Hermann Simon

Hermann Simon: Profile

Hermann Simon is founder and chairman of Simon, Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants, Bonn, Boston, London, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna and Zurich. He is also a Permanent Visiting Professor at the London Business School. From 1989 to 1994 he held the Marketing chair at Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany. From 1985 to 1988 he was Director of USW-The German Management Institute in Cologne.

Simon's books include Power Pricing, Hidden Champions, Price Management, Goodwill and Marketing Strategy, Simon for Managers, Pricing Strategies for New Products. He has also edited a number of books: Competitive Advantages and Competitiveness, Competitive Strategies in the Pharma-Market, Marketing and Technological Change, The Corporate Culture Challenge, Market Success in Japan, Industrial Services, Management Learning and Strategy, and Handbook of Strategy Concepts. His books and articles have appeared in German, English, French, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian and Chinese.

In 1988-1989 Simon was McKinsey-Fellow at the Harvard Business School. In 1984 he was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and in 1983 at Keio University, Tokyo. He also held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), INSEAD in France, and the Institute of Higher Studies in Vienna. He is a member of the International Academy of Management (IAM). From 1984 to 1986 he was President of the European Marketing Academy.

He sits on the editorial boards of several scientific journals both in the USA as well as in Europe. As a consultant he has worked for a large number of firms around the globe, such as Aventis, Bayer, Bertelsmann, BMW, Ciba, Coca-Cola, Compaq, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank, Dow, Hewlett Packard, General Motors, Kodak, Lufthansa, Novartis, Siemens, TRW, UBS. He is a director in several corporations and sits on the board of trustees of several foundations.

A native of Germany he studied economics and business administration at the universities of Bonn and Cologne. He received his diploma (1973) and his doctorate (1976) from the University of Bonn.