United and Continental merge. Thoughts on Large and Small Businesses.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/03/news/companies/United_Continental_merge/index.htm?hpt=T2

Wow, a year on the heels of Delta merging with Northwest! We're starting to see huge airline companies pitted against smaller airlines (JetBlue, Virgin America, etc.) I wonder if this means prices will be going up, or down for the consumer. While I like the advantages of reliability of a large company, I'm always worried when companies merge as it lessons market competition. Within competition are the very drivers of improvement, efficiency and customer understanding.

I've worked for large companies and small companies and there are prizes and pitfalls to both, but large companies seem to thrive on bloat and administrative impediments. It often becomes a place where nameless, faceless people in cubicles have any creativity or life sucked out of them on a daily basis. And you wonder why things like this happen: Maytag Crosses Popular Blogger, Gets Spun Dry. We've all had encounters like this. Large companies seem to thrive on hiring people to squash all the patience and reason out of you when you need their help.

On the other hand small companies have so much spirit but don't have a system in place to grow steadily and not in havoc-wreaking spurts, maintain checks and balances and support all the facets that keep their talent happy and healthy.

But my deepest respect goes to the success stories - the large companies that maintain a creed of service and excellence, and the smaller companies that make history and learn to both change and improve lives - and not just burn them out.

Alright back to the point! What it definitely means is that the smaller airlines are going to have to watch their profitability and fuel hedging to stay on point, because larger companies have been known to artificially drop prices to run smaller outfits out of business. I have a feeling we are evolving into a 2-price brackets industry in airline travel now, geared towards two different types of travelers.

Southeast Asia Travel Guides - free until August 1, 2010

Southeast Asia seems to be one of the more difficult places to navigate. A bevy of dialects encountered, one of the last visages of undeveloped countries, prone to natural disasters, and in some cases - constantly shrinking land mass. If you find yourself lucky enough to travel here (I haven't been yet, but hope to do so in the next couple of years), you may find yourself in need of a travel guide.

TravelFish is offering their e-guides for free (with registration) for the next 3 months. I'd snatch them up quickly!
http://www.travelfish.org/freeguides.php