Archives

Strategic Movements: February 2018

By Tim J. Smith, PhD February 23, 2018

Margrethe Vestager, EU’s antitrust chief, hit Qualcomm with a EUR 977 million fine for anticompetitive practices. Crime: contracts with rebates paid to Apple for using Qualcomm chips exclusively and had a dominant position.

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Value on the Table vs. Capturable Value

By Tim J. Smith, PhD January 30, 2018

In this article I will review some of the issues engaged and practices suggested by different authors, and then offer the Half-Gains Double-Losses rule to define the capturable value from the economic value to customer and therefore drive a price recommendation for guiding the pricing decision.

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Thinking About a Career in Pricing?

By Mary DeBoni January 28, 2018

Remember, pricing professionals come from a wide variety of backgrounds and the skills needed to be successful can be acquired in many related functions and departments. Just because you don’t have the word pricing in your current title does not mean you are not qualified!

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Harvard Uncovers a 15th Century Business Success Manual

By James T. Berger January 28, 2018

The translated manual offers “early concepts of corporate social responsibility,” says Harvard Business School professor of management practice Dante Roscini. The manual also addresses “the issue of responsibility to the community and who you are as a person.”

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Strategic Movements: January 2018

By Tim J. Smith, PhD January 28, 2018

The future may not become a dystopian duopoly of just Amazon and Walmart. There will be competition, but which and who? In dirt one can find gems.

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A Bad Metric for Good Pricing

By Tim J. Smith, PhD December 24, 2017

In this article, we look at how I have often seen pricing improvements measured and why I have some serious reservations with this common metric. I do this in the hopes of generating responses on how you accurately measured the effectiveness of pricing at your company.

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Checking Assumptions

By Kyle T. Westra December 22, 2017

Pricing is not only numbers, but strongly psychological and emotional. Certain norms emerge that dictate how products and services are sold in different industries. Customers come to expect those norms, whether or not they are necessarily the most economically efficient.

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Future of Internet at Stake if FCC Abandons Net Neutrality

By James T. Berger December 22, 2017

By the time you read this article, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will have voted on a FCC proposal to revoke “net neutrality” and stop regulating Internet service providers (ISPs), like landline phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon.

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Strategic Movements: December 2017

By Tim J. Smith, PhD December 22, 2017

The Federal Aviation Administration is contemplating an $8 increase on domestic round-trip ticketing fees.  In response, Delta Air Lines Inc. claims that for every $1 increase in facility charges, passenger demand declines by more than 1%. That would imply a primary demand elasticity of about three. Seems right. So, an $8 facilities charge increase would decrease flight travel by 8%.

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Pricing is Product Management’s Responsibility Too

By Tim J. Smith, PhD November 16, 2017

Product managers undoubtedly can be held accountable for the profitability of their portfolio. It is reasonably possible to make portfolio profitability a key performance indicator of a product manager. And it reasonable to make this part of their compensation package, thus holding them not only accountable but impacting their own economic condition based on the quality of the decisions they make.

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