Jan Y. Yang

Pricing is a people business. What a company charges, whom it charges, when it holds firm and when it walks away: these are human decisions, shaped by judgment, incentives, conflict, and culture long before any model runs. And yet pricing rarely has a seat at the top table. It affects everyone but is owned by no one. Too often it is reduced to a technical exercise, or in the worst cases, guesswork. Most pricing books teach you how to set prices. This book asks the harder question: whether your organization can actually execute the prices it sets. The literature is rich on method and remarkably thin on the human system that surrounds it, the ownership, structure, governance, and cross-functional collaboration across strategy, marketing, sales, product, finance, and operations that decide whether good pricing ever survives contact with the real business. This book positions the human system as its primary focus and treats pricing technique as contextual elements, not the other way around. That argument matters more, not less, in the age of AI. Algorithms can optimize prices at remarkable speed, and propagate a mistake at the same speed with far less visibility. Correct a sales rep's mispriced deal and you have fixed one deal; a mispriced algorithm reaches thousands before anyone notices. Technology raises the analytical ceiling, but human judgment, alignment, and leadership still decide who wins. Drawing on real-world cases from B2B and consumer markets, this book gives pricing professionals, commercial leaders, and general managers the frameworks to rethink and build the people-centric systems that turn pricing into durable, profitable growth.

This book highlights the transformative potential of AI-enabled pricing, showing how it empowers businesses to unlock revenue, optimize customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge. By combining cutting-edge AI technologies with actionable strategies, it offers a comprehensive roadmap for organizations looking to move from reactive, manual pricing processes to proactive, data-driven systems that predict, adapt, and create value in real-time. Focused on practical applications, the book bridges the gap between technological innovation and real-world implementation. It features a unique blend of strategic insights, technical examples—including Python code and AI workflows—and case studies from industries such as retail, travel, and manufacturing. These examples demonstrate how companies have increased margins, reduced churn, and driven customer loyalty by leveraging AI. It also explores fast-evolving trends like autonomous systems, blockchain transparency, and ecosystem-driven pricing, making it essential reading for professionals eager to future-proof their pricing strategies. A key contribution of the book is its focus on the human element of AI adoption. It addresses challenges like resistance to change, ethical considerations in pricing fairness, and building trust with both internal teams and customers. By reframing AI as an enabler rather than a replacement, the book equips pricing professionals to transition from tactical roles to strategic leadership, fostering collaboration between human intuition and machine intelligence. The book raises provocative questions: How can businesses harness AI without compromising ethics or transparency? What skills will pricing teams need to thrive in an AI-driven future? And how can organizations align AI pricing with broader strategic goals? It answers these questions by offering clear, actionable solutions and a vision for integrating AI into the heart of business operations, transforming pricing from a functional necessity into a strategic differentiator. Designed for business leaders, pricing experts, and AI enthusiasts, this book is not just a guide—it’s a call to action to embrace the future of AI-enabled pricing with confidence, creativity, and purpose.

This book provides business owners and practitioners with a comprehensive and pragmatic guide to pricing, which lays out the essential steps to professionalizing pricing from day one all the way to a more mature stage. It not only details the key activities leading to result-driven pricing strategies and execution but also addresses the most important pillars of good pricing governance. To do so, the book covers a broad range of pricing topics relevant at different stages of business evolution, e.g. determining the starting point of the pricing journey, identifying unique selling propositions, gauging willingness to pay (WTP), conducting effective customer profiling, improving promotions, and managing distribution from a pricing standpoint. The book fills a gap in the current pricing literature, which largely consists of descriptive and retrospective narratives cataloging past pricing strategies and tactics that never delve into the underlying rationale and methodologies. It provides readers with clear, actionable insights on how to price their own products and services.

From business models to unique selling propositions, from product offerings to sales, marketing and pricing strategies, this book reveals what sets Chinese electric car manufacturers apart from their Western counterparts. Chinese automakers are gradually establishing themselves as the new trendsetters in the automotive industry as they make technological advances in various fields, especially in electric vehicles. As more of them look overseas for opportunities, especially in the European market, it is time for the local players to better understand who they are up against and take steps to keep up with the rapid growth of their Far Eastern competitors. Based on Simon-Kucher’s project experience, this book shows what is going on behind the Great Wall, informs readers about the latest technological trends and advances in China, and offers suggestions on what Chinese newcomers should bring with them when they come to town. Sharing valuable insights for all readerswith an interest in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, this book will be particularly relevant for managers and decision-makers at Western OEMs, suppliers, and other relevant players in the automotive industry.

This book provides business owners and practitioners with a comprehensive and pragmatic guide to pricing, which lays out the essential steps to professionalizing pricing from day one all the way to a more mature stage. It not only details the key activities leading to result-driven pricing strategies and execution but also addresses the most important pillars of good pricing governance. To do so, the book covers a broad range of pricing topics relevant at different stages of business evolution, e.g. determining the starting point of the pricing journey, identifying unique selling propositions, gauging willingness to pay (WTP), conducting effective customer profiling, improving promotions, and managing distribution from a pricing standpoint. The book fills a gap in the current pricing literature, which largely consists of descriptive and retrospective narratives cataloging past pricing strategies and tactics that never delve into the underlying rationale and methodologies. It provides readers with clear, actionable insights on how to price their own products and services.

From business models to unique selling propositions, from product offerings to sales, marketing and pricing strategies, this book reveals what sets Chinese electric car manufacturers apart from their Western counterparts. Chinese automakers are gradually establishing themselves as the new trendsetters in the automotive industry as they make technological advances in various fields, especially in electric vehicles. As more of them look overseas for opportunities, especially in the European market, it is time for the local players to better understand who they are up against and take steps to keep up with the rapid growth of their Far Eastern competitors. Based on Simon-Kucher’s project experience, this book shows what is going on behind the Great Wall, informs readers about the latest technological trends and advances in China, and offers suggestions on what Chinese newcomers should bring with them when they come to town. Sharing valuable insights for all readerswith an interest in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, this book will be particularly relevant for managers and decision-makers at Western OEMs, suppliers, and other relevant players in the automotive industry.

The price of virtually any product or service can reveal intriguing stories. The author looks back at his own decade-long pricing journey and shares some of the most exciting and insightful pricing stories, allowing readers to see the world from a different angle. From pricing a chilled Coke in Tehran, to iPhone, to explaining the fall of MUJI, this book reveals the rationales behind and outcomes of various pricing strategies. The author also presents a number of stories from China, a "price wonderland" in which he, both as a consumer and a pricing consultant, has observed unconventional pricing practices rarely found elsewhere, such as the frequent use of negative prices among tech unicorns, i.e., sellers paying consumers to use their products. Structured as a collection of short stories, the book offers a delightful and eye-opening reading experience for business owners, managers, and anyone interested in understanding what prices are, and how pricing works and interacts withus as customers.

Chinese companies have been increasingly active in outbound investment in recent years, with Germany the third largest destination in Europe. Adopting an analytical approach and utilizing case studies and expert interviews, this book examines Chinese mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Germany, with a focus on the companies’ business growth, particularly the integration process and subsequent growth after acquisition. The authors contend that Chinese investors take a different approach than their western counterparts, by fostering a long-term orientation toward their investments and placing greater emphasis on co-evolution with the acquired firms rather than transfer of knowledge back to China. This book offers readers a behind-the-scenes story of three separate M&A cases, shedding light on the growth models that ensue from mergers and acquisitions, and the endeavors of Chinese and German managers to grow the businesses together.

Chinese companies have been increasingly active in outbound investment in recent years, with Germany the third largest destination in Europe. Adopting an analytical approach and utilizing case studies and expert interviews, this book examines Chinese mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Germany, with a focus on the companies’ business growth, particularly the integration process and subsequent growth after acquisition. The authors contend that Chinese investors take a different approach than their western counterparts, by fostering a long-term orientation toward their investments and placing greater emphasis on co-evolution with the acquired firms rather than transfer of knowledge back to China. This book offers readers a behind-the-scenes story of three separate M&A cases, shedding light on the growth models that ensue from mergers and acquisitions, and the endeavors of Chinese and German managers to grow the businesses together.