Prepare your Pricing Operations for Change

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for companies to improve pricing operations that enable pricing strategies in any given set of market conditions by taking certain steps before embarking on large initiatives that can affect prices, such as mergers or acquisitions, continuous improvement efforts, breakthrough changes (e.g., business process redesign or new technology implementation), or large-scale reorganization. Starting with pricing-related challenges, we draw attention to the importance of pricing operations by clarifying how pricing operations differ from pricing strategy and also how they directly impact profitability. Companies should follow a four-step approach to precede any major initiative affecting pricing, including Assessment of their pricing processes, Analysis of these pricing operations before bringing about sustained changes, then making and implementing Recommendations that should include Training of functional teams, in short, through AART. We discuss how companies can implement AART with illustrative examples.

Citation

Sodhi, N.S. (2012), "Prepare your Pricing Operations for Change", Smith, G.E. (Ed.) Visionary Pricing: Reflections and Advances in Honor of Dan Nimer (Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 335-355. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1069-0964(2012)0000019020