Innovation And Entrepreneurship - Example

The paper "Innovation And Entrepreneurship" is a wonderful example of a Management Report. The report provides a summary of the research done from July to September 2011 on the feasibility of establishing coal to fuel business in Newcastle done by a company employee. The aim was to establish the profitability of starting this business in light of the emergence of industrial ecology as a significant factor to be considered. The future of the entire industry was taken into account with an assessment of how utilizing industrial ecology tenets might assist in enhancing the economic viability of the business.

Industrial ecology is an emerging concept for improving sustainability that may sound like an oxymoron yet its popularity is rising. Simply put, industrial ecology involves the location of selected industries in an industrial park known as an eco-industrial park or EIP. Within the park, they are able to interact via exchange of resources, produce and by-products due to their close distance. This leads to economic, social and environmental benefits for all concerned.

The global economy is slowly recovering from the sharp downturn that took place in 2008 with a tangible expansion experienced since mid-2009 and an annual GDP growth of 4% experienced around the same time with the same or better in 2010. There has been a thaw in international capital markets supported by their central banks and governmental guarantees have petered off. This is good news but challenges still remain.

A challenge that directly affects the Australian economy is the two-speed character of the recovery. A radical depression is usually followed by an equally sharp upswing and this has been observed in the Asia-Pacific economies that account for half of the Australian export market. In fact, the term ‘v-shaped recovery’ could be used to describe its growth curve. Incomes that are rising in secular economies, healthy banking systems for the most part and comparatively low public debt levels give room for the assumption of continued growth in demand for coal.

The Super-coal cycle began in December last year when the joint owners of the NCIG terminal that is BHP Billiton, Peabody Energy from the U.S., Yancoal Australia, from China, Centennial Coal, Donaldson Coal, and Whitehaven Coal negotiated with buyers of coal and other competitors to leverage the Asia-Pacific coal market. Peabody was said to have informed analysts and investors that it foresaw a global demand for coal of at least 1 billion metric tonnes by 2015 with Asia’s emerging economies accounting for 90% of that demand.

Although China is a major producer of coal, it imported 126 million metric tonnes in 2009, triple the amount imported in 2008. India has followed suit, importing a large quantity of Australian steel-making coal, or coking coal.

The CEO of Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, Nick Otter, observed that the requirement to reduce carbon emissions that are linked to climate change highlights coal burning in these two countries that are emissions-intensive. Nevertheless, economic growth must be maintained meaning the use of coal will still probably rise. These countries are also mainly anticipated by Peabody to increase global steel production by almost 66% by the year 2020.