Rio Tinto Japan Essay Example for Free

Rio Tinto Japan Essay What is an important issue that your company is currently facing? My name is Dermot Vibert. I work with Rio Tinto Japan. On March 11, 2011 I was in our office when we were hit by an extremely strong earthquake. Among the many issues we faced immediately after the earthquake was what would we do on the Monday morning when we had to supposedly return to the office and recommence business. What caused this issue to arise and why is it important? Marketing The earthquake in the afternoon of March 11 was, although it struck 520 kilometers from Tokyo, it was an extremely strong one for us in Tokyo. The buildings shook severely two or three times, and then many, many times thereafter because of the aftershocks. On at least two occasions we had to go under our desks with our helmets on and literally hold on to the legs of the tables. It was that strong. The earthquake knocked out a lot of the power system, and as a result the trains were not able to function normally, and because there was not enough power as well, things like traffic lights, lights in buildings, etc. , all these things were affected. There were many unknowns such as what damage there really was in the Tokyo area, for how long would trains not be running, would there be adequate food in two or three days time, what was going to happen with fuel supply, because when we were watching on television, one of the spectacular scenes we saw was a gas terminus on fire in the Tokyo Bay area, so we had a lack of information, and as a result there were many many uncertainties. We did not know if we could go home that day or not. In the end most of us did not go home. We stayed and had to travel the next day. It just was not a situation conducive to running a business in a normal environment. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career path to date? My name is Dermot Vibert. I live in Japan. I have been there for 24 years. I went to university in Montreal, McGill University. I did a BA in East Asian Studies, then a MA in Geography. I then went to Japan in 1988 on the Jet Program where I worked in a high school for three years teaching English. I then entered OKI Electric and spend six and a half years in their electronic components business section, and then in 1997 December I joined Rio Tinto Japan. I have been with them ever since. Can you describe a typical work day for yourself? I will wake up perhaps at 6:00. I leave the house at 7:00. I walk to the train station, which is about an eight minute walk. Then I take an hour and a half train into Tokyo, and then I walk from the final station into our office. I will get to the office about 8:15, 8:30 perhaps. I will then work until perhaps 6:00 in the evening. Maybe two or three evenings a week I will go out with a customer and after that I will return home, so I have a pretty full week. What is your role in the company? I have a number of jobs at Rio Tinto Japan. One of them is I look after our titanium and zircon for Rio Tinto Iron Titanium in Japan and Korea. I also am manager of the president’s office for Rio Tinto Japan. I also have a role in external affairs activities for our company’s branch. Can you describe your leadership style? In general I tend to lead by example where possible, and I also try to encourage my coworkers or subordinates in a positive manner. I prefer not to use harsh criticism and I certainly do not shout. What does your organisation do and how is it different? Rio Tinto Japan has two operations. One is a buy-sell operation which is linked with our aluminum division. Then we have our service provider operation, which basically covers all of the other business units who are doing business in Japan. We facilitate business between them and our customer base here in Japan. Who buys your company products and services? Rio Tinto sells to a broad range of industries in Japan depending on the particular raw material product that we are selling. For example iron ore will go to the steel industry, coal will go to the power companies or to the steel energy, aluminum will go obviously to the automobile industry, titanium will go to the pigment industry, or the titanium sponge industry, copper goes to the smelters, salt, we also have a lot of business in Chlor Alkali side of business, so there are many industries into which we sell Rio Tinto products in Japan. Can you describe the industry within which your company competes? Rio Tinto Japan is located in Tokyo. We have 27 employees. We look after between 13 and 14 products, and Rio Tinto sells these products into dozens of industries. Can you describe the organisation of your company and why it takes this form? Rio Tinto is a publicly listed company. It is headquartered in London. We have the following business groups. We have aluminum, copper, diamonds and minerals, energy, iron ore, exploration, technology and innovation. In Japan, as we are a liaison office and a buy-sell operation we have approximately 27 staff at the moment in one location. Can you describe the flow of activities or value chain of a typical product sold by Rio Tinto? Let us take titanium feed stock. The product is mined in either South Africa, Madagascar, or Quebec. The product is then the Aluminite which is the core product. It is brought to our smelter which is either in Quebec or Richards Bay, South Africa. The product is smelted and therefore upgraded to become a slag or an upgraded slag, which basically means that the TiO2 content is a higher purity than what was the case when it was taken out of the ground in either rock form Quebec or in sand form in Madagascar or South Africa. This slag then is brought over to our market here in Japan. It is then sold to pigment makers, the majority, and also to titanium sponge makers. The pigment makers use the titanium slag to make pigment which they then sell to the panes, plastics and paper industry in particular. There is ink as well. The titanium sponge manufacturers will make sponge out of our product, and they will sell this to a number of industries including the aircraft industry, well it makes its way to the aircraft industry. It also can be found in products such as glasses, golf clubs, water desalination plants, jet engines, and various other applications. How do firms compete in this industry? Rio Tinto competes in Japan with its various natural resource products and minerals. We basically will compete in the various industries with other major mining companies on price, on relationships, on quality, on supply reliability, and various other factors. Obviously they are not always of the same importance, but usually all of these points are important.

International Kidnapping as a Business Essay -- essays research papers

Summary: 5 pages. 7 sources. APA format. International kidnappings are on the rise and have become one of the fastest growing ‘industries’ in the world. This paper looks at kidnapping as a thriving business. International Kidnapping as a Business Introduction The kidnapping and ransom of individuals for profit has dramatically increased in the past decade throughout the world. While the majority of victims are wealthy businessmen, more recently, the average tourist has become a target for kidnappers looking for monetary and material gain. In recent years, kidnappers have also become more organized and are demanding more money for the safe return of hostages. Why has international kidnapping been on the increase? The simple answer is because it has become an extremely profitable form of business transaction for the kidnappers. This paper analyzes and scrutinizes international kidnapping as a thriving business. The Business of Kidnapping Kidnappings around the world have typically had one of two major goals: publicity for a local political cause or as a form of ‘fund-raising’ for the kidnappers. Recently, kidnappings for political reasons have been on the decrease, whereas kidnapping for profit has seen a dramatic increase. A prime example of this trend is in Colombia. According to writer David Williams, Colombia is considered to be the kidnapping capital of the world, with rival guerrilla and paramilitary groups consistently abducting civilians –- including businessmen, tourists and aid workers (2001, para.1). The ransom money obtained from these activities is used primarily to finance a 37-year civil war in Colombia (Williams, 2001, para.1). The U.S. State Department estimates that more than 3,000 people are kidnapped in Colombia each year (Williams, 2001, para.2). Most kidnap victims are Colombians who are either wealthy or who can at least come up with a few thousand dollars. And, according to Williams, although the kidnappings are most often performed by political dissidents, the motivation for the kidnappings is usually money, not politics (para.11). Mike Ackerman, founder of The Ackerman Group, a Miami, Florida-based firm that consults companies in kidnap and ransom cases, said "They are political groups that do the kidnapping, but they're out for money. The political groups have to support themselves and one of the ways that they support th... ...insurance policies, one can surmise that kidnappings for profit will continue to increase throughout the world and continue to grow as a ‘business’. Bibliography Auerbach, A. H., (1998). Ransom – The Untold Story of International Kidnapping. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Clancy, C. (2001). Kidnapping businesspeople has become big business. Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/09/24/smallb2.html Expatriation Trend, The. (1997-2003). Cyberhaven.com. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from http://www.cyberhaven.com/offshorelibrary/expatriation.html Fielding Worldwide, Inc. (1998). Kidnap, Rescue and Extortion Insurance. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from http://www.comebackalive.com/df/kidnapp/kdnapins.htm Hargrove, T. R., (2001). Long March to Freedom. New York: Random House, Inc. Wall, T. (February 26, 1997). The Kidnap Business. Salon.com. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from http://www.salon.com/feb97/news/news2970226.html Williams, D. (May 7, 2001). Kidnapping is Big Business in Colombia. CNN.com/World. Retrieved May 22, 2003, from: http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas /05/07/colombia.kidnapping/

M Statistics

MAT 300: STATISTICS M&M PROJECT PAPER ALEXANDREA WINT PROFESSOR AZAD, VARGHA June 3, 2012 Purpose of Report The purpose of this project is to find the information for a quality control manager of Masterfoods plant. The manager wants to know about the proportion of candies and if they are the same or different. If there is any difference that exists then the manager wants to know why there is a difference in such cases. A study was conducted and results were obtained and based on these statistical results we will try to gain information about the quality of Masterfoods plant.Part1: Sampling Method Sampling method is used to draw the random sample from the population of candies from different bags is known as the simple random sampling without replacement. 36 bags were drawn from the population of different color of candies and after drawing the 36 samples; the numbers of different candies are calculated. For sample in bag one how many are blue candies, how many are red candies, how ma ny are yellow candies etc. There are six different colors in each bag. So the record is made after collecting the sample. Part 2: Method, Analysis, ResultsIn this section we have made attempts to find the descriptive statistics related to the number of candies or proportion of candies in the bag. The mean number of candies per bag is approximately equaled to 55. This means that we are expecting 55 candies with a standard deviation of 2. 1 in each bag and out of these we also expecting that the proportion of different colors of candies should be equal for each bag. The sample proportion for blue candies is . 1916, for orange candies is 0. 18, for green candies is 0. 1815, for yellow candies is 0. 663, for red candies is 0. 136 and for brown candies is 0. 1446. For this results we have sampled 36 bags which contains 1978 candies overall. Part 3: Method, Analysis, Results For this part the 95% confidence intervals are obtained for each color of candies and also the mean number of candi es. The following results are obtained from the analysis: * 95% confident that the population proportion for blue candies will lies between 0. 1743 and 0. 20895. * 95% confident that the population proportion for orange candies will lies between 0. 1631 and 0. 969 * 95% confident that the population proportion for green candies will lies between 0. 16451 and 0. 19848 * 95% confident that the population proportion for yellow candies will lies between 0. 14992 and 0. 18274 * 95% confident that the population proportion for red candies will lies between 0. 12089, 0. 1511 * 95% confident that the population proportion for brown candies will lies between 0. 12909, 0. 16009. In addition to this we can say that 438 candies should be sampled to obtain a 95% CI of the proportion of blue candies with a 4% margin of error if the known proportion of blue candies is 0. 4. Part 4: Method, Analysis, Results This portion explains the hypothesis testing for population proportion for different types/ colors of candies. Each candy was tested against their standard proportion, which was then fixed by the organization and we have obtained the results using the Z test for proportion. We can conclude below results based on the analysis of data: * The true proportion of blue candies is not equal to 0. 24 at 5% level of significance. * The true proportion of orange candies is not equal to 0. 0 at 5% level of significance. * The true proportion of green candies is not equal to 0. 16 at 5% level of significance. * The true proportion of yellow candies is not equal to 0. 14 at 5% level of significance. * The true proportion of red candies is equal to 0. 13 at 5% level of significance. * The true proportion of brown candies is equal to 0. 13 at 5% level of significance. * The population mean for each bag is more than 54 candies and standard deviation for number of candies per bag 1. 69oz bag is more than 1. at 5% level of significance Part 5: Method, Analysis, Results In this portion a che ck for whether the there is any significant difference in the population proportion of red and brown candies was done. For this we have tested the hypothesis at 5% level of significance. From the results which we obtained we can conclude that we are fail to reject the null hypothesis H0 because we don't have enough evidence to support the claim that the population proportions of red and brown are equal at 5% level of significance. Quality Control:It is obvious that there are 4 candy proportions that do not meet the requirement of set proportion; only red colored and brown colored candies met the specified requirement of proportion. So we want to check why there is a difference in the quality of the output. So some of the reason for this difference can be classified as: * The machine(s) is/are not working properly, is there any difference in the output of one machine? * There is a possibility that due to different workers at the different shifts the variation arises. There is any ass ignable or random cause occurs or in simple words we can say that machines are producing the same colored candies at regular intervals. Conclusion We can conclude from the above results that there quality of output is not at the point where the plant would like it to be, because the standard which are fixed in advance did not work best with the output which we have obtained. The four-population proportion for color blue, orange, green and yellow does not meet the set requirements.

Essay on T.J. Rodgers Sister Gormley Case Study 5-1

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation DATE: TO: COPY: FROM: SUBJECT: Background March 27, 2013 T. J. Rodgers, President, and CEO For eyes only Vibha Kant, Vice President – Investor Relations REVIEW OF RESPONSE LETTER TO SISTER DORIS On April 23, 1996, Cypress received a letter from the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. The latter is a religious congregation of approximately 1,000 women and was, at the time the letter was written, the beneficial owner of a number of Cypress shares. The letter was a form letter, and it carried the stamped signature of Doris Gormley, OSF. In the letter, Sister Doris, speaking for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia as a Cypress shareholder, expressed the view that a company is best†¦show more content†¦The last part is a political statement about the effect of social pressures on businesses. Of these three parts, the later two parts are highly personal and do not necessarily reflect the position of Cypress in this matter. The original letter from Sister Gormley raised valid questions concerning the selection practices for our board of directors. While the first part of the response letter does adequately redress the original concerns, the other two parts are a highly personal stance concerning morality and the role of social pressures on businesses. These types of personal comments do not necessarily reflect the views of Cypress or its board of directors, and take a strong position in response to concerns raised by current investors. This position does have its merits, yet a letter to a group of investors is not the correct forum to espouse such a position. Additionally, sending the response to all shareholders and other similar interest groups can be deemed inappropriate. Recommendations Generally speaking, every concern raised by our investors should be addressed with an appropriate response outlining the current policy and any specific facts supporting the results of that policy. Person’s comments concerning the morality behind those concerns may have a valid basis, but should be taken to another forum. Taking such a stance in a corporate letter places Cypress in a questionable position and could damage our relationship with our