Business resources

Task 1

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a) Describe the types of information used in your organisation, choosing one from each of the following categories: verbal, written, on-screen, multimedia, web based.

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There are wide ranges of information used by businesses every day. It is essential for them to choose the right type of information to communicate with their stakeholders, the type of the information will vary depending on who it is referring to.

I’ve chosen Nissan Motors Co LTD. They use verbal, written, on-screen, multimedia and web based information to communicate with their stakeholders, however which type of these information will be used will depend on the what kind of information and receiver of the information. I’m going to explain the types of the information and how it is used in my organisation.

1. Verbal information is spoken method of information and this is the best way to communicate, because you will be speaking to the other person that means there will be less complication of misunderstanding each other.

For example: Nissan conducts general shareholders meeting every year to report on business plan, financial statements of their fiscal year and any other arising issues. As the number of shareholders are very large, they used to ask any questions in writing to the company after the meeting or before, but shareholders requested the opportunity to ask question during the meeting and the company agreed with their request and distributing tickets to shareholders who have a question to ask, so that way the communication got better as they can actually speak face to face with the company’s CEO and get an immediate response from the company instead of waiting for a reply.

2. Written information- in business written information is used in many different ways. It is used every single day in businesses, orders to suppliers, e-mails to customers, cheques to employers, memos, reports for managers, accounting transaction etc these documents are all has to be written, some will be used as evidence, some will be used as informative purpose.

For example: when Nissan plan for their shareholders meeting, first they will send invitation letters and e-mails to all the shareholders in writing, with agenda of the meeting including the details of the meeting such as location of the meeting, date, time and programme of the day and some guidance notes. I found the invitation letter that Nissan sent to shareholders in 2010 (please see attached supporting document number 01)

3. On-screen information- information will be showing on projector or any kind of screen. Nissan used on screen presentation for the meeting to show the financial figures and facts. It can be challenging when you talk about numbers to large audience. Putting it on screen, enabling the audience to see what you are talking about will have better understanding, and everybody will be on the same page as the presenter.

4. Multimedia information- is different types of medias such as video, text, picture, audio, graphs, animations put together to make one piece of information. It is used common nowadays in entertainment industry as well as a tool for businesses. For example After the general meeting, Nissan prepares documents for people who were unable to attend to the meeting in person, it includes the video, materials presented in the meeting, matters discussed in the meeting with the final result or plan that is going to be take place, all this information is put in one file/CD to be send to members for their information on how the meeting went. So it is very useful that you can still see the video and documents to see what you missed and be kept informed at all times.

5. Web based information- this is the most modern way of spreading information and it is still developing faster and faster. Businesses have website of their own which is enabling them to provide service globally as it can be accessed via internet anywhere in the world. It also is replacing way of storing information as you can save all your photos, documents, videos online and have the access of it whenever you are, instead of having it in certain place and can’t reach it when you need them and also it saves papers and money. I scan every handouts received from the teacher and upload it into my online storage and recycle the papers which is making life easier for me. However for Nissan, they have their own websites for each country, so that the customers can access it in their language, read all the information that he/she wanted to know instead of phoning them.

For example: if I wanted to buy share from Nissan, I can go onto their website and check all their financial statements company history, plans and every other information to decide whether or not invest in the company.

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b) Describe where each of these pieces of information has come from.

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Businesses collect information from internally (inside the organisation) and externally (outside the organisation).

Internal sources of information –is when information is collected within the organisation. Departments in the organisation provides good source of information, for example when Nissan prepares for the meeting, they will collect the information they are going to present to the shareholders, as they are invested their own money to the company, Nissan will have to show to them that how they spent their money and performance of the company, to show these, they will have to present the figures of their financial statements which can be provided by their Finance Department. This department is responsible for all money relating documents and work. Departments in the organisation should work together as whole and provide each other the necessary information. Sale department have information about the customers, sales figures for all the cars they sold, from that information business can indicate the best selling car and also they can see that which car is struggling to sell and then Marketing department can do researches like surveys from customers to find out the reason and try to work on that. Human resource department have everything that relates to their employee, training, turn over of their employee and current level of skills.

External sources of information- is collected from outside the company, it can be published information for public and someone/company outside the organisation. Some of the external sources include:

Government sources- www.direct.gov.uk is government website that provides information for public and you can even apply for some benefits online.

Commercially provided databases- research organisations provide service which send e-mail to customers who have the same interest to promote a new product or existing.

Research- some businesses pay for market research company to find out about market, customers and interest of general public etc to develop an understanding of that certain market.

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c) Describe what the purpose is of each piece of information.

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Businesses use information for lots of reason, and that information must be accurate and valid to use.

This is a preview of the whole essay

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c) Describe what the purpose is of each piece of information.

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Businesses use information for lots of reason, and that information must be accurate and valid to use.

Updating knowledge- it is essential that business is aware what is going on around them, simply, because it will enable you to make these important decisions at the right time. For example if you are going to open new luxury clothes shop in this climate without knowing the position of the economy, its more likely to be not to succeed as people can’t afford luxury as they were before. If you’ve done research on this and gathered information on which is shop is likely to be successful you wouldn’t open luxury shop, but instead a pound shop is more likely to be successful as it did in mid 2009.

Informing future developments- businesses should always wish for the bigger and try for the greater, things have to planned a head properly to expand, examining and do a research on every possible problems and all sort of things to make decision such as buying expensive equipment or launching a new product. So it is important that you try to see the future by gathering information based on the past.

Strategic direction and SWOT analysis- to know and set their aims, objectives and goals to achieve them, businesses carry out SWOT analysis which means Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats, after identifying them you will have understanding of where you are now and what you will be able to do, so that you can make decision according to that.

Communicating sales promotions- this is the way of communicating and persuading the customers to join in that certain crowd, so the information has to be clear and presentable.

These are the some of the purpose that businesses use information for.

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d) Analyse the different types of business information and their sources. (M1)

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In this task I’ll find out about types of information that is used in Nissan Motors internally and externally.

Verbal information includes

Face to face- this is when two or group of people having conversation with each other by side. Face to face conversation cannot be always used in Nissan Motors as it is very large organisation with lots of employees, some employees don’t know each other well, when there is need of one department’s employee have to ask for some information it can be done by internal e-mail system. However, when there is board meeting or any sort of meeting then they will be using this method internally.
Telephone conversation- telephones are fast and easy way of contacting people directly, when the person is available. Nissan Motors have their internal telephone line for their staffs. You can speak to 2-6 people and have a group telephone conference without leaving their office. However when the customer calls to customer service and complain about the car they bought this information will be external source.
Seminars/meetings- this is important part of informing and discusses things with employees formally or informally, which can be online, on the phone or face to face in a meeting room.

Advantages of Verbal information

easier and faster to communicate
you will understand every detail of the information
less complication of misunderstanding
you will get an immediate answer

For example: when customer come into the Nissan’s shop to buy a car sales person can advise to the customer and detailing all the good side of the car to try and persuade the buyer, so verbal communication is very powerful if you use it right and good.

Disadvantages of Verbal information

you can forget it quickly
if expressed wrongly it can result misunderstanding and wrong response
actual meaning of the information might be changed after passing it from one to another

For example: some people don’t usually remember numbers or list of things when it said, because you forgot it very quickly.

Written information involves any type of information in use of the written words. It is used in businesses everyday, it includes:

Letters- can be used internally and externally. Nissan Motors send letters to their employees to notify staff meeting and employee can hand in their notice of leaving the employment by written formal letter. When government introduces new law that is related to them, they will send letter to them informing about the law which will be external information.
E-mails- most organisations have their own internal e-mailing system with the domain name of their organisation names. Its fast and money saving tool that people use widely. Also, professional and receiver will know who it is coming from.
Memos-it is a short message that employees leave for their work colleagues, so it is internal source of information.
brochures, leaflets, booklets- all this can be used in marketing purpose and it includes photos, graphs to make it look attractive for the people who are seen.
Reports- it is detailed written statement of particular thing that is prepared by the company for their own use and the public.

Advantages of written information

can be used as evidence (hard copy)
keeps record of documents to use for later
receiver can read it carefully and give prompt respond
very informative and can be used again and again
can be edited

Disadvantages of written information

mistake can occur

On-screen information is produced on screen, using TV or projector. It is used in businesses for presentations in meetings.

Projected presentation- Nissan Motors and other businesses use this in meetings internally for their employee meetings.
Billboard advertisement- It is very common type of advertisement and organisations pay for this service to advertise and to make it.
Computer screen- is used for preparing documents, e-mails and accessing to internet.
Television/radio- they provide enormous information for us, some of them are bad influenced but most of them are very educational and good. This is external source of information for Nissan Motors providing them information about their competitors, and current news of what is going on around them.

Advantages of on-screen information

Large number of people can see the information
Large screen display
Better understanding for audiences
Message is clear and presentable

Disadvantage of on-screen information

Expensive
Needs trained people to use, so everyone can’t use like letters

Task 2

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a) Presentation

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Please see supporting documents number 2

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b) Report on Nissan Motors Financial performance and recovery plan 2008-2009 (P2)

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For: Nissan Motors, Financial Director

From: Z Lkhasuren Date: 08 April 2011

REPORT ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF 2008-2009 AND RECOVERY PLAN

TERMS OF REFERENCE

On 7th March 2011 you asked me obtain financial information from any organisation. I’ve obtained financial information regarding their loss in net income, net sale and operation profit during the financial crisis in 2008-2009, and also I investigated how they recovered from this situation.

PROCEDURE

In order to obtain necessary information, facts and figures, I followed the following procedures:

2.1 Investigated company’s Annual Reports and Financial Information from their website

3.0 FINDINGS

3.1 Financial performance table in Fiscal 2008 and 2009.

Nissan Motors made loss of 1.7 billion pounds which decreased by 5.28 billion pounds from the previous fiscal year 2007.

Main factors that led to loss great amount of money are:

Global financial and economy crisis,
Foreign currencies exchange rate of dramatic decrease and movements,
Decrease in global sales due to the crisis,
Cost increase in raw materials and energy cost including steel and oil.

3.2 RECOVERY PLAN

Dramatic loss in 2008 was wake up call for Nissan Motors Head Office, and the CEO of the company has conducted a meeting with fellow managements and shareholders to discuss the recovery plan for the company. As a result, he came up with ‘Five year recovery plan’ detailed below.

1. Categorise by geographically- they categorised their market into three regions: Americas, Asians, AMIE which includes Africa, Middle East, India and Europe includes Russia. Each regions manufactured car will be sold in the nearby countries, saving transport cost.

2. Change in targeted customers- there’s been sale increase in China and India, Nissan focused on selling more cars to those areas instead of the main customers such as USA, by doing that they’re making cars that meets the certain countries, for example in Japan, people buy car to get from A to B, whereas in Europe, people tend to go for money saving cars (eco-friendly/efficient

3. Reducing overall wage bill- means Nissan stopped hiring new staff, cut overtime, and introduced work sharing. Also, they made redundant of 20,000 workers in high cost countries including 1,500 in the UK. In Asia, they temporarily reduced salaries of cooperate officers by 25%, general managers by 20%, and other staff around 15% and eliminated bonuses and compensations.

4. Scrap scheme- In 2009, 10y+ cars can be exchanged for £2000 towards their new car. It encouraged people to buy new car to help car manufactures to grow, bring more customers and replaced old cars with new ones.

Nissan’s Scrap Scheme

They extended the scheme for drivers exchanging 8-10 year old car to buy any British build range - that includes any new Nissan Micra, Nissan Note, Nissan Qashqai. That means some people managed to buy British built Nissan Micra for as little as £5,995.

4.0 CONCLUSIONS

From the table above, it is clear that it has been a wake up call for the company. They recognised it quickly and came up with a solution that has worked for them perfectly. According to BBC website, they published that Nissan Motors recovered fully in three years instead of five, which is great news, however they cannot sit back and relax as the global economy is not yet fully recovered and there is a chance that foreign currency might fall and rise anytime again. Press are saying that they recovered, but according to the speech of the CEO of Nissan Motors, he’s claiming that they are still in their recovery mode and continuing to watch their expenses and preparing for any event that might come up in the future.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Student hand out materials

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c) Produce a leaflet aimed at the staff of the performance of the business. (P2)

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Please see supporting document number 3

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d) Produce a corporate communication such as an advert, poster or leaflet communicating information about the business or one of its product or services.

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Please see supporting document number 4

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e) Find an example of a real external corporate communication and evaluate it as a means of corporate information. (P4)

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I’ve designed poster for Nissan Leaf for the task 2d and I’ve chosen the real example of the car’s advertisement. First of all, corporate communication is the made by the organisation to all their stakeholders, it is usually leaves a good impression for them as the company is in control of what they are going to produce and it is usually positive. I would say it is a way of communicating with their stakeholders, mainly with the customers who have interest in their product and it is there to assist them by providing the necessary information for them. An organisation present the corporate communications in different ways:

Mission statement- is statement that says the purpose of the organisation.
Advertising- is way of providing information about the product to the customers
Packaging-
Logos- this is the visual symbol of the organisation, but sometimes it can be the name of the company
Livery
Strap lines- is a phrase for business. The most common one is McDonalds I’m loving it!
Endorsements- this is when celebrities recommend the product and they are face of the company.
Sponsorship- this is when business supports sport team/person by providing money or other source. Manchester United FC sponsor was AIG.

This is the billboard advertisement for Nissan Leaf car on Bay Bridge, San Francisco, when you look at this advertise it is obvious that it is a new car from Nissan and when it says 100% electric car, it is eco-friendly car which means there is Zero Consumption. Cars are likely to be advertised in car magazines, TV and big billboards side of the road, and these method of advertising will always attract large number of people, but to reach their potential customers they would choose to have their ad during programmes like Top Gear or in Men’s Health magazine and city centre’s billboard etc, that’s because on those programmes and magazine, it is most likely to be their targeted customers would go for. I mean if that 25k car was in one of the student sort of magazine, no one even going to look at, even if they did, they won’t seriously consider to buying such car. Simply because most of the advertisements are there to generate, boost sales or introduce the product the company is launching, however some organisation do them to be well known or get recognition from the public. For example I wouldn’t have know gocompare.com if that man didn’t sing all summer and they are repeating it every single day to be recognised and if you hear it and see it everyday you will get used to it and at least you will know the brand name.

So clever advertising will always gets you something in return, but if you don’t do it properly or if you do it poorly it will be a waste of money and time as it can be very costly.

Task 3

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a) Explain the legal and ethical issues in relation to the use of information, including how the business complies with current legislation and how it deals with ethical issues by means of policies and codes of practice.

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Everything is protected in our society so is business information and there are various items of legislation to protect it against anything unfair or unlawful.

Legal issues

Data Protection Act 1998- protects the information that is saved and held about people in businesses against using them wrongly. Information saved by businesses must be:

Obtained fairly and lawfully- when business ask for people’s e-mail address or any other information they must ask permission from the person.
Used only for the purpose stated during collection- most of the businesses will ask your e-mail address when you register online or buy something from them and there is usually a tick boxed option asking from you if they could pass your information to third parties. Please do check it as you don’t want it, because I didn’t tick the box when I was registering online with npower and they passed my home telephone number to some other broadband companies and I received ten calls from different people and it was waste of time for me.
Accurate and up to date- this is a must, I remember I bought a ticket to Poland and it was one of those cheap airline and they just changed their policy that if I decided to cancel they will not return my money, but when I bought my ticket there was a charge of 10% of the ticket price. When I called the customer service and told them I have cancel, they told me that I cannot get any money from them and I told them I was not informed about this policy change, so I didn’t know and I bought my ticket before the policy change, so after a long conversation and lots of disagreement I finally got my money back. It shows that business should always inform or update with their customers to avoid further complications
Not kept for longer than necessary- businesses can’t keep my information when I’m no longer their customer, for example if I finished my phone contract and mobile phone company should erase my personal information from their system as it is no longer needed.
Processed in line with your rights- it is very important, I don’t like giving my passport copy or visa copy to strange people, because there are lots of people’s identification or stolen and someone using it.

So this act is basically protects all the data that is in the company.

Freedom of Information Act 2000- it came into effect in 2005, it enables people to request their information which is held by a public authority and some other information. For example if I apply for credit card and being refused, I can request the credit agency company that what information they seen to decide my application and the credit agency must supply it within 20 working days.

Ethical issues- it deals with code of things that business follow to maintain business ethics within their organisation.

Use of email- organisation will have code of practice on how they would expect you to use email and use it correctly. For example: you cannot send something that is very important as it is not safe and there is no guarantee that the person will receive it on time. It is better to send it by post or delivery as it is more secure. You should avoid using email to communicate with your colleague as it is important that interact with others and have a good relationship wit others, so that people can work as a team and don’t destined away. It can be used to inform or remind people and write a short message.
Internet- there are certain websites that employees cannot access to because some organisations block those social networking websites likes Youtube, Facebook etc as it is not necessary for them to have it in a work place where they should be working
Dress code- is when the clothes that employees can wear while at work is set by the employer and some businesses give uniform to their employees to wear and it is also good impression if the employees dressed smart and clean.
Organisational policies- every organisations have their own policies that they follow. It is the way that organisation run and how they do the business activity. For example some businesses write letters different and it varies from the organisation and how they do it. Some staff will need to give written request for holiday whereas some can do it verbally.

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b) Explain the operational issues in relation to the use of information. (P6)

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Operational issues are important and needs to be identified to be solved quickly as possible as I might have an impact on performance of the business. There will be an issue if the information is managed appropriately meaning that it is secure and follows the rules and procedures, it includes

Security of information- most businesses now use computers and online data storage to keep their information and it is also safe as only authorised users can access them.
Backups- this is when you save your information on another source like CD’s to minimise the risk of losing it, when you lose the information you can just backup and have the same information as before, so it is one of the main disadvantages of the IT system. If you lose it and you didn’t back it up you could lose all the information permanently, but with backup as you will be saving it on another device, you can still do backup and have the information once again.
Health and safety- you should always be introduced or given information about this. It says how to handle and deal with hazardous and dangerous things while you are at work.
Organisation’s own policy- this is the house rule of the company, it gives the employee clear guidance on how to deal with legislations/laws.

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c) Analyse the legal, ethical and operational issues in relation to the use of information. (P7)

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Legal issues are those involving laws and regulations that business must follow to operate and it is their responsibility to keep up to date with them. During the financial crisis car industry is hit by it pretty hard and because of that government tries to help businesses who are struggling. For my chosen organisation Nissan Motors, when they were having a bad time with their figures, government came up with Scrap page scheme which allowed car owners to swap their used old cars with up to £2000 towards buying a new one, it really helped them attract customers to buy from them, and it was also good for environment as the old cars replaced with new one so there will be less pollution. Also, government reduced VAT rate temporarily on 1 Dec 2008 to help businesses to sell, and help the public with lower price so that they can afford things, but it increased again 4 January this year to 20%. From last year, National minimum wage increased for people who are 21, age range for NMW was 18-21 and 22 or above, that means I now can get the higher minimum wage.

Ethical issues- this is the way of organisations deal with things and it will depend on the organisation how as every organisation have different method and way of running things.

When I used work at McDonalds, there’s been a change in our organisation policy that we cannot call customers ‘next please’ as it sounds unprofessional. We had to wear take off all the jewellery and cover any body jewellery with blue plaster and wear uniform that is provided and if men come to work unshaved he cannot work and will be asked to return home as it has to be followed with Health and Safety.

Operational issues- as organisation have all sorts of information which they should keep and manage it is important that they don’t get lost or damaged. Also, if the information gets to wrong people or who shouldn’t have receive the information it might lead to problem as he/she might use it in wrong purpose. For example if the ordinary staff accidently reads the information about the company’s financial situation and it said that they have to make redundant, people might start to panic or staff will look for another job and it will occur unnecessary complication and if staffs starts to leave there will be shortage of staff and operation will be minimised, affecting the performance of the company. So it is essential that information must be secured and get to the right person.

When I used to work at Tampopo as waitress, our managers computer broken, and our recorded worked hours were all deleted and we end up not getting our wages for two more week, because managers didn’t back up the system before logging off.

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d) Types of non-electric and electronic methods of communication. (P7)

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There are two types of communication method:

1. Non-electronic- is communication methods that is not using electric device including:

Letters- is used by everyone not only business people, but it is used in business to reach to people who are outside the business and it is usually formal and official. Letters should be written professionally and clear to the point. A good business letter will include address, contact details of the company, date of the letter, who the letter is for, introduction of what it is about, details of the main purpose, lastly name of the person who wrote and his/her role and signature.
Memorandum- is short message for work colleagues to remind things or ask within the organisation. Subject of the memo is usually clear to the point with few words, date, to, from and a brief message of what it is regarding.
Fax- is old fashioned way of e-mail, but it is still used in many organisations. It is scanned document that is sent through fax machine using telephone line, it is fairly quick, but there is no guarantee that the person who is going to receive will be available.
Invoice- this is detailed payment bill that is sent from the supplier to the buyer. It includes the description of products, quantity of each items price, contact details of the supplier and total amount of money that buyer owe to the supplier. This can be used as evidence and legal purpose if the person does not pay the amount of money.
Publicity materials- this information are provided by the press and there is no guarantee that all of them are true, so it is not a reliable source to collect information from. However, it can be counted as reliable, if the main source is an indeed reliable one. It includes newspapers, flyers, poster and brochures.

Electronic methods of communication – this is when you use electronic device to communicate with others. It includes:

Email- is the most common method of communication nowadays and it is electronic method because you will have to have a computer or a phone to send/receive mail. It is fast, easy and costs less money and effort than letters. It also can be reliable as once I send my assignment to my teacher I know that even she’s not behind the computer it will saved on her inbox, so that she can check it later on.
SMS (short message service)- is major vein of younger generations and businesses. For business they send confirmation codes/numbers when I buy train ticket, and they even remind me to that I have bought ticket on such and such day. So it is getting popular and used in everywhere widely.
WWW (world wide web)- these are the magic of the businesses as they can go global without actually having office in certain country. It provides enourmoes amount of information for their customers, for example I can check my train ticket online and pay for, so no need to queue at the station.
Video conferencing- this is useful method for large businesses with lots of members as they all can do video conference meeting from where they are and it will be cheap as they don’t need to travel to attend for a meeting if they are in different place.
Mobile phones- are the classic way of electronic method of communication, you can connect with your friends and family by calling to their mobile simple.
Internet- is a new generation of communication, giving people the space and entertainment. Businesses advertise over the internet and sell their product and give information for their customers, so its like virtual life.

(Supporting document 1)

June 8, 2010

To Shareholders:

NOTICE OF CONVOCATION OF THE 111th ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

Dear Shareholders:

Notice is hereby given that the 111th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the

Company (the "Meeting") will be held as described in the attached “Particulars”.

You are cordially invited to attend the Meeting.

If you are unable to attend the Meeting in person, please review the "Reference

Materials of Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders" as well as the "Business Report for the 111th Fiscal Year" enclosed herewith. Please send us the enclosed voting form by return mail, indicating your votes for or against the resolutions stated in the “Particulars” in the section “Matters to be resolved.” Please affix your seal impression on the voting form. Alternatively, vote through the Internet website (http://www.web54.net), so that such voting form or Internet voting should arrive at the Company by 17:30 of June 22 (Tuesday), 2010.

Yours very truly,

NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.

(Nissan Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha)

By: /s/ Carlos Ghosn

Carlos Ghosn

President and Chairman