Madhavan Ramanujam - Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price

Too many startups focus on product engineering, ignore the customer, and end up failing. We launched last year using the approach in this book, and it led to twice the targeted revenue growth and made the difference between the success and failure of our company. Starting with the customer, market, and price is the only approach for product success.

Spenser Skates, co-founder and CEO, Amplitude Analytic

This book is a very practical guide to the difficult decisions that have to be made during the product development process. It's a must-read for anyone responsible for product development.

Mark James, senior vice president of global pricing and product, DHL Express

Many savvy marketers have adopted the important paradigm shift in pricingmoving from cost-based pricing to customer value-in-use pricing. The authors of Monetizing Innovation persuasively explain the next, equally important, paradigm shift: moving value-in-use thinking from the end of the new product development process to the beginning. Companies that apply this wisdom will see a vast improvement in their ability to identify and capitalize on key market opportunities.

Robert Dolan, Baker Foundation professor, Harvard Business School

Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke use their decades of experience working with companies across the globe to identify the best ways for organizations to innovate profitably. Their book explains how to shift focusfrom the product to the customer, from internal concerns to external needs, and from company costs to buyer willingness to pay. Also, and maybe even more importantly, they tell you what not to do with your company's new ideasto help you avoid product failures.

Kevin Mitchell, president, The Professional Pricing Society, Inc.

Coupling customer-driven engagement with up-front pricing strategies enables innovators to avoid failure. Monetizing Innovation provides an insightful and pragmatic strategy for innovation and pricing.

Cary Burch, chief innovation officer, Thomson Reuters

Way too many R&D teams dedicate their lives to the development of poor product ideas. Monetizing Innovation offers game-changing concepts that help create winning products and optimize product margins. It will also make the lives of product development teams more meaningful and fun!

Ralf Drews, chairman of the board and CEO, Greif Velox Maschinenfabrik; former CEO, Drger Safety

I have had the pleasure of working closely with Madhavan over the years and his work has made a significant impact on companies I am involved with. His book challenges existing thinking that puts pricing at the very end of the innovation cycle and presents a fresh alternative that is realistic to implement. It is a must-read for entrepreneurs and executive management.

Greg Waldorf, CEO, Invoice2go; board member, Zillow

Understanding and anticipating what customers value is more critical than ever in this Information Age and the authors' nine steps provide a methodology that can be applied to any industry.

Nigel Lewis, vice president of aftermarket solutions, Caterpillar

Pricing power is one of the best predictors of stock price performance over the long run. With Monetizing Innovation, Madhavan and Georg address how important it is for pricing to go hand-in-hand with product innovation and design. Not only is the book full of insight and useful information, it dismisses some common fallacies.

Chet Kapoor, managing partner, Tenzing Global; board member, BrightCove

When it comes to understanding pricing and monetization, the team at Simon-Kucher is second to none. Any entrepreneur looking to refine their value proposition and pricing strategy should read this book.

Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder, chairwoman, and CEO, Care.com

Monetizing Innovation bridges that chasm between mediocre product innovation and trailblazing business transformation. Now product, marketing, and finance teams can all point to a single source of truthwhich provides invaluable insights, skills, and ideas to boost product ROI.

Duncan Robertson, partner, Paxion Capital Partners; former CFO, OpenTable

Monetizing Innovation is an excellent book, recommended for organizations that want to optimally target customers and design their products around the price to maximize profitability.

Marta Navarro, pricing and upselling director, Renault

We live in an era where customer knowledge allows for smarter product design. Monetizing Innovation explains the alchemy of going to market and pricing strategies to ensure success. It is a must-read for executives navigating the rapid change in customer expectations.

Hilary Schneider, CEO, LifeLock

Monetizing Innovation clearly describes why you need to put your customers' needs, value, and willingness to pay at the core of your innovation process. I have successfully and repeatedly implemented principles outlined in this book to drive business strategy and have seen massive ROI.

Vishaal Jayaswal, vice president of client solutions and value strategy, Cox Automotive

Capital-intensive innovation businesses like semiconductors have watched helplessly as their average selling price and margins have declined. In Monetizing Innovation, Madhavan and Georg show how to create winning solutions for well-defined, defensible customer segments that will drive the top and bottom line. If you are in the semiconductor business and want to make money, you need to read this book.

Mike Noonen, co-founder at Silicon Catalyst; former executive at NXP, GlobalFoundries, and National Semiconductor

It is essential to master the art of Monetizing Innovation. To achieve this, a company needs to have an established culture of innovation so that a constant stream of good ideas can be realistically evaluated for their monetization potential.

Jens Mller, COO, Securitas Deutschland

One would think that the pharmaceutical industry already knows it all in terms of monetizing innovation, given that the market perspective nowadays is already deeply ingrained in R&D planning. But this book shows how important this topic is across industries, and how much we can learn by looking beyond our own industry.

Andreas Altemark, GMACS, Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Solid price thinking and research used to be one of the few dependable and repeatable secret weapons skilled and experienced entrepreneurs could count on for giving them meaningful customer traction and a cash flow advantage over the newbies and incumbents. With Madhavan and Georg's excellent new book, Monetizing Innovation, it is now clearly no longer a secret.

Allan Pedersen, CEO, Zensur.io; managing partner, Triple P Capital

Monetizing Innovation is very relevant in any global context, especially India, where product innovation is just taking off. However, due to the nascent market, companies are struggling to justify investing in high-risk projects since they may or may not yield long-term returns. This book gives them the blueprint they need to remain competitive.

Aditya Singh, associate vice president of product, Flipkart

Innovations can achieve true economic success only when your customers find real benefit from your idea and are, more importantly, willing to pay for it. Monetizing Innovation provides the necessary frameworks and checklists to ensure that your ideas can truly achieve such success.

Lothar Kriszun, speaker of the Group Executive Board, CLAAS

Cover design: Wiley

Copyright 2016 by Simon-Kucher & Partners Strategy and Marketing Consultants, LLC. All rights reserved.