The world today is a global village. It is no longer necessary, or sometimes even possible, for all the employees of any organization to come together. Equally though people need to share ideas and information more than ever. Business associates or even family and friends may be located anywhere, but our need to stay connected grows daily. We may need to talk, share pictures and programs, work together or collaborate on many projects.

The Internet has brought the world even closer. It has taken our ability to share information to a new level with brand new abilities to work and communicate worldwide. Internet meetings are web based and accessible to anyone with high speed Internet access. Unlike email, they are real time and they allow you to get immediate feedback and communicate your ideas faster. (more…)

My job is not stressful, I would say, just demanding. I answer the phone for a brokerage house on Wall Street. I enjoy my job, but I was having a problem keeping up with the volume of calls that come across my desk everyday. My supervisor noticed that I was having problems and suggested that they could provide me with a headset, if I thought it might help. I figured it would be worth a shot, so I asked for one. The day I got it, I was almost instantly in heaven. I had two hands free to write memorandums, input data, and handle the transfer of incoming calls. This headset was corded, but the cord to the phone was sufficiently long enough to not be in my way. My day flew by and I was impressed at how valuable a piece of equipment the headset had already become. It was lightweight, out of my face and easy to wear…so easy, in fact, that by the end of the first day, I forgot I had it on.

On the train ride home, I thought I noticed a few people staring at me. I chalked it up to paranoia and lost myself in a book I brought to read. I have a fairly long commute, so I am usually able to get in a few chapters on the way to my apartment. I normally find it easy to get absorbed into my reading, but today was different. I felt like all eyes were on me. By the time my stop came around, I was sufficiently creped out and ready to unwind in the comfort of my own home.   (more…)

A duopoly is a situation in which two firms control nearly all of the market for a product or service.

Duopolies can be surprisingly competitive. If you remember that the price of a product or service is determined solely by the highest losing bid price and the lowest losing ask price, you’ll realize why a duopoly can be so competitive. A large number of inefficient competitors will have almost no affect on prices in the long run unless someone (either a government or a group of idiotic investors) is willing to continually finance unprofitable operations in an unprofitable industry (think airlines).

Of course, there is always the fear of a price fixing scheme in a duopoly. Generally, however, that fear is unfounded. Human nature suggests a price fixing scheme is far more likely to occur in an oligopoly than a duopoly. Humans weight the fear of loss far more heavily than the greed of gain when making calculations about the future. In a duopoly, mistrust increases the fear of loss inherent to any price fixing scheme (namely, the other guy will stab you in the back). In an oligopoly, the diffusion of power and the lack of excess capacity at any one firm makes price fixing very attractive. Price fixing in an oligopoly is a much safer bet than price fixing in a duopoly.

There are, of course, other reasons why a duopoly is very unlikely to result in a price fixing scheme. In addition to a healthy does of fear, there is an often unhealthy does of hate in duopolies. There is always just one scapegoat in a duopoly. Hatred is a personal emotion; if spread over too many objects it tends to wane away. Finally, there’s the simple fact that both competitors in a duopoly are likely really big, really agile, really cutthroat players. The process leading up to a duopoly tends to be a sort of wolfing run, in which two pups are separated from the runts.

Having said all that, price fixing is possible in a duopoly. Some duopolies are not the result of competition but of nationalization and privatization, although this is relatively rare since a nationalized monopoly won’t often result in a lasting duopoly (it will either remain a monopoly once privatized or get crushed by new, private competitors).

Finally, a price fixing scheme always makes more sense in a commodity business. After all, any product differentiation limits the degree to which general demand is applicable to specific competitors’ products. For example, Coke and Pepsi are highly differentiated products, at least when purchased in their specific packaging (physical differences or similarities are immaterial here; it is only the buyer’s belief that matters). I drink Pepsi, and I can assure you (however irrational it sounds) that no drop in the price of Coke would be sufficient to get me to stop buying Pepsi. There is almost no other tangible good about which I could say the same. So, clearly Coke and Pepsi are differentiated products, and there’s very little chance of an effective price fixing scheme between them.

If you’re thinking about taking accounting classes in order to better manage your own business or non-profit organization you’re off to a rewarding experience! In fact, chances are that you’ll notice evidence of your expanded understanding of accounting and financial management in various ways almost as soon as you apply the new knowledge and methodology.

You don’t have to earn a four year degree in accountancy in order to expand your knowledge of accounting in meaningful and productive ways. If you want to make accountancy your profession, you would do well to invest your time and resources into a two or four year degree program. (more…)

Looking after a new employee during their first few weeks at work can mean the difference between their success and failure as employees as well as your success and failure as an employer, manager or supervisor.  Proper orientation determines how fast the new employee can be productive and efficient in his or her new job while giving you a good opportunity to make your new employee an efficient part of your team.

Below are 15 suggestions that will help you deal with your new employees during their first few weeks to help make sure that they get started on the right track. (more…)