Arthur Jones: Good evening. My name is Arthur Jones, I'm very glad to have this opportunity to speak to you over the radio. The host asked me to give a talk about my experience of starting my own business. I can't say my business is successful. But there are some things that I want to share with you, which I think will be helpful if you want to start your own company.

I've talked to many young people, and they told me that they are afraid of making mistakes when they start their business. What I want to say is that mistakes are very common, especially when you do something new. (11) Mistakes can actually show you where you need to improve, so you can take actions about them and use the chance to learn new methods. This is a very important attitude you should have. Besides, most mistakes are not that fatal. Don't be too anxious when they occur.

Next, I want to go on to talk about self-confidence, which is quite important in achieving business success. Being self confident means that you can have faith in yourself and what you do. Self confidence can be gained through hard work, even playing sports. (12) However, sometimes self confidence may make you ignore problems and even cause failure. Business leaders should remain calm and not take impulsive actions.

I know that when people start their business, they have confusions. They don't know how they can be more professional. They read business journals or watch related videos, but these don't seem to help sometimes. (13) My suggestion is that instead of aimlessly trying many new things, they should always be committed to their goal. As long as they stick to it, they will not be easily distracted or confused by other things, and they are sure to get better.

We will all meet difficulties, especially at the beginning. We can't always rely on ourselves to solve all the problems. (14) I had a problem with marketing earlier this year. Luckily, I found an expert to help me deal with it. So there's always a way but we should know how and when to seek help from these people.

Business leaders have different kinds of styles. Some are very good at public speaking, others are very down to earth and have strong executive skills. (15) But in general, they should be able to win the respect from their employees so that they can carry out their orders more easily.

There are times when a company might face risks. During such times, leaders will need to take prompt actions and they can't always plan for the distant future. (16) Leaders should analyze and deal with the risks with caution. If they bear this in mind, there is always a way out.

---

At the beginning of my business, I experimented with quite a few strategies, hoping to find out the best solution for my business. Here's what I found. At first, my company wanted to work out prices for the products and make them realistic. However, prices are always changing, so they can't be fixed. (17-18) Another thing I always keep in mind is that leaders must stay committed to their jobs. Without enough commitment, you may easily give up when problems happen. I have some friends whose businesses didn't survive during difficult times. It wasn't because they were stupid. It was just a lack of commitment. I can't always be sure that my products or services are better than my competitors, (17-18) but I pay attention to details and try to improve all the little things as they can actually make a big difference. You might worry that you don't have a very clear and sophisticated business strategy. Personally, I don't think it's a problem, because you will be changing them all the time anyway.

In terms of support, at any stage, we do need support from others to backup our business, the support can really make a difference. (19-20) Before I started my business, my family helped me a lot, both financially and mentally. There were also people who gave me advice on how to run businesses successfully. However, these advice and ideas were not so practical to me, so I didn't really use them. Looking back, I felt lucky that I followed my own way of thinking. (19-20) Also, I was short of funds back then, and I loaned money from the bank to start my company. I was grateful for that.

Fran: Hi, Mark. Thanks for coming around.

Mark: Hi, Fran. No problem. We need to try and get this presentation finished.

Fran: Mark, let's start with the way dolphins make sound.

Mark: Well, we all know that dolphins make clicking noises to communicate.

Fran: (21) Yes, they have tongues and larynxes as humans do. But what's really strange about the dolphin is that the sounds are focused through an extraordinary organ called the melon, which most other sea mammals don't have.

Mark: So shall I take over from there and speak about the different dolphin types? I want to share what we found out about those rare dolphins that are special just to New Zealand, in particular.

Fran: Yeah, great. Put the emphasis on them. The rarest of all is the Hector's dolphin, isn't it? They are endangered, aren't they? I think that's mainly because so many of them get tangled up in fishing gear, especially gillnets, and die. (22) I know that some conservationists are worried about the impact of the tourism industry on dolphin numbers, but I don't think that's a problem yet here. Also, remember that this species has a very long reproductive cycle, so the numbers don't get replenished quickly.

Mark: Yeah, that's really sad. But at least the New Zealand government established a sanctuary for them, didn't it? The fishing industry was against it. But I remember reading that the general public were very supportive of the decision. (23) It was a consequence of a study done by some marine biologists. Having a protected breeding area has made a big difference to the dolphin population already.

Fran: Yeah. (24) I think their numbers have swelled to over 7,000 in total, with a tiny group of just 89 living down off Southland, nearly 2,000 living near Christchurch on the East Coast, and the biggest group surviving off the West Coast. It's pretty wild country over there, so I guess there aren't as many tourists and fishermen to disturb them.

---

Mark: Okay, so how do you suggest I structure my part of the talk?

Fran: (25) Well, you could start with the common dolphin, which inhabits the whole of the sea around New Zealand. And once you've covered everything to do with them, feeding and so on, you could go on to the more unusual types. (26) The dusky dolphin is especially interesting because you know how all dolphins travel in small social groups called pods? Well, the dusky dolphins travel in pods as big as 800 members.

Mark: And I think the duskies like to travel along beside fishing and tourist boats, don't they? (27) Whereas the Hector's dolphins are different in that they prefer to go in the wake of boats, that is, coming along in the rear.

Fran: Yeah, they do. But they also dive down deep to avoid fast boats.

Mark: (28) Oh, let's not forget the Maui because they are endangered too, aren't they? There are only 150 of them left, and they inhabit only the western coastal waters of the North Island of New Zealand.

Fran: Yeah, it's a pity. They also face problems because of their tiny size. Now the Orca is actually a dolphin too, right?

Mark: Yes, surprisingly. So I'll include that in my talk. People call them killer whales, but in fact, they're not whales. They're a huge and very fierce type of dolphin. (29) In New Zealand, Kaikoura in the South Island is the best place to spot orcas swimming by, so people mistakenly think that's where they live. But actually, orcas cover vast distances.

Fran: (30) Let's not forget to mention the bottlenose. It's bigger than nearly all the other dolphins, even the common dolphin.

Mark: Oh, but still not as big as the Orca, right?

Fran: That's right. Well, I think that's our presentation done now.

Managing Director: Good afternoon. I'm the managing director of Molecular Technologies, and we're involved in recycling tires from vehicles such as cars and trucks. This might not sound new or exciting, but the method we use is quite radical compared to traditional tire recycling methods. We strongly believe that the business of recycling tires is crucial, as amazingly, (31) every month in Australia alone, the number of old tires that are discarded exceeds 1.5 million. And when you look at the figure globally, it is a staggering 1.2 billion each year.

For decades, various recycling methods have been trialed with varying degrees of success. In some cases, the solution was as bad as the problem. Incinerating tires, for example, generates toxic fumes which are harmful to the environment. Breaking up whole tires is energy-intensive and produces a contaminated product with very little value. (32) As a result, there was little incentive to get into the business because there was no profit in it. And yet, a tire is made up of so many valuable components. It is for this reason that we started trying out new recycling methods.

In the end, our factory came up with a much-improved system for recycling old tires. The electrical process is different for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a lot cheaper to run because our machines are much more compact in comparison to traditional systems. This, in turn, reduces energy consumption. The wear and tear on the shredding equipment, which cuts up the tires, is also reduced, as the tires that pass through them have already been softened. Costs are reduced by over 30% using our system. (33) Significantly, our machines can handle a tire of any size, from the smallest bicycle or wheelbarrow to the largest earthmoving truck. Most other processes can only handle car tires.

Our technology has proven to work, and we have won many awards, including the Australian Museum's Eureka Award. Last year, on a national TV program, we were chosen as the Invention of the Year. Winning that certainly opened many doors for us, with interest coming from 27 countries around the world, including the United States and China. To cope with the demand, we will soon have 10 more factories, which will operate 24 hours a day just to stabilize the current stockpile. We are passionate about taking this process further, (34) and so we have chosen to dedicate 5% of every dollar we make to research. In this way, we can ensure we are always the best in the business.

---

So let's look at the process we use, what we extract from the tire at each stage of the process, and the uses that those materials can be put to.

(35) The first step of the process mechanically extracts the steel wires from the rim of the tire. This high-quality wire can be cut into small pellets suitable for sandblasting shots.

Next, after the tires have been sliced into a number of segments depending on tire diameter, they are chemically treated. (36) This chemical treatment is essential as it removes dirt from the rubber prior to the rest of the process. The cleaning process also softens the tires, making them easier to chop up.

In the next stage, the fiber cords contained in the tire segments are separated from the rubber using rollers. (37) The fibers, which can include nylon and rayon, can be used as a reinforcement for concrete, or they can be used to form plastic panels.

Then, the rubber is cut up into very small pieces known as crumb rubber. For a tire weighing 10 kilograms, Molectra can recover seven and a half kilograms of crumb rubber that can be used to manufacture a range of rubber products, such as asphalt used in road making. (38) It is also used as insulation in buildings or something simple like tiles for the floor. Alternatively, any or all of this crumb rubber can continue through to the final stage.

This final stage involves our patented Molecular Vac machine, which uses industrial microwave energy. This changes the remaining rubber into hydrocarbon which can be used to make three different products. (39) We can cheaply produce activated carbon, which is usually quite expensive to make from new materials. It's used for treating water as well as being an integral part of air filters. Secondly, as the carbon produced is very pure—in fact, it's over 97.4% pure—(40) we can crush it to form something called carbon black, which is used in the manufacture of batteries and also ink.