Pragmatic Competitive Intelligence for Pricing Precision
Managers feel frustrated when the lack of reliable competitive information mars their ability to plan precise price actions. They try to find validation by sketching their competitors’ as irrational, opportunistic or short-sighted but that is hardly useful. Managers seeking dependable competitive intelligence should start by defining clear objectives prior to gathering competitive intelligence. The problem definition should determine requirements, where and how much competitive data to collect, how to analyze it, and how to share it within the organization.
Fewer Products: Is Less More?
Protecting profits through inventory management is a popular topic on quarterly earnings calls whether the company is Xerox Corporation or Joann Fabrics. …The one-stop-shop concept gets unprofitable if a grocer stocks, say, ten competing brands offering cheddar flavored microwave popcorn or a manufacturer offers good-better-best variations of a product without differentiating them by value or price.
Who Owns Pricing?
The Pricing Czar is dead. He lies in state with other forgettable organizational models propounded by consultants and academics. The idea behind this model, an all-powerful person could enforce unquestionable discipline, simply does not fit with human nature. Historically, people have given in to autocracy but have always revolted against it to find themselves in [...]
The Tide is Going Out
“When the tide goes out, we find out who’s been swimming without a bathing suit,” wrote Warren Buffet to his shareholders about the housing crunch rooted in the credit debacle that continues to batter the US as well as the global economy. If one picked a mere two examples out of dozens of known blunders, [...]
Make Your New Year Pricing Resolutions Stick
On this last day of 2007, I am ready with my list of resolutions for the new year just like everyone else. I plan to spend more quality time with my family and live healthy with a balanced diet, reasonable work hours and more sleep. The executives who worried about their company’s pricing performance all [...]
Six Sigma Pricing