‘How can we engage with the communities around us? Which are the projects which will help us improve their lives in the most sustainable way? How can we show our communities that ArcelorMittal strives to be more than a business, but a corporate citizen?’ These were some of the questions which 11 correspondents from the ArcelorMittal Foundation tried to answer during a 2-day meeting held in Poland from August 24th to 25th.

The 11 correspondents of the ArcelorMittal Foundation gathered from Asia, CIS and Eastern Europe to share best practices based on projects led by the Foundation over the past year in the areas of Education, Health and Social promotion…

But rather than to merely celebrate past accomplishments, the aim of the meeting was to understand and address the existing and upcoming challenges and try to find viable solutions. Helping them in their ambitious task were Felicidad Cristobal, Managing Director of the ArcelorMittal Foundation, Roland Verstappen, VP International Affairs and Corporate Responsibility at ArcelorMittal and Rajendran Mandamparambil, Project Manager for the region.

The last day also saw the participation of Sanjay Samaddar, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland, who gave a powerful presentation and explained that while in a context of crisis the Company had put a special focus on its 3Cs which were Cash, Costs and Costumers, the 3Cs of the ArcelorMittal Foundation should be Communication, Conviction and Care: raising awareness – both internally and externally – about the importance of engaging with communities, upholding the conviction that everything is possible under the motto ‘if you believe it, you can see it’, and genuinely caring about the wellbeing of local communities.

The meeting was concluded with the visit of a project supported by ArcelorMittal Poland in the city of Dąbrowa Górnicza: a creative education centre where children and youngsters develop artistic skills ranging from pottery to painting, from singing to playing various instruments, from digital photography to computer animation.

Collaboration: Felicidad Cristobal, Rajendran Mandamparambil and Łukasz Cioch, ArcelorMittal Foundation

Picture (from left to right): Ctirad Lolek, Lenka Antosova, Geanina Pavel, Dijana bozic, Karolina Muza, Magdalena Kusmierz, Maiya Lastovskaya, Orman Kamzabayev, Predrag Sorga, Felicidad Cristobal, Vesna Pavlovskaya, Roland Verstappen, Sally Tao, Rajendran Mandamparambil, Adriana Vint, Sudhir Sinha, Lukasz Cioch

Attending my 1st Leadership Convention, I was struck by the size, diversity and power of a company like ArcelorMittal. Hearing people talk in several languages and accents about such varied subjects like Capex, hard hats and the convention centre’s elevators, I could appreciate how we hail from many backgrounds, experiences and opinions.

Channelling this wealth of talent into 1 team, 1 strategy and 1 future is truly the underlying challenge of the “winning in the post-crisis World” theme. This competitive message was repeated throughout the 3-day event as delegates were charged to innovate, generate and communicate.

Summarising the significance of the Leadership Convention, Chicago’s Mayor Daley said: “Like your company it’s important that Chicago respects the past, understands the present and looks to the future. As leaders, we must lead by example, have a clear vision, but, most importantly, have passion for your job that you can share with people.”

Chicagoans were proud to welcome the delegates to their home. The city may have variable weather and busy airports, but it also has a resilient spirit, a beautiful skyline and a 2010 Champion ice hockey team!

As the convention finished, the support staff made the final travel arrangements, the photographers snapped the last photos and the editorial team wrote the concluding articles.  Now it is up to the top 500 to take the baton home and share the key action items of the event. For those of us in Chicago, we hope they will also share a bit of the city that we are proud to call “Sweet Home.”

By Candice Olson, Communications, ArcelorMittal USA

Delegates at the Leadership Convention got a taste of the ‘Windy City” after experiencing a memorable 1st night in Chicago with rain, thunder, lightening and tornado warnings! After the storm sirens stopped, participants awoke to a sunny 2nd day, ready to focus on Sales and Marketing, Customer Service and Human Resources.

In a compelling keynote address, one of ArcelorMittal’s top customers, Sergio Marchionne, CEO, Fiat Group Automobiles, explained lessons learned from the regeneration of the auto company. Marchionne attributes much of Chrysler’s, a subsidiary of Fiat, journey from “chapter 11 in 2004 to chapter 1 in 2010” to a profound cultural change. He also expressed confidence in building a future with Fiat’s partners like ArcelorMittal that is based on respect and mutual esteem.

Showing the diversity of ArcelorMittal’s products, the conversation turned from cars to appliances, as Mike Rippey, President and CEO, ArcelorMittal USA, presented a video about our global partnership with Whirlpool. “The approach we have with ArcelorMittal and the global partnership, is unique within the steel industry,” said Steve McLaughlin, General Manager, Raw Materials Procurement, Whirlpool Corporation. “Together, we have been able to weather some very trying economic times for both companies.”

During the afternoon session, attention was centered on Human Resources (HR) with the panel fielding questions from the audience about HR strategy. “It’s very simple – in 1 sentence – we have to be better than our competitors,” said Gerhard Renz, Executive Vice President and CEO, Long Europe. “I would like to have a new set of 3Cs (formerly Cash, Costs and Customers) as a slogan for our people to build motivation – Cash, Climate and Career.”

Day 2 closed with the visit to the Field Museum where guests learned about climate change and the importance of alternative fuels, recycling and nature conservation. These initiatives reflect ArcelorMittal’s commitment to protecting the environment and also offered food for thought as the delegates wait to hear which sector wins the Environment and Corporate Responsibility Performance Excellence Award on the 3rd and final day of the Leadership Convention.

By Candice Olson, Communications, ArcelorMittal USA

With regular football updates from the FIFA World Cup, Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, then took to the stage to speak about the passion and dedication of our 280,000 employees based in 60 countries. “Your plant is part of a global network that forms one of the biggest companies in the world,” said Mr. Mittal. As he explained the convention’s theme of “winning in the post-crisis world,” Chicago’s stormy skies cleared and seemed to underline this important message.

In the afternoon, delegates caught a glimpse of the “steel plant of the future” through a presentation by Greg Ludkovsky, Vice President, Global Research and Development (R&D). “If ArcelorMittal is going to be competitive and achieve its potential we need to look for opportunities to innovate at all levels. This will require improved technology and a better job of bringing R&D scale to operations,” said Gonzalo Urquijo, GMB member who introduced Ludkovsky’s presentation.

The first day concluded with a visit to the city’s famous Art Institute where the renowned sculptor, Anish Kapoor, and structural engineer Cecil Balmond presented the ArcelorMittal Orbit blueprints to the delegates. Afterwards, Mr. Mittal and his son Aditya Mittal, CFO, ArcelorMittal, soaked in the Chicago skyline  as they walked back to the hotel and reflected on a busy first day.

By Candice Olson, Communications, ArcelorMittal USA

March 23. Web TV Episode 2, The Restart, is ready for our CFO Aditya Mittal to review (as he does with every episode that you can watch on this site). But Corporate Communications encounters an obstacle: Aditya is in Brazil, visiting different sites and with very limited internet access… so we will need to wait for a few days to show him the clip.

… or not! “Why don’t you try to find out where exactly in Brazil Aditya is, and see if a communications colleague on the spot can show him the episode?” Stefan Schwarz, Head of Internal Communications, asks me. And so the machine starts: Aditya’s Executive Assistant confirms that he is arriving in Tubarao tonight. I contact our colleague Sidemberg Rodrigues, Communications Manager at Tubarao, who happens to be picking Aditya up at the airport.

“I will download the file right now and maybe, if he is not too tired after landing, he can watch it during the transfer from the airport to the hotel!” Sidemberg says.

So he shows Aditya the video, Aditya says “excellent”… and the episode is validated! Just in time for you to watch and thanks to the collaboration of a global team that ‘never sleeps’. Muito obrigados, Sidemberg!

Is it a tower? Is it a trumpet? Is it a “shish pipe” (as London Mayor Boris Johnson joked)? Whatever you think of the breathtaking sculpture by Turner Prize winning artist Anish Kapoor, who was assisted by one of the world’s leading structural designers, Cecil Balmond, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is already becoming the world’s most popular conversation piece with over 50,000 Twitter mentions only hours after the design’s unveiling at a Press Conference in London. And that’s a good thing!

The suspense was electric at the press conference on March 31. Journalists were invited to hear breaking news concerning the 2012 Olympic Games and they were not disappointed. London Mayor     Boris Johnson and ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO, Lakshmi Mittal unveiled the artist and design chosen to create a spectacular new visitor attraction in Olympic Park – the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

With cameras flashing during Boris’s speech (surely the most entertaining mayor ever) he told the story of how a 45 second chance meeting with Mr Mittal in a cloak room in Davos eventually led to ArcelorMittal’s 16 million£ funding towards a new icon steel structure for the city as well as the Group’s two tier sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympics Games to support the infrastructure and success of 2012.

Kapoor said that that the Orbit’s bold non-linear design came out of the challenge to redefine what a tower is. Calling the resulting sculpture a “dynamic representation of a city coming out of a recession,” Boris thanked ArcelorMittal, along with the artistic input of Kapoor and Balmond, for helping to give the city of London an attraction that will last long after the Olympics have come and gone.

A smiling Mr Mittal said that the Orbit not only demonstrates to people the beauty that steel can achieve, but that the Olympics are a global event, and as ArcelorMittal is a truly global company, it is the right moment for ArcelorMittal to offer something to the City of London that was truly global in scope and appeal. A quick look at the internet a few short minutes after the design was unveiled showed that news of it – and debate about the choice – has already been travelling around the world and back again.

Picture taken by mayoroflondon

“Why a new season of the Web TV, and why now?” you may wonder. In the last 18 months we have seen projects suspended, ArcelorMittal colleagues leaving, orders from our customers halted, our steel production falling by almost 50%, then picking up again… and just now, the Web TV comes back, and with renewed energy. Here is why.

Many things have changed in the last few months, but our brand attitude ‘boldness’ has not: we were quite bold dealing with the crisis, being the first to announce very tough measures.

Now that we see signs of recovery, we turn a camera on ourselves in a still fragile period and document the story as it happens. While we do, we are not yet certain of how it is going to play out for our Group, the industry or quite frankly, the economy of the world in general. It is, literally, history in the making. More than transparent, it is a very bold way to do business, isn’t it?

In the worst moments of the crisis and also now, we believe in communication. And good communication is a 2-way road… that is why at the heart of Web TV 2010, and beyond the video episodes, we are allowing people inside and out of the company to participate in open discussions and criticism, but inviting you to do so in an increasingly user friendly format. 

Is it for real? Check out the discussion on our CR activities in India, or the reaction generated to our donation to Haiti victims, and decide for yourself…

You have heard in Episode 1 the feelings and concerns that ArcelorMittal people, from top management to the shop floor, experienced during the crisis. This period has been a tough test for the entire Group, and especially for our leaders.

In the worst moment of the crisis, the Communications team launched Our Leaders Speak – an internal series of video interviews with our top executives about the impact of the crisis in their areas, the measures taken and key challenges ahead.

These are some of the things that they told us…:

• “The economic crisis has been in many respects a blessing in disguise: it has forced us to do things that we were otherwise too busy to think about during the ‘supercycle’”
• “We should never take for granted that good times will last forever”
• “We must expect the worst from the external world, but be extremely optimistic about what we can achieve together”
• “We can look forward to continuing to work for a very healthy company: We were overall very strong getting into this crisis, and we are very well positioned to emerge even stronger”
• “We have to move from survival mode into forward looking mode”
• “All of us ArcelorMittal employees after this are going to come out of this much more united, in order to make a much better company and be the leader – not only in terms of tonnes, but for all our workers, suppliers, customers and communities”
• “This crisis was a sprint race – we must keep the same will to win in the marathon of the future”

Watch all the Our Leaders Speak videos on the Group’s intranet www.myarcelormittal.com – ArcelorMittal employees only

More than one year has passed since the last issue of boldspirit, ArcelorMittal’s company-wide magazine. But it was worth the wait! boldspirit is finally back, now in the form of an e-zine, to follow the footsteps of its award-winning print version…

The print magazine was launched more than 2 years ago, in the summer of 2007. Many things can happen in 2 years, and happen they did! Today, as the Company is cautiously finding its way out of the crisis, boldspirit is back, fresher and bolder than ever, to accompany the Group in this new chapter of its history.

From people to facilities, and from the shop floor to the top management, boldspirit tells you all you need to know about ArcelorMittal and its operational philosophy of Safe Sustainable Steel… with a special focus on Safe in this 1st edition!

So these are some of the features you will be able to read inside the 1st boldspirit e-zine:

• Health and Safety – a focus on the Company’s number 1 priority
• A Day in a Life –a day with José Pinheiro, foreman at ArcelorMittal Belval, Luxembourg
• Leaders Speak – interviews with Michel Wurth, Member of the Group Management Board, Robrecht Himpe, EVP Flat Carbon Europe  and Michael Pfitzner, EVP, Commercial Coordination, Marketing and Trade Policy
• Social dialogue in action – roundtable at the Employee Relations KMP
• Blast furnaces – a look at the old soldiers of the steel industry
• Sanjay Samaddar – a relaxed family moment with the CEO – FCE Business Division East and CEO – ArcelorMittal Poland

Discover it all for yourselves – Check out boldspirit!

Our colleagues Liliana, Rogelio and Michel were perhaps the happiest people at the recent VIP event to inaugurate the exhibition ‘Moctezuma, Aztec Ruler’, supported by ArcelorMittal: It’s not every day that one has the opportunity to discover a fascinating culture several centuries old, discuss with the leaders of your company and be the last one to leave the British Museum, all in the same evening…

They came all the way from ArcelorMittal sites in Romania, Mexico and Belgium. They had printed the intranet article containing the names and pictures of the 3 winners of our internal Moctezuma competition, so that they could recognise each other… and they did!

Liliana Hutanu, Rogelio Constantino and Michel Delville (in the picture, with Mr Mittal) were among the first lucky people to see the latest exhibition on great rulers in history, an exhibition which, according to some of the visitors, brings Mexico and Europe together. Composed of 150 pieces, 100 of them had never been in the UK, and for many it’s the first time outside Mexico, a country where our Group has a strong presence.

“Marvellous”, “impressive” and “unique” are some of the adjectives that these 3 colleagues used to describe what they saw. Liliana, Rogelio and Michel are now back to work at their respective plants, with their suitcases full of memories of a very special evening.