off The Tap campaign in future correspond to the idea of reducing time of bath. This shows that Unilever is applying philosophy of attacking with fire because it plans to reinvent the industry by launching something which has not been used by most of the companies out there.

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Findings
We can clearly see that Unilever uses the philosophies analyzing signs, symptoms and behavior and attacking with fire when they unveiled they Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. They wanted to produce products that would minimize the impact of it to the environment and to improve peoples health and well-being. They tried to reinvent the industry that no company has yet successful made it as they noticed that the customers are getting concerned of their surroundings. Thus, Unilever came out the plan to make profit and have a long term advantage by approaching the publics concern toward the environment. Even though, Unilever has come out the plan, but it encounters few challenges, the challenges to reach the target at a certain period. Saving the usage of water in daily is important because when the whole world is potentially affected by climate change, water stress/scarcity will occur anytime. Thus, Unilever has set a target to minimize the water usage on showering, bathing and hair washing when consumers use its products (Our future challenge, n.d.). Another challenge Unilever faces when trying to carry out the plan is to reduce the greenhouse gases emission. It knows that, when its products are made, greenhouse gases are emitted. So, Unilever has planned to reduce the emission of CO2 by 40% for the next few years for the purpose to minimize the impact of its product to the environment (Our future challenge, n.d.). However, it is claimed that these reductions are complex and challenging as Unilever had conducted an assessments on its products. In the nutshell, Unilever has initiated a good move on using the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, but challenges cant be avoided, so Unilever will have to be ready to overcome them. Other than that, Unilever has used the philosophies, analyzing signs, symptoms and behavior and creativity in offence when they tried to promote and advertise its products creatively through digital way instead of old way. In 2008, Unilever had foreseen that digital communication will be taking over most of the old communication ways people did. Hence, in 2008, Unilever decided to change its communication landscape by aiming to connect with customers in digital world. However, it was not that easy as it thought because its brand thinkers and the agencies were not aggressive to the issue (Asad, 2008). Eventually, Unilever had started to promote and creatively advertise its brands by increasing the investment on advertising. At last, Unilever had seen its first-quarter profits jump of 28% despite a

11 significant increase in spending on advertising and promotions (Iain, 2010). It shows that Unilever had done a great and innovative advertising on its brands and products to increase the public recognition toward its brands and eventually increased the profit. According to Iain, margins of Unilever were also higher in Europe despite greater investment in advertising and promotional activity as Unilever battled intense competition. Consequently, Unilever faced the challenges when starting to use the philosophies, but eventually, it managed to overcome it and gain profit to itself. On the other hand, Unilever has used the philosophy importance of leadership too in its business. Leaders are very important in a company especially in a multinational company like Unilever. Their roles are to lead the company to gain more profit and to overcome the challenges faced. One of the important leaders that lead Unilever to a whole new lever is Paul Polman. He is now the Chief Executive Officer in Unilever. He is a member of the European Round Table, The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. On the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum he cochairs the Board Strategy and also the Sustainability Committees. He is a Trustee of both the Leverhulme Trust and Asia House, a former board member of Alcon and, since February 2010, a non-executive director of The Dow Chemical Company (Paul Polman, n.d.). From here, we are clear to see that leadership carries a great meaning to a company. All the achievement Unilever has today is the fruit of the great leadership. As a conclusion, even though Unilever is a big multinational company with more than 400 brands worldwide, it would face challenges as well. However, challenges are not meant to stop it, but to help Unilever grows. Thus, challenges are essential for a company to grow.

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Recommendations
There are some recommendations by our group in order for Unilever to maintain their position in their market share and of course to climb higher in their world ranking. The first recommendation is increase the budget for advertising. One of the weaknesses of Unilever is they do not connecting with costumers. Advertising can establish a bridge between Unilever and consumers. Then, the needs of customers can be easily known by the company. There are many ways of advertising path such as newspaper, TV, magazines and lots. Besides, they should not ignore the teenage and youngster. They can make their advertising through Youthsay a website mainly to advertise products, which is mostly joined by youngsters. Youthsay can give the opportunity for Unilever to spread the advertisement between youngsters. The second recommendation is to increase their store brands. They should focus on all the stage of age and for both men and women. Products should be increased in order to attract consumers from different stage of age. Research should be increased throughout the whole world to get better and different variety of products. Multiple functions are an important factor to increase the sales of the product. Consumers usually look for a product with multiple functions. Product such as energy drinks is popular in sales due to the function to relieve thirsty and energize our body. Besides, long term contracts are perhaps to maintain the goods supply and therefore avoid shortage of goods. In the other words, by having different variety of good or increased their store brands, the revenue of Unilever is believed to increase (Unilvers path to growth strategy, n.d.). The last recommendation our group suggests is to reorganize and streamline Unilevers organizational structure. Unilever is dual leadership organizational structure. Unilever maintained two business entities; dual chairperson approach Unilever Group owns Unilever Plc and Unilever NV. Unilever list stock separately and share board of directors and their management is typically wearing two or three hats. Due to this fact, reduce effectiveness and slowed the decision making process. Initiative to create an overall umbrella brand across all Unilevers brand that will eventually consolidate various businesses under one name. A simpler management structure will increase accountability and speed the decision making process. This will allow Unilever to focus on the needs of their customers and consumers thus reigniting growth and increasing sales potential.

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Conclusion
From this report, we found out that Unilever is a big company that produces different types of products from health and personal care products to food and beverages. We can find many of the products in the market such as Dove, Lipton, Lux, Rexona and also Sunsilk is under Unilever. All these brands are well known all around the world and have become the part of our lives. Getting Unilever own products well known and promotes it to the world is a challenging task for Unilever. Without efficient strategies, leadership and efforts, it is impossible to achieve what the Unilever Company has achieved now. The reason behind Unilever to be able to compete in the market is because of its strong foundation in research and development (R&D) reputation. Unilever put much effort in consumers research which plays a vital role in their brands development. As a result, Unilever is able to develop new products to meet changing tastes, lifestyles and expectations of consumers. Besides, Unilevers strong roots in local markets also allow a quick respond to consumers at a local level. I learn that in order for a big company like Unilever to survive in a market that is full with competition, so it needs to put more effort in surveying the market and the competitors, as well as implement the correct strategies to intercept the competitors moves. In this case, Sun Zis strategies are useful as a reference for Unilever when choosing strategies.

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References
1. Asad Rehman. (2008, Otc 7). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20713.imc 2. Developing & engaging our people. (n.d). Retrieved 2010, Nov 21 from http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/employees/developing/?WT.LHNAV= Developing_&_engaging_our_people 3. Frankie. (2010, October 8). Leadership Development Program Through Sun Tzu Art Of War. Retrieved 2010, Nov 21 from http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/leadershipdevelopment-program-through-sun-tzu-art-of-war-3428362.html 4. Future challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.sustainable-living.unilever.com/the-plan/greenhouse-gases/futurechallenges/ 5. Future challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.sustainable-living.unilever.com/the-plan/water/future-challenges/ 6. Future challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.sustainable-living.unilever.com/the-plan/health-hygiene/futurechallenges/ 7. Health, safety & well-being. (n.d). Retrieved 2010, Nov 21from http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/employees/wellbeing/?WT.LHNAV=Health,_safety_&_well-being 8. Iain Laing. (2010, Apr 30). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-businessnews/2010/04/30/unilever-s-advertising-spending-reaps-profit-rewards-5114026345673/ 9. Introduction to Unilever. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 20 from http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/introductiontounilever/?WT.GNAV=Introdu ction_to_Unilever 10. Kumar Gautam. (2010, Apr 21). Hindustan Unilever's price war with the competition opens questions about the future. Retrieved 2010, Nov 20 from http://money.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?265044

15 11. Michael Treschow. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 21 from http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/companystructure/nonexecutivedirectors/mi chaeltreschow.aspx 12. Our sustainability strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/strategy/ 13. Paul Polman. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/companystructure/executivedirectors/paulpolman.aspx 14. Sapna Agarwal, Anushree Chandran. (2010, March 6). Gloves come off in HUL vs P&G Wars. Retrieved 2010, Nov 20 from http://www.livemint.com/2010/03/05225455/Gloves-come-off-in-HUL-vsPam.html 15. Shailaja Sharma. (2010, Sep 9). HUL, P&G hike prices of detergents too. Retrieved 2010, Nov 20 from http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_hul-pand-g-hike-prices-of-detergents-too_1435488 16. Shawn Frost. (n.d). Sun Tzu On Leadership. Retrieved 2010, Nov 21 from http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/2044/Sun-Tzu-onLeadership.html 17. Sun Zi Bing Fa - The Art of War. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://history.cultural-china.com/en/180History583.html Teamwork & leadership. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.unilever.com/careers/whyjoinus/experiencedprofessionals/teamwo rkandleadership/ 18. Unilvers path to growth strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2074712/Unilever-Strategy 19. Vision & strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, Nov 19 from http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/strategy/vision/ 20. Viveat Susan Pinto. (2010, Feb 5). HUL, P&G slug it out over detergents. Retrieved 2010, Nov 20 from http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/hul-pg-slug-it-out-over-detergents/384697/

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Its state-of the-art digital broadcast facilities at the All Asia Broadcast Centre and at the Cyberjaya multiplex are capable of handling digital TV, radio and data services on satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks, wireless telephony and the Internet. ASTROs subsidiary, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, enjoys an exclusive licence till 2017 for satellite DTH transmission in Malaysia. The Group is actively involved in origination, aggregation and distribution of TV programming in Malay, Chinese, English and Indian languages, in addition to third-party content. With over 38,000 first-run hours of original multi-language content, the Astro Entertainment Network (AEN) encompasses 31 television channels across various genres, with plans to increase these in the near future to serve an ever-evolving customer profile. ASTROs in-house production, comprising entertainment, information and news programmes, totalled close to 5600 hours in FY09. The Group operates eight FM terrestrial radio stations in Malaysia, which include the top-ranking stations in key Malay, Chinese, Indian and English vernacular demographics. These stations cumulatively reach close to 11 million listeners a week or 72% of total radio listeners in the Peninsular Malaysia, and command a substantial 57% of the radio industry's advertising expenditure. In addition, the Group also packages 17 digital radio channels over the DTH platform. Through its subsidiary Celestial Pictures, ASTRO owns the worlds largest Chinese film library and its digitally re-mastered films for release and distribution worldwide. It has successfully widened the global footprint of the Shaw Brothers pay-TV, home video and video-on-demand products with distribution deals across the world. To date, the Shaw Brothers titles have been distributed to over 100 countries on six continents. The Group is also a premier producer and distributor of Malay films and provides a platform for leading local producers and directors to hone their creative skills and capabilities in film production. The Groups publication business, Measat Publications Sdn Bhd, publishes entertainment and lifestyle magazines in Malaysia, including AstroView. Through its subsidiary, Philippine Animation N.V Group, Philippines leading animation studio, the Group produces popular animated content. ASTRO provides interactive TV services by aggregating and distributing multimedia content to a variety of users through the many communication and mobile devices available today. The Groups focus on growing and creating innovative interactive content has seen exponential growth in transactions through its digital platform. The Group is seeking to increase its participation in large under-penetrated economies that will benefit from the anticipated liberalization of the media industry and the fast-growing consumer sector, particularly in developing regions. Consistent with this objective, Astro has invested in a joint venture to provide DTH satellite services in India. The group also provides studio infrastructure and airtime marketing consultancy services in India and owns 20% of South Asia FM Ltd. which has licenses to own and operate 23 FM radio stations in India. The group is looking to extend its business model in other emerging and under-penetrated market in Asia. ASTRO was de-listed from the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on 14 June 2010, following a successful take-over offer by Astro Holdings Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd/its affiliates, and Khazanah Nasional Berhad. (Information as at 31 Jan 2010 unless stated otherwise)

Astro is the brand name of the Malaysian direct broadcast satellite (DBS) pay television service. It transmits digital satellite television and radio to households in

17 Malaysia & Brunei. The name Astro is an acronym for All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator. Astro is owned and operated by MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, a whollyowned subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks plc. Astro was de-listed from the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on 14 June 2010, following a successful take-over offer by Astro Holdings Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd/its affiliates, and Khazanah Nasional Berhad. It has operations at All Asia Broadcast Centre located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Measat in Cyberjaya. In addition to serving consumers in households, Astro has substantial coverage in commercial establishments such as bars, restaurants, hotels, dorms, and hospitals. Since 2008, the Astro has been offering a video streaming service to mobile phone users throughout the country (Astro Mobile TV).