Salman presentation

Headquartered in Japan, Toyota is world’s 13th largest company in terms of the revenue it generates (Liker and Ross, 2016). Japanese company 13th largest revenue generator In 2012, it was the biggest automobiles manufacturer of the world. Leader in hybrid electric cars Toyota, or Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese company, which is headquartered in Aichi, Japan. In 2016, it is ranked as 13th largest revenue generating corporation in the world. In 2012, it was considered to be the largest automobile manufacturer. It suffered a set back due to massive recalls. Hybrid electric cars have been developed by Toyota. The company is leading in this type of cars (Liker and Ross, 2016). -The picture shows one of the earliest Sedans made by Toyota in 1930s. Originally, the vehicles were sold under the name Toyoda, but it was changed later on. In 1940s and 1950s, small sized vehicles were sold under the name Toyopet. In 1960s and 1970s, Toyota, like all other automobiles had to struggle against new taxes. To counter the effect, spare parts and other plants for manufacturing were developed in the US in 1980s. 1990s saw Toyota branching out. Sports cars like Camry were developed in this time too. Post 2000, not only the company spread in all parts of the world by developing operational units everywhere, the number of automobiles produced also grew a lot. In recent years, Toyota has been among the most popular automobile producers along with General Motors and Volkswagen (Liker and Ross, 2016). Between 2009 and 2014, Toyota had to undergo many recalls. It had to recall huge number of its vehicles from the market. This case has been chosen keeping the point of view of strict product liability in view. Under this doctrine, people and businesses are responsible for their acts, even if their intentions were good and outcomes were not good. It is assumed that consumers will be protected against any unsafe products. Toyota failed at that and thus had to not only face reputational damage but also legal cases (Forbes, 2010). *Forbes (2010) Toyota Recall’s legal risks. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/20/toyota-recall-safety-lawsuits-business-oxford.html -First of the recall happened in 2009. 9 million cars and trucks were recalled. Operational unit in Australia was closed down. Toyota vehicles were proved to be faulty. The reason was use of some low quality spare parts. The vehicles were accelerating without the driver’s intention to accelerate. This recall was done with assistance of NHTSA or National highway traffic safety administration. These recalls were completed by 2011. -In 2012, another major recall was announced. This time 7.43 million vehicles were recalled. Power window switches were found to be faulty in this case. Toyota was fined US $1.2 billion for faulty products (Cohn, 2016). *Cohn, S. (2016) Toyota recalls about 3.4 million vehicles for air bag and fuel tank defects. The legal examiner. Retrieved from http://newyork.legalexaminer.com/automobile-accidents/toyota-recalls-about-3-4-million-vehicles-for-air-bag-and-fuel-tank-defects/ In 2014 too, Toyota had to recall 7 million vehicles. This time the mechanical fault was related to propellant devices and inflaters. This time, the vehicles which were recalled were those having Takata airbags. Free repair is being offered to the owners of these vehicles (Lawinfo, 2016). *Law info (2016) Toyota Recall Law suit. Retrieved from http://lawsuits.lawinfo.com/ToyotaRecall/index.html 2007: 55,000 Toyota Camry: Floor mat 2009: 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus recalled due to floor mat problems 2010: 2.3 million vehicles recalled due to accelerator pedals issue, 1.1 m due to floor mat, and 1.8 m accelerator pedal issue in Europe and China. Land cruisers recalled due to steering system faults. 1.13 million Corollas were recalled due to faulty engine control in 2010. 2011: Initial inquiry by NHTSA showed that Toyota acceleration issue was not due to any electronic fault, but the issue remained there. 2.17 m vehicles were recalled due to gas pedal issues (Cohn, 2016). *Cohn, S. (2016) Toyota recalls about 3.4 million vehicles for air bag and fuel tank defects. The legal examiner. Retrieved from http://newyork.legalexaminer.com/automobile-accidents/toyota-recalls-about-3-4-million-vehicles-for-air-bag-and-fuel-tank-defects/ Vehicles that got affected due to the recalls include: Toyota Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, Prius, Tacoma, Tundra, Venza, Lexus and Pontiac Vibe. These were recalled before and in 2010. In 2010 recalls, accelerator pedal issue was the most important reason of heavy recalls. Pedal became hard to press in some cases. *Cohn, S. (2016) Toyota recalls about 3.4 million vehicles for air bag and fuel tank defects. The legal examiner. Retrieved from http://newyork.legalexaminer.com/automobile-accidents/toyota-recalls-about-3-4-million-vehicles-for-air-bag-and-fuel-tank-defects/ NHTSA in February 2010 announced that 102 drivers have launched complaints against faulty braking system of Toyota Prius of 2010 model. There were some car crashing incidents too. Stopping distance was longer than anticipated. Toyota said that through a software update they have fixed the braking issue. However a huge recall was to follow. Other recalls up till now have been due to various mechanical faults and some minor issues. *Cohn, S. (2016) Toyota recalls about 3.4 million vehicles for air bag and fuel tank defects. The legal examiner. Retrieved from http://newyork.legalexaminer.com/automobile-accidents/toyota-recalls-about-3-4-million-vehicles-for-air-bag-and-fuel-tank-defects/ After some accidents were reported, investigations were launched by various stakeholders. NHTSA and Japanese transport ministry were the first to launch investigations. In Texas, four people lost their lives due to faulty car, and as a result, US safety regulators launched an investigation into the complaints. In 2010, Norway government planned a ban on Prius but it was later called off. However, in some incidents despite the driver’s carelessness being obvious, mechanical faults also proved to be risky for the passengers (Cowan, 2014). *Cowan, J. (2014) Toyota to pay $1.3 billion for deadly defect cover up. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-20/toyota-pays-1-3-billion-for-defect-cover-up-statements/5332894 MLIT or Japanese Ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism conducted detailed investigations. It was noted that in Japan, there were no cases of unintended acceleration. There were minor faults reported in the vehicles, but the reasons of accidents were not related to any mechanical faults in general. In 2010, congressional hearings took place for the same reason. However, social worker Rhonda Smith was not able to prove that the unintended acceleration was due to mechanical fault. Floor mats and driver negligence were bigger reasons of the problem. However, mechanical faults were identified in the vehicles, which were not proved to be the reasons of accidents. This has led to further recalls too (CNBC, 2016). *CNBC Staff (2016) Toyota recalls 320,000 vehicles for safety issue. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/02/toyota-recalls-320000-vehicles-for-safety-issue.html Most important aftermath of these issues was that in 2010, Toyota stopped production of certain models for some time. An operational unit in Australia was closed down. There was heavy reputational damage because the people who were brand loyal to Toyota were unsure about the safety level Toyota was offering (Lawinfo, 2016). *Law info (2016) Toyota Recall Law suit. Retrieved from http://lawsuits.lawinfo.com/ToyotaRecall/index.html -Due to recalls and the fines imposed on Toyota, a lot of revenue generation ability was lost. The recalls also meant new expenditures. To overcome the losses, Toyota had to figure out methods to control its expenditure and costs through operational changes. Although financial loss that Toyota has faced and the decline in sales is a serious issue, reputational loss in the eyes of its customers is the biggest loss that Toyota has faced. Competitors offered incentives to the Toyota car owners to win over as much of the Toyota market share as possible (Cowan, 2014). *Cowan, J. (2014) Toyota to pay $1.3 billion for deadly defect cover up. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-20/toyota-pays-1-3-billion-for-defect-cover-up-statements/5332894 Due to the mechanical faults discussed above, a lot of Toyota vehicles were recalled from the market. These recalls proved to be a major reason of reputational loss for Toyota. Due to the strict product liability doctrine, despite the fact that these mechanical faults were not proved to be the reasons of accidents, Toyota had to pay fines for the mechanical issues. For damage control to their reputation, they had to go for recalls and offer consolation. New strategy of Toyota was to go back to basics and produce better products.

Memo

Infectious disease outbreak and epidemic control policy in the US From: A Senior Citizens forum CA, USA To: The Honourable Governor of California, USA Subject: Policy suggestions for controlling spread of AIDS in highly affected groups in the US Dear Governor Jerry Brown, Overview AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a deadly disease which spread in the US as an epidemic in the 1980s. Different steps have been taken to control spread of this disease in the US. However despite the decline in number of cases where a patient is diagnosed HIV positive, policy changes are required to help certain ethnic, cultural and socio-economic groups which still have very high percentage of their population suffering from this grave health issue. One important issue is that ethnic groups like African Americans and especially those who are gays or bisexual people have higher percentage of people carrying HIV virus in comparison to other ethnic groups. It is alarming that at present, the number of people in the US who are HIV positive is above 1.2 million. A major problem is that 1 out of 8 of these does not know about his or her infection. We have a growing young population. Despite the efforts, the teenagers still get involved in drugs and unsafe sex. As a result, the chances of spreading AIDS or HIV virus through sexual contact or blood transfusion are still high. Although we have to admit that HIV diagnoses rate has declined by 19% in recent years, but this figure is true for the older lot of people. The youngsters are still as much at a danger of contracting this disease as ever. This discussion shows that people from various age groups, genders, ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic backgrounds have different probability of being diagnosed with HIV virus. Thus it is suggested that the policy for controlling HIV virus spread in these groups should be different and specific for each group. Background 83% of the men diagnosed with AIDS are homosexuals or bisexual. The number of black men of African descent having this virus is higher than any other group of people who were diagnosed with AIDS. Group specific epidemic control policy is suggested because bisexual or homosexuals African American men are getting AIDS more commonly even if the public administration policy is helping other ethnic groups to control the spread of this epidemic. According to Barr (2016) although on papers a lot of attention is being paid towards epidemics control, there are certain segments in our society which need more attention in this regard. Statistics show that for some medical or social reason, these people are more prone to contracting AIDS than other ethnic or socio-economic groups (Teitelbaum and Wilensky, 2016). AIDS control policy in the US is more focused on generalized control of this deadly disease. A policy change is suggested, where the ethnic groups can act as various tiers of the society, and policy for controlling AIDS epidemic can be designed specific to each of these tiers. For example, the white males who are not bisexual or homosexuals have lesser probability of getting AIDS in comparison to black males who are bisexual or homosexuals (Barr, 2016). The policy for containing AIDS remains same for both. This is what we suggest should change. Statistics show that black homosexual men of African American descent have more chances of getting this disease so they should be paid more attention in this regard. Recommendations It is suggested that patient-centric and disease –centric approach needs to be weighed and chosen to suit the situation best. Old policy being followed in the US is not effective as it is same for all ethnic and social groups. Policy change that we suggest is that at the national level, whole data about AIDS patients should be studied and target segments in the society should be identified. The segmentation should be done on the basis of age, gender, ethnic background and socio-economic background. After these segments are developed, specific policies for each of these groups should be developed. It is imperative that the Infection Control Breaches are minimised. It should be made imperative that the public administration machinery does not break. Again the lapses from the medical personnel on infection control should be kept at the lowest possible scale. The rate of hospitalisation and mortality rate shall have to be duly maintained. Even the Hospice records should be merged with the total data. Policy development for each segment identified should depend on this detailed data. To control AIDS epidemic further, it is important that a policy change is made. To have a more efficient system, the fund should not be an issue. A concentrated effort will bring in the best out of the dedicated team we already have. Wishing you all the best Truly yours For the Senior citizen forum. References Barr, D. (2016) Introduction to US health policy: The organization, financing and delivery of health care in America. Johns Hopkins University Press. Teitelbaum, J. and Wilensky, S. (2016) Essentials of health policy and law. Jones and Bartlett.