Client’s Remarks

Please find the attached files for assignment task, key points and course notes. Also, the proposed topic for this project is mentioned below. The course name is Leadership of Organisations. The word limit should be equal to 1750 words excluding table of contents and references. Let me know if you need to know anything else. Thanks.

Note:

Only the task under the red block needs to be done
You can use key points which have been mentioned. It would be much better if you can also work on those points.

Client’s comments:

Please make sure that it will be of 1750 words excluding table of contents and references.

Criteria by which the assignment will be marked:

Demonstrated quality and depth of analysis and critical thinking
Demonstrated understanding of concepts covered in the course learning materials
Demonstrated ability to transfer or apply theories and concepts covered in the course to this topic and to realistic situations.
Quality of writing

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Proposed Topic:

The following is an overview, in a very broad sense of a situation that will be relevant for the leadership assignment.

Mining company name is “XYZ Pty Ltd.” As you’re probably aware, the mining sector is in a significant slowdown globally particularly as demand has dropped off for our final products, Rutile, a naturally occurring form of titanium, and zircon, an industrial mineral used in ceramic tiles.

The market downturn across all commodities has been occurring for perhaps 12-18 months , you’re likely aware of the current issues in the iron ore and petroleum industries. In our industry, we’ve actually been in depressed market for around 3 years. Prices dropped significantly some time ago and now demand has also slowed down.

On a positive note, the Australian dollar has also dropped in this time, which means that as almost all our product is sold in USD, this has saved us a little as we make greater profit even at lower prices.

On top of this, a number of the mines that we operate have been closed down because they have run of product. While we still produce and sell mineral, much of it comes from stockpiles. Our flagship mine has also been idled for 2 years because we have so much stockpiled product, we can shut it down for a period to reduce our running costs. In the next 5-7 years, we will run out of stockpiles and mineral at all of our mines and we will no longer produce anything. As a publicly listed company, this is obviously bad news because we no longer create value for shareholders etc.

There are two potential solutions to this problem:

a)We build new mines, currently we have many deposits that we have discovered, but they are difficult and expensive to extract material from. When prices are low it makes it very haard to generate profits from these deposits. There are currently two major projects that we expect to start building soon but are awating a decision to proceed from the board of directors. Both of them are technically complicated
b)We acquire/buy an operating mine or mining company. This is similarly complicated, because all other companies are exposed to the same problems (difficult to make money, complicated operations, low demand for product). We have recently tried and failed to take over a competitor called Kenmare resources with a mine based in Mozambique.

Our current CEO, who has been credited with turning the company around in the last 8 years, has announced his retirement in the second half of this year. There has been no annojncemnt of his successor, but there is an expectation that an existing company executive will step into the role. While nothing is certain, it is anticipated that the new CEO will make significant changes to the business. It is also anticipated that the major projects mentioned above won’t be decided until the changeover

Some of the major changes could include a significant downsizing in the business to reduce our overhead cost , likely by reducing the number of staff in the corporate offices. The new CEO might have a much more aggressive approach to mergers/acquisitions etc, and probably a different attitude to major projects. As a company with only two products, there are also other potential avenues, such as diversifying our portfolio by looking to mine different minerals. While this is mostly speculation on my part, there is a very uncertain 12 months ahead.

This situation ties in very well with the assignment brief. I work in the Major Project group Over the last couple of years we have actually increased our technical staff and this has seen an increase in both women and younger staff. We actually have a very focused diversity policy as a company and have been actively seeking to increase the number of women employed across the business. As you can guess the mining industry is very male dominated, I will track down some statistics for you.

As a member of the major projects group, in the next few months we expect to see decisions to proceed (or not) with these major projects and I am either going to become very busy, or very unemployed, depending on future business decisions!

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Posted on May 24, 2016Author TutorCategories Question, Questions