Beating Inflation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Comeback of the Inflation Specter

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 1-7

3. Victims and Profiteers of Inflation

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 9-19

4. Getting Ahead of Inflation

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 21-28

5. Understand Profit Mechanics

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 29-35

6. Optimize Prices in Line with Inflation

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 37-45

7. Control Value-to-Customer

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 47-53

8. Lead in Competition

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 55-60

9. Strengthen Pricing Power

   • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

   Pages 61-69

10. Exploit Digital Opportunities

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 71-80

11. Apply Smart Pricing Tactics

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 81-90

12. Introduce Innovative Pricing Systems

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 91-98

13. Toughen the Sales Force

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 99-108

14. Prioritize Finance

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 109-117

15. Reduce Costs

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 119-127

16. What to Do – Conclusion

    • Hermann Simon, Adam Echter

    Pages 129-135

Is unabated inflation the new normal? Inflation is back and here to stay. For companies, this means that the world in which they do business has fundamentally changed. This book examines inflation from multiple perspectives and offers actions and strategies for companies to cope with and manage it to ensure their survival. For businesses and consumers, it is not a question of eliminating inflation, but how to cope with it in order to suffer as little damage as possible. This includes not just price management, but also sales, finance, purchasing, cost management along with digitalization and innovation activities in equal measure. It also requires corporate cultural change, which if managed fast and successfully, the prospects of defeating inflation and thus ensuring the survival of the company are good.

• Sustained Inflation
• Preemptive pricing
• Profit mechanics
• US Inflation Reduction Act
• Less expensive alternative (LEA)
• Value-to-customer
• Innovative pricing systems
• Price leadership
• CEO and pricing power
• The State and inflation
• Monetary vs. commodity value
• Smart Pricing
• Freemium
• Phantom profit
• Money supply
• Signaling
• Competition
• Gold
• Agility
• Sales force

• Simon-Kucher & Partners, Bonn, Germany

  Hermann Simon

• Simon-Kucher & Partners, San Francisco, USA

  Adam Echter

Hermann Simon is the Founder and Honorary Chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners, the world's leading price consultancy. He is an expert in strategy, marketing and pricing and the only German in the “Thinkers50 Hall of Fame” of the most influential management thinkers in the world. In China the “Hermann Simon Business School” is named after him. Professor Simon has published over 40 books in 30 languages, including world bestsellers on Hidden Champions and price management. His most recent books are Many Worlds, One Life (Springer, 2021), True Profit! No Company Ever Went Broke from Turning a Profit (Springer, 2021) and Hidden Champions in the Chinese Century (Springer, 2022).

Adam Echter is a Partner at Simon-Kucher & Partners (San Francisco, CA, USA), where his consulting activities are focused on sales excellence, value definition and communication, business model transformation, and pricing. For 21 years, Mr. Echter’s career has focused on value-based sales. He is a regular speaker at the Professional Pricing Society, industry-specific events and lectures at several universities on the topic of pricing.