YARIS HYBRID UNVEILED

Toyota is doing what they do best- pipping others to the post of driving sustainability, and seeing the gap in the market, with the shift towards alternatives to fossil fuels.



In South Africa, they have introduced three models: SUV, and sedan Lexus, as well as the Prius, and soon the Auris...



Well done Toyota

Amplify’d from www.pamedia.co.za

YARIS HYBRID UNVEILED

Article Added:

2011-03-17

Delivering low fuel consumption, emissions and cost of ownership with relaxed and quiet performance, HSD proves that environmental responsibility and low running costs do not have to compromise driving pleasure. Among the first Auris hybrid owners, the majority quote relaxation, an engaging driving experience and the learning of new driving habits as the most rewarding aspects of their new car. The Yaris HSD concept inherits the clever packaging that has historically been a fundamental of element of Yaris, with a spacious and practical interior married to a more advanced and sophisticated exterior design. The upper grille opening is shallow, flanked by highly contoured headlamps, promoting a smooth airflow over the upper body. The Toyota emblem is fully integrated into the front lip of the bonnet. In profile, the car’s monoform shape is emphasised by a long, sweeping roofline and single, crisp character line running the length of the vehicle. Short front and rear overhangs and a long wheelbase maximise the room inside for passengers and luggage. There are a number of styling cues that identify the car as a Toyota full hybrid. Flat, vertical ‘aero’ corners minimise air turbulence and house front foglamps and matching rear reflectors. Airflow is also managed by a large, integral rear spoiler, underbody covers and 18-inch aero wheels with enlarged gaps to promote cooling.

The system has no starter motor or alternator, the timing chain is maintenance-free and there are no drive belts, which improves reliability and saves on upkeep bills. Toyota engineers continue to focus on how overall system performance can be improved by capturing solar power. Yaris HSD’s roof is entirely covered with solar panels, to provide independent powering of the car’s air conditioning unit, thus reducing fuel consumption. Introducing full hybrid technology to the B-segment has presented Toyota with some unique engineering challenges. The powertrain design has to be tailored for installation within Yaris’s compact and extremely efficient packaging, without compromising its quality and performance, or detracting from the passenger accommodation and loadspace. Success in this task is essential to meet the growing demand for urban-friendly family vehicles, in which space and the benefits of hybrid performance are prime requirements. The production model which will follow the Yaris HSD concept will be launched throughout Europe during the second half of 2012. Cars will be built at Toyota’s Valenciennes plant in France. Full hybrid technology will become an increasingly significant part of Toyota’s mainstream vehicle production in Europe. With Auris hybrid already being built at Burnaston in the UK, Toyota is the only car manufacturer to be producing hybrid vehicles at more than one European factory. Read more at www.pamedia.co.za

 

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SA: A matter of time before it explodes

For me it is not like as if both the citizens, and corporate SA are innocent bystanders, as the minority of politicians are plundering the meagre leftovers of both local, and multinational businesses.



The status quo, and the resultant 2020 scenario depicted in this article, is careful planning and collusion by both big business and very skilled politicians, who know exactly what they are doing. Strategists capable of negotiating what is best for each side in the short term, sat at CODESA, and cooked this recipe. On the other hand, equally capable citizens, on one end of the continuum, and shareholders in the various entities, sat, and are still sitting complacently, hoping that 2020, or whatever date in the future, will be none of their business (it will correct itself), as they either will be dead, or are ready to move out of this economy, when it explodes.



By then, they (the wealthy few) will have reaped the resources to the timeline in which they are prepared to be part of SA, and hopefully they will export whatever cash resources they have. The citizens (majority) believe the politicians when they tell them, it will be OK.



I do not believe that there is not enough critical mass amongst the blacks, to lead both Corporate SA, and government towards the ideals expressed in this article.



I believe there is not enough courage (from political leadership) to call the bluff of disinvestment, should the State intervene to the point of shifting the current structural dynamics towards New Capitalism, a la Otto Scharmer (see link below).



http://www.ottoscharmer.com/docs/articles/2010_Oxford_SevenAcupuncturePoints.pdf

Amplify’d from www.leader.co.za

South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes

12 FEBRUARY 2011

by Moeletsi Mbeki: Author, political commentator and entrepreneur.

I can predict when SA’s "Tunisia Day" will arrive. Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years. The year 2020 is when China estimates that its current minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded.

The former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once commented that whoever thought that the ANC could rule SA was living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Why was Thatcher right? In the 16 years of ANC rule, all the symptoms of a government out of its depth have grown worse.

Life expectancy has declined from 65 years to 53 years since the ANC came to power; In 2007, SA became a net food importer for the first time in its history; The elimination of agricultural subsidies by the government led to the loss of 600000 farm workers’ jobs and the eviction from the commercial farming sector of about 2,4-million people between 1997 and 2007; and The ANC stopped controlling the borders, leading to a flood of poor people into SA, which has led to conflicts between SA’s poor and foreign African migrants.

What should the ANC have done, or be doing?

A wise government would have persuaded the skilled white and Indian population to devote some of their time — even an hour a week — to train the black and coloured population to raise their skill levels.

But what is wrong with protecting SA’s conglomerates?

The economy has a strong built-in dependence on cheap labour; It has a strong built-in dependence on the exploitation of primary resources; It is strongly unfavourable to the development of skills in our general population; It has a strong bias towards importing technology and economic solutions; and It promotes inequality between citizens by creating a large, marginalised underclass.

What is the state distributing? It is distributing jobs to party faithful and social welfare to the poor. This is a recipe for incompetence and corruption, both of which are endemic in SA. This is what explains the service delivery upheavals that are becoming a normal part of our environment.

So what is the correct road SA should be travelling?

Therefore, if we want to develop SA instead of shuffling pre-existing wealth, we have to create new entrepreneurs, and we need to support existing entrepreneurs to diversify into new economic sectors.

Mbeki is the author of Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing. This article forms part of a series on transformation supplied by the Centre for Development and Enterprise. Read more at www.leader.co.za

 

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Who's afraid of clean power? | Climate Spectator

Who's afraid of clean power? | Climate Spectator

The demonisation of the renewable energy industry has been inevitable. The Maginot Line of climate warming denialism has been broken, so the defence of business-as-usual folds back on fears about costs, the lights going out, and sending us back to the dark ages. This is not so much a question of economics as ideology.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT IS INTENDED TO OPE

Of red herrings and obstructionist tendencies from some parts of the South African leadership in commerce, and labour, has been the order of the day, since the announcements of the changes to the EE Act. Put bluntly- swart gevaar!



For the past 16 years, in some companies and sectors, there has been lost opportunities to the magnitude of 68% and above, where natural attrition presented opportunities for transformation. Rather put bluntly, these companies failed to appoint from the designated employee groups, and continued to appoint as usual from a small pool of White males only. Now that the State is intervening by tightening the screws, they have the audacity to cry 'foul'. Some narrow-midend labour experts, and self-styled, and economists suffering from dead-end thinking, prophesy doom, without reflecting on the selfish and short-sighted approach of the representatives of capital of the past two decades.



If we all cared to observe the input, throughput, and output of our education, and corporate system, without being anecdotal about it, we may just find our answer to the skills shortage challenge. It will prevent its hackneyed use as an excuse for lack of representation of the designated groups in the boardrooms, and other platforms of leadership in South Africa. We may just discover that brakes are being deliberately applied to retard progress of some, though they may share the same tertiary qualifications, with their counterparts.



Corporate SA leadership has a case to answer regarding lack of progress since the early 80's, when most of the discriminatory legislation in the workplace was repealed. All of the post 1994 transformation-based legislation was an attempt to nudge business in the right direction without being interventionist, on the part of government.



Business failed to play ball, and the initial zeal with which it moved in the early 90's was killed through poor enforcement capability, on the part of government, as well as goodwill expectation (by government) from business leadership.



Business leadership should see this as a second chance to transform, so that all may benefit, without bringing organisation competitiveness to its knees.

Amplify’d from www.politicsweb.co.za

Tuesday, 08 March 2011 Home | Subscribe | Search Politicsweb:

President says amendments will not have negative effect on coloureds or Indians

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT IS INTENDED TO OPEN UP OPPORTUNITIES FOR DISADVANTAGED GROUPS

Current provision in the Act: "demographic profile of the national and regional economically active population (EAP)". Proposed change in the Bill: "demographic profile of the economically active population".

It is important to note that nowhere in the proposed change is there a proposal to remove 'regional' and leave 'national', in fact, both 'national and regional' are removed. The reason for removal of the two elements is that employers have been enquiring over the years from the Department of Labour how they should implement both regional and national demographics of the EAP in their workplaces. As a result of these enquiries, the change is being proposed.

The 10th Commission on Employment Equity Report released by the Department of Labour in July 2010 also revealed that transformation in the workplace remained very slow. The report indicated that 10 years after the introduction of the Employment Equity Act, white men continued to hold 63% of top management positions in the private sector. African women are at less than 6% and coloured and Indian women were at one percent each.

Statement issued by The Presidency, March 7 2011 Read more at www.politicsweb.co.za

 

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Carefully thought through change initiatives, result in deliberate change that seeks to unleash the power of the brain, rather than limit it.

Amplify’d from www.strategy-business.com

“That’s the Way We (Used to) Do Things Around Here”

by Jeffrey Schwartz, Pablo Gaito, and Doug Lennick

When corporate leaders talk about change, they usually have a desired result in mind: gains in performance, a better approach to customers, the solution to a formidable challenge. They know that if they are to achieve this result, people throughout the company need to change their behavior and practices, and that can’t happen by simple decree. How, then, does it happen? In the last few years, insights from neuroscience have begun to answer that question. New behaviors can be put in place, but only by reframing attitudes that are so entrenched that they are almost literally embedded in the physical pathways of employees’ neurons. These beliefs have been reinforced over the years through everyday routines and hundreds of workplace conversations. They all have the same underlying theme: “That’s the way we do things around here.”

But there is a particular type of highly charged conversational process that leads to changes in the neural patterns of people throughout an organization — a process that works with, not against, the predisposition and capability of the human brain.

Cargill’s Strategy Transformation

Consider, for example, the way that Cargill, a major agricultural and food products company, applied knowledge of the human brain to raise its game in collaboration and innovation across business units. Cargill had already undergone one major shift, starting in 1999, toward becoming a more agile, solutions-based organization. The company’s executives had defined the “heart of leadership” for their company as integrity, conviction, and courage. They had also set out to create a “culture of freedom,” empowering and encouraging employees at every level to act with decisiveness and accountability on behalf of customers.

The situation clearly called for new behaviors. Better collaboration among Cargill employees, for example, would not just solve the problem of redundant sales calls. It could lead to new logistics, risk management, and quality assurance practices. But that type of collaboration, especially across Cargill’s 70-plus businesses operating in 66 countries, would be a stretch — particularly since in Cargill’s culture, it would require bottom-up commitment. Read more at www.strategy-business.com

 

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