The companies that were chosen are:

Verizon Communications Inc. and Health Service Managers

Purpose of Assignment

Inthis week, students are learning about managing different types ofeconomic costs. Organizations typically have either high fixed costs orlow fixed costs, and it is important to understand how businessdecisions differ in organizations with high fixed costs fromorganizations with low fixed costs.

Assignment Steps

Resources: Tutorial help on Excel^® and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft^®Office website. There are also additional tutorials via the weboffering support for Office products. Hoover's Company Profiles byProQuest located in the University Library

Choosetwo publicly-held organizations. One organization must have high fixedcosts and low variable costs, and the other organization must have lowfixed costs and high variable costs.

Note:A publicly-held organization is a private-sector firm that is owned bystock holders. Companies with high fixed costs include manufacturingcompanies, such as automobile manufactures, whereas service companies,such as accounting firms, might have low fixed costs.

Create a minimum 8-slide Microsoft^® PowerPoint^®presentation, including detailed speaker notes or voiceover, analyzingthe methods of managing cost depending on the cost construction.Research the University Library for recent publications regarding eachcompany and the industry data. The analysis should include thefollowing:

• Analyze your two chosen companies' costconstruction. Do the companies have high fixed costs or low fixed costs?Do the companies have high variable costs or low variable costs? Whatevidence presents itself to support your findings?
• In Excel^®,chart the relationship between total cost and the number of unitsproduced (output) for each organization/company. Plot two lines on thegraph – one line for each company you analyzed. Copy your graph fromExcel^® and paste it into your PowerPoint^® presentation.
• Analyzecurrently used methods to minimize costs for the companies and providerecommendations how to improve the process of minimizing costs based onthe available information for the industries in which the companiesoperate. Note: Companies are categorized by the industries theyoperate in. For example, Wal-Mart is a company operating within theretail trade industry. Hoover's Company Profiles by ProQuest located inthe University Library may be helpful.

Cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources.

Format the assignment consistent with APA guidelines.