Case Study: Chevron Vs The Laclede Group

Becky Price replaced her oil furnace with a propane furnace back in 2006, but the oil furnace’s pipes were still in place. Price canceled her contract for oil refills with High Pointe Oil Company, but there was a problem on November 2007, in which Price’s address was added to the list of oil fill ups and the truck driver filled up the oil pipes with 400 gallons of fuel oil which caused the destruction of Price’s house and her belongings. So, Price sued the company for the failure of not removing the oil furnace’s pipes, including for non-economic damages such as emotions and feelings.

Advanced Fuels Corporation (AFC) was founded five years ago by Dr. Zachary Aplin. In the fourth year of research he and his two –member staff made a major break-through that can convert grain waste products into ethanol which can mix with gasoline to produce a better burning automobile fuel. Producing ethanol from waste products would lower its cost dramatically so the market potential of the blended fuel would be increased. After AFC receiving a patent for Dr. Aplin’s unique ethanol production process he decided to broaden the scope of operations of the company but he doesn’t have additional funds to put in. So, he developed

MTC initially needed to obtain substantial investment capital due to two main factors: a research-heavy industry, and the need to create most of the markets for its products. Although the founders' goal was to become a major manufacturing company, they did estimate that the company would need $50 million in capital before it would become self-sufficient. Their initial financing model was to first recruit a superior technical team, use that to attract additional equity investment and development funding from interested corporations, and then develop manufacturing capabilities. Commercial sales began 2.5 years after inception, and MTC is nearing the break-even point in 1990.

Corporations Law can be described as the interaction between directors, employees, financier, consumers and the community. Corporations law can be implied to this case as Water Corporations, a government owned company had a responsibility upon entering into a contract with Norvik Industries to provide an attention to skill when connecting the water line. To provide fully trained employees to undertake this job. This involved double checking there work.

All businesses and organisations have to check to see that the information they have stored is accurate. For example, the money coming in and going out have to be correctly recorded otherwise it will look as if the company has not made much profit and it can affect the share prices of the company, affect the employees as the company might not be able to pay the employees and will have to cut down on staff, lenders will not agree to lend money, etc.

In the given case Liquid Chemical Company manufactures and sells a range of high-grade products. Many of these products require careful packaging. The company has a special patented lining made that it uses in specially designed packing containers. Mr. Walsh the general manager was carefully looking at the problem and as a matter of solution he came up with the four alternatives:

During their path towards compliance, Trinity utilized several substantive tests such as, analytical tests, observation and inquiry, tests of balances, and tests of transactions. While each of these played a crucial role in compliance, the test of transactions was the best method used in examining the documents associated with recording those financial transactions. Starting with the initial transactions of processes and working upwards to the financial statements allowed Trinity to identify and correct weaknesses at each step. The bottom-up approach was successful for Trinity Industries as in December of 2003, 265 gaps were identified and in June 2004, all of the documentation gaps were closed, except for three (Schultze, 2011, p. 97). In addition, when E&Y completed their external audit in 2004, they reported no material weaknesses and fourteen deficiencies (Schultze, 2011, p. 98).

DuPont a well-known and once very well respected chemical company, is now known for their irresponsible business tactics and the way they dealt with the chemicals onsite, and the pollution it caused in our air and our drinking water. DuPont purchased a large piece of land about sixty acres in New York, West Virginia, known as a small town and consisted of a lot of farming and irrigation, cattle, and production of crops. The DuPont case started when a local farmer in the community exploited the footage of the stream nearby being polluted with chemicals from the DuPont plant. The local towns people, were fed up with the situation in their town and the injurious ways it was affecting their cattle, so they set up a meeting with a corporate defense

Over the years the name Caterpillar, Inc. also referred to as CAT is considered to be the largest supplier of construction, mining equipment, gas engines, gas turbines and diesel engines in the world. The company has been conducting business worldwide for over 85 years. As of 2011, the sales and revenues of Caterpillar Inc., counted at about $60.138 billion. Caterpillar Tractor Company, Inc. is part of Caterpillar. However, regardless of all the achievements made by Caterpillar, Inc., the firm has a number of ethical issues which it has got to address. Several issues deal more with the nature of products offered by the company as compared to anything company itself has done. Caterpillar, Inc. is facing a lawsuit caused by product safety issues (West, 1976).

Pioneer Petroleum Corporation (PPC) has two major problems that are interfering with the goal of the firm to maximize shareholder wealth. The first is that PPC has been calculating their weighted average cost of capital incorrectly, by incorrectly calculating their after tax cost of debt and their cost of equity. This miscalculation has subjected PPC to more risk and has hurt the company’s ability to make appropriate investment decisions. This has also led PPC to accepting investment decisions that should not have been included within their acceptable range. Second, PPC has been using a single company-wide rate for their multi-divisional company. In either instance the company is not

This term paper is about the Cato Corporation. In the paper will review the history of the company, identify its direct competitors, and describe its mission statement, general strategy, target markets, product mix, and positioning. The strengths and weaknesses of the Cato Corporation will be discussed in detail.

The TexasAgs oil company case study gave us insights on different aspects of a negotiation that can happen in real world scenarios. It elegantly portrayed the importance of having a BATNA, setting target and restriction points, impact of the fluctuating markets on the ongoing negotiations, downside of the emotional behavior, importance of having a third party member or mediator in the negotiation. The case illustrates that the negotiations should be based assumptions as they may or may not be right. Having facts and understanding the other parties true objectives and goals are truly essential in negotiation. It is a typical example of how the current power on one side can dominate and take complete advantage of their position.

Exxon and Chevron are no doubt some of the leading incorporated oil companies on the globe. Exxon Corp. is the second largest oil firm after Royal Dutch Shell, it is respected for getting the biggest revenue return in 2008 which no company in the U.S. have ever reported before. According to Wilson (2009) Chevron has managed to show a lot of profitability in the market despite the decease in its oil production. It graded as one of firms which made a billion dollars profit within a week in the period of July to September 2008. Regardless of profitability trends set by the two oil firms in the U.S. market, they have been facing financial decline like the rest of the companies in other industries. The two firms are like two sailing ships which are taking longer time to sink. In the last few years, the production capacity of Chevron and Exxon has decreased and their listings on the stock market have become weak. The continuation of construction and drilling which requires billions of dollars in expense of oil production might make them experience a bigger financial crisis (Wilson, 2009).

Polyethylene is the world’s most widely used plastic. Polyethylene plastic’s principal application was in packaging, from trash bags to milk jugs. It was widely used in the manufacture of everything from trash bags, picnic cutlery and garbage pails, to plastic toys. Polyethylene also replaced glass, wood, and metal in certain applications.

The policies and procedure consist of assigning the appropriate authority and responsibility to individuals, proper authorisation of transactions, maintaining accurate and adequate records and documentation, limiting access to confidential assets and information on a need to- know basis, having independent verifications and approvals, fostering adequate segregation of duties and avoiding any conflict of interest and be alert for any indication of fraud, misappropriation and other irregularities. Thus, all employees have a responsibility to act sincerely and report any instances of possible fraud, corruption, misappropriation or other irregularities to ethics line. While in information categorized, Astro should ensure honest and accurate recording and reporting of all information on the company’s records to avoid any misrepresentation or disclosure of ambiguous information. Employees involved in the financial recording processes reports must ensure that transactions are complete and recorded accurately and promptly. In intellectual property rights, Astro We are expected to protect the intellectual property rights of the Company, those of others and at the same time ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This includes the Company’s name, logo, taglines, inventions, processes and innovations. Last but not least, Astro also very committed to the protection of the rights of authors of literary and artistic works and the copyright thereof, and will comply with appropriate international and local laws with respect to their use, recording, broadcasting, reproductions, translation, adaptations and arrangements of these literary and artistic works. Employees have a responsibility to acknowledge that any intellectual property created by employees in the performance of their job responsibilities belongs to the company. Then, they have to report any