Hermann Simon

Simon's career spans three professions in his work as a management consultant, business professor, and author. His books have been translated into 25 languages and are widely read among managers. An ongoing online survey votes him a most-influential management thinker, second only to Peter Drucker. Simon was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2019.

Management consultant

He was CEO of Simon-Kucher strategy and marketing consultants from 1995 until 2009. His consulting firm focuses on strategy, marketing, pricing and sales. Bloomberg BusinessWeek described Simon-Kucher & Partners as a "world leader in giving advice to companies on how to price their products", and The Economist wrote that "Simon-Kucher is the world's leading pricing consultancy".

Author

Simon's books are widely read among managers and have been translated into 25 languages. In March 2011, Simon and co-author Martin Fassnacht were awarded the 2010 Georg-Bergler-Prize for Preismanagement. Carrying with it a €20000 prize, this is the most highly endowed award for European marketing textbooks.

In 2006, Simon published Manage for Profit, Not for Market Share, which takes a critical look at the widespread focus on volume and market share and calls for a conscious shift of focus towards profit.

Simon's most well-known publications include Think (2004), Power Pricing (1997), Hidden Champions (1996), Hidden Champions of the 21st Century (2009) and Preismanagement (3rd edition 2009). Additional publications include Das große Handbuch der Strategieinstrumente (2002), Das große Handbuch der Strategiekonzepte (2000) and Simon for Managers (2000).

Simon has coined a number of phrases which are commonly used in management theory and practice, including "price management", "hidden champions", "Servicewüste" and "investor marketing". Since 1988, Simon has regularly authored a column for the German monthly Manager Magazin. He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous business journals, including the International Journal of Research in Marketing, Management Science, Recherche et Applications en Marketing, Décisions Marketing, European Management Journal and several German journals.