What is a CEO?
A Chief Executive Officer, is the individual who manages operation of a whole organization. They are also referred to as Managing Director, or Executive Director in other countries. A CEO will face and decide on all major decisions that may occur in their organization.
What is a COO?
A Chief Operations Officer, is the individual who manages daily operation of an organization, they are responsible for generating routinely reports to the CEO, and ensure overall improvement on a day-by-day basis. The COO will often interact with employees directly, to boost morale and motivation in the company, while also aiding in any decisions they need made.
What is a CTO?
The Chief Technology Officer handles all scientific and technical focuses of an organization. They will often be directly involved in the delivery of any technical services offered to client and customer bases in their organization, and will develop technical strategies for future development.
What is a CFO?
A Chief Financial Officer is the primary individual responsible for all financial risks of an organization. They also keep all financial records, generate financial reports, and handle all financial planning. In some cases a CFO will also manage the analysis of data for their organization.
What is a reseller?
A reseller can be a company, or just an individual, who purchases a product for the purpose of selling it on to others. For instance, most grocery stores will purchase food from packaging plants in bulk, and resell it to their shoppers.
In most cases, a reseller will buy a large quantity of product at a discount in order to sell the products for a profit. As with any business, it is illegal for a reseller to operate at a loss by selling their product cheaper than they purchased it for.
What is price fixing?
Price fixing is when a collection of companies will work together to decide the price at which a product or service will sell for. This allows the large organization collective to undercut smaller vendors, or charge extortionate prices when they have no direct competition. Although consumers may enjoy a lower price when the corporations involved commit to price fixing, the prices generally rise much higher than they were before the competing companies left the market.
Due to the direct harm price fixing causes both to industry competition and the end consumer, it is an illegal practice that can be brought to court if evidence is presented to show organizations have been participating in price fixing. However, it is generally hard to prove that price fixing has occurred until it has already damaged the other companies in its respective market. As such, it is generally has the intended effect before it can be stopped.
Price fixing can occur in almost any market and at any time. Some notable accusations have occured in the Gasoline market, toward technology giant Apple’s E-book market, and were even proven true in court in the case of the Lysine industry, an animal feed additive.
Read information on price fixing law from its Wikipedia page.
Relevant links:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/35353
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/technology/13iht-13panel.17777580.html
What is a monopoly?
A monopoly is when a single company owns nearly the entire market for a select industry, or even a multitude of industries. This hurts all aspects of said industries by preventing competition, and hence innovation. Consumers finally notice the effects of this when prices rise for a decreasing improvement in quality, and they have no alternative providers to go to.
Along with price fixing, this practice is illegal unless the governing body passes judgement otherwise. However, a company must first be declared a monopoly before charges can be pressed, and court cases can last for years before a decision is made. Even Microsoft was once on trial for controlling the majority of the x86 personal computer market in 1998, and it wasn’t until the year 2000 that they were convicted and forced to decrease market share among their competitors.
During this same time frame, there were even speculated monopolies forming in the satellite communications industries when two industry giants merged. Or when new companies trying to launch satellites found themselves pushed out of the market. Sadly there are many large companies today in every industry that are close to being considered monopolies by merging and working together to ensure no new competition enters their markets, ensuring no alternatives.
Read information on monopoly history and law from its Wikipedia page.
Relevant links:
http://hlbtoo.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/canadas-own-evil-empire/
http://www.lilithnews.com/2009/11/monopolies-in-canada.html
http://www.onlinemarketing-trends.com/2011/03/biggest-corporate-monopolies-in-history.html
