Simon-Kucher founder Hermann Simon releases book on price management

Hermann Simon’s 14th book on pricing, "Price Management: Strategy, Analysis, Decision, Implementation" – and his second co-authored with Martin Fassnacht, a professor at the Otto Beisheim School of Management – is now available in the US.

Translated from the original German-language book, "Price Management" covers the key dimensions of pricing, and its lessons applicable across industries and organizations. Drawing on the extensive real-world experience of its authors, the book features dozens of international case studies. The book highlights current innovations in pricing, including new price metrics, negative prices, digital payment systems, and Big Data applications.

“The concept of price management represents the intersection of price and value, the place where the producer of goods or services and the customer meet,” Simon said. “Pricing strategies typically fail whenever there is a miscalculation made during any of the four price management phases: strategy, analysis, decision, and implementation.”

“While price management could be viewed as a basic business discipline like management, marketing, information technology and finance, our collective experience has shown that the optimal way to frame and solve pricing issues is often industry specific," he added.

As such, the book takes into account the unique situations of various sectors, including industrial products, services, and consumer goods. Simon and Fassnacht also address the implications of tech advancements such as the internet and measurement and sensor technologies that have led to pricing innovations like freemium, pay-per-use, and flat rates.

Simon is, in a way, Germany’s answer to Michael Porter – both are highly regarded business and management authors with strong academic backgrounds, and both founded consulting firms (Deloitte purchased Porter’s Monitor Group in 2013). Simon was voted the second-most influential management thinker in German-speaking countries in a survey on Managementdenker.de, beating out Porter, who placed fifth. The late Peter Drucker took the top spot.

Simon’s academic background is in economics and business administration, and he holds a doctorate from the University of Bonn. Simon was a professor of business administration and marketing at the University of Bielefeld and University of Mainz, and founded marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners with his doctoral students Eckhard Kucher and Karl-Heinz Sebastian in 1985. The Economist has deemed the Bonn-based consulting firm “the world’s leading pricing consultancy,” while Bloomberg has called Simon-Kucher a "world leader in giving advice to companies on how to price their products."

Simon served as Simon-Kucher's CEO from 1995 to 2009. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, Stanford, London Business School, Insead, Keio University in Tokyo, and MIT.

Simon has published more than 35 books, including worldwide bestsellers "Hidden Champions," "Power Pricing," and "Manage for Profit, Not for Market Share."

The book's co-author, Martin Fassnacht, has held the Otto Beisheim Endowed Chair of Marketing and Commerce since 2003. He is also the academic director of the German university’s MBA program, and serves as a strategic advisor to retailers and consumer goods manufacturers. His research focuses on price management, retail marketing, and brand management.

Fassnacht has a PhD from the University of Mainz, where he studied under Simon. He was previously an assistant professor at the University of Mannheim and Otto Beisheim, and an associate professor of marketing at the University of Paderborn.

Related: Simon-Kucher & Partners reports record revenue growth