Hermann Simon (born 10 February 1947) is a German author and businessperson. He is chairman of

Simon-Kucher & Partners Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global strategy consulting firm with offices in 30 countries. Founded in 1985, the firm focuses on growth strategy, marketing, pricing, and sales. Background Simon-Kucher & Partners was founded by Hermann Simon an ...

, a strategy and marketing consultancy. He is a strategy,

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and pricing consultant. An ongoing online German-language survey voted him the second-most influential management thinker. Simon has authored numerous books and writes articles for international newspapers and business magazines.

Short biography

* 1947 Born in

Hasborn Hasborn is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The municipality lies in the Eifel – ...

/ Eifel, Germany * 1966 High School leaving A-levels certificate, Cusanus High School, Wittlich * 1967-1969 German Air Force, fighter bomber squadron 33, reserve officer * 1969-1973 Studies of economics and business administration in Cologne and Bonn * 1974-1979 Ph.D. and qualification as a university professor under Horst Albach in Bonn * 1979-1989 Professor at the University of Bielefeld * 1989-1995 Professor at the University of Mainz * 1983-2002 Various guest professorships and visiting researcher positions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978/79), Vienna Institute for Advanced Studies (1979), Keio University in Tokyo (1983), Stanford University (1984), INSEAD in Fontainebleau (1980–1985), Harvard Business School (1988/89), London Business School (1991–2002) * 1985-1988 Director, USW The German Management Institute, Schloss Gracht/Cologne * 1985 Founded the company Simon - Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants * 1995-2009 CEO of Simon - Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants * Since 2009 Chairman of Simon - Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants

Career

Simon's career spans three professions in his work as a management consultant, business

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

, 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 Peter Ferdinand Drucker (; ; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business co ...

. Simon was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2019.

Management consultant

He was CEO of

strategy and marketing consultants from 1995 until 2009. His consulting firm focuses on strategy, marketing, pricing and sales. ''

Bloomberg BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' described Simon-Kucher & Partners as a "world leader in giving advice to companies on how to price their products", and ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' 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 Hidden champions are relatively small but highly successful companies that are concealed behind a curtain of inconspicuousness, invisibility, and sometimes secrecy. The term was coined by Hermann Simon. He first used the term as a title of a public ...

'' (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 Hidden champions are relatively small but highly successful companies that are concealed behind a curtain of inconspicuousness, invisibility, and sometimes secrecy. The term was coined by Hermann Simon. He first used the term as a title of a public ...

", "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 Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

'', ''Recherche et Applications en Marketing, Décisions Marketing'', '' European Management Journal'' and several German journals.

Works

Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * (published in 14 languages) * (published in 15 languages) *

Selected articles

* * * * * * * * *

Other

* * * * * *

References

External links

*
Simon-Kucher & Partners official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Hermann Living people 1947 births Academics of London Business School University of Cologne alumni University of Bonn alumni Bielefeld University faculty Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz faculty Harvard Business School faculty Stanford University faculty German non-fiction writers German business theorists German economists German male non-fiction writers