Mathematics of Income

          In the tradition of mathematical exposition, I will attempt to maximize the income function under the ultimate boundary condition of time:

          There being in a year                                                    365 days

           minus the weekends (52 weeks in a year)                   -104 days

           minus public holidays (20 per year in Hong Kong)     -  20 days

           minus slow season                                                      - 60 days

          So that leaves                                                               181 days   (1)

       Over the years, I've heard stories of colleagues cramming more than 200 full day meetings in a year spanning the globe from London to New York to Amsterdam to Nairobi to Shanghai and Tokyo.  While I do not wish to question the veracity of such claims, I do feel these people must be smiling, ear to ear, when they retire every night; mocking those who rely on little blue pills.  God bless their endowment.

       For mortal beings, we have to cope with jet lag, lost luggage, logistics, health, personal and family problems to say the very least.  So anything approaching 160, 170 days would probably be the limit.  In fact, the more successful we are and the more work related traveling we incur, then the less working days we have available.

       Moving on, I'd like to examine the following statement:

                                        200x100 = 100x200

       Relax, this is not going to be a discourse on the commutative properties of groups.  This statement intends to demonstrate that price cutting won't work given boundary condition (1).  If a person used to charge $200 and did 100 meetings, to earn the same income he would have to do 200 meetings if he reduced price to $100.  But we already mentioned there is a limit of 160 - 180 working days available in a year; cutting price therefore, inherently, isn't a good strategy.

First published 28 May 2007.  Copyright of Pierre Wong