Ronald J. Baker started his career in 1984 with KPMG’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to educating businesspeople around the world.As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored ten courses for them: How to Build a Successful Practice with Total Quality Service; The Shift From Hourly Billing to Value Pricing; Value Pricing Graduate Seminar; You Are What You Charge For: Success in Today’s Emerging Experience Economy (with Daniel Morris); Alternatives to the Federal Income Tax; Trashing the Timesheet: A Declaration of Independence; Everyday Economics; The Firm of the Future; Everyday Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Good; and The New Business Equation for Industry Executives.He is the author of the best-selling marketing book ever written specifically for professional service firms, Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing (seventh edition), published by CCH, Incorporated. He also wrote Burying the Billable Hour, Trashing the Timesheet, and You Are Your Customer List, published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom. His prior book, The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn, was published in April 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 70,000 businesspeople. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.He graduated in 1984 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University. He is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and presently resides in Petaluma, California.

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• Foreword xiPreface xvAcknowledgments xixAbout the Author xxv1 Why Is Movie Theater Popcorn So Expensive? 12 Why Are We in Business? 73 Mind Over Matter 154 The Old Business Equation 255 The New Business Equation 316 Ninety-Nine-Cent Pricing, Engagement Rings, and the Assumption of Rationality 417 The Invisible Hand: No One Person Knows How to Make a Pencil 498 ATale of Two Theories 639 Cost-Plus Pricing’s Epitaph 8710 The Wrong Mistakes 10311 Price-Led Costing Replaces Cost Accounting 12112 What and How People Buy 12913 The Value Proposition 14314 The Consumer Surplus and Price Discrimination 17515 Customer Segmentation Strategies 19716 Price Discrimination in Practice 21317 There Is No Such Thing as a Commodity 23518 Baker’s Law: Bad Customers Drive Out Good Customers 24919 Ethics, Fairness, and Pricing 26920 Antitrust Law 28321 Who Is in Charge of Value? 30722 Pricing on Purpose: Getting Paid for the Value Your Company Creates 333Bibliography 343Suggested Reading 355Index 367

Ronald J. Baker started his career in 1984 with KPMG’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to educating businesspeople around the world.As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored ten courses for them: How to Build a Successful Practice with Total Quality Service; The Shift From Hourly Billing to Value Pricing; Value Pricing Graduate Seminar; You Are What You Charge For: Success in Today’s Emerging Experience Economy (with Daniel Morris); Alternatives to the Federal Income Tax; Trashing the Timesheet: A Declaration of Independence; Everyday Economics; The Firm of the Future; Everyday Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Good; and The New Business Equation for Industry Executives.He is the author of the best-selling marketing book ever written specifically for professional service firms, Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing (seventh edition), published by CCH, Incorporated. He also wrote Burying the Billable Hour, Trashing the Timesheet, and You Are Your Customer List, published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom. His prior book, The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn, was published in April 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 70,000 businesspeople. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.He graduated in 1984 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University. He is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and presently resides in Petaluma, California.

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• Foreword xiPreface xvAcknowledgments xixAbout the Author xxv1 Why Is Movie Theater Popcorn So Expensive? 12 Why Are We in Business? 73 Mind Over Matter 154 The Old Business Equation 255 The New Business Equation 316 Ninety-Nine-Cent Pricing, Engagement Rings, and the Assumption of Rationality 417 The Invisible Hand: No One Person Knows How to Make a Pencil 498 ATale of Two Theories 639 Cost-Plus Pricing’s Epitaph 8710 The Wrong Mistakes 10311 Price-Led Costing Replaces Cost Accounting 12112 What and How People Buy 12913 The Value Proposition 14314 The Consumer Surplus and Price Discrimination 17515 Customer Segmentation Strategies 19716 Price Discrimination in Practice 21317 There Is No Such Thing as a Commodity 23518 Baker’s Law: Bad Customers Drive Out Good Customers 24919 Ethics, Fairness, and Pricing 26920 Antitrust Law 28321 Who Is in Charge of Value? 30722 Pricing on Purpose: Getting Paid for the Value Your Company Creates 333Bibliography 343Suggested Reading 355Index 367

Ronald J. Baker started his career in 1984 with KPMG’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to educating businesspeople around the world.As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored ten courses for them: How to Build a Successful Practice with Total Quality Service; The Shift From Hourly Billing to Value Pricing; Value Pricing Graduate Seminar; You Are What You Charge For: Success in Today’s Emerging Experience Economy (with Daniel Morris); Alternatives to the Federal Income Tax; Trashing the Timesheet: A Declaration of Independence; Everyday Economics; The Firm of the Future; Everyday Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Good; and The New Business Equation for Industry Executives.He is the author of the best-selling marketing book ever written specifically for professional service firms, Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing (seventh edition), published by CCH, Incorporated. He also wrote Burying the Billable Hour, Trashing the Timesheet, and You Are Your Customer List, published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom. His prior book, The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn, was published in April 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 70,000 businesspeople. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.He graduated in 1984 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University. He is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and presently resides in Petaluma, California.

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• Foreword xiPreface xvAcknowledgments xixAbout the Author xxv1 Why Is Movie Theater Popcorn So Expensive? 12 Why Are We in Business? 73 Mind Over Matter 154 The Old Business Equation 255 The New Business Equation 316 Ninety-Nine-Cent Pricing, Engagement Rings, and the Assumption of Rationality 417 The Invisible Hand: No One Person Knows How to Make a Pencil 498 ATale of Two Theories 639 Cost-Plus Pricing’s Epitaph 8710 The Wrong Mistakes 10311 Price-Led Costing Replaces Cost Accounting 12112 What and How People Buy 12913 The Value Proposition 14314 The Consumer Surplus and Price Discrimination 17515 Customer Segmentation Strategies 19716 Price Discrimination in Practice 21317 There Is No Such Thing as a Commodity 23518 Baker’s Law: Bad Customers Drive Out Good Customers 24919 Ethics, Fairness, and Pricing 26920 Antitrust Law 28321 Who Is in Charge of Value? 30722 Pricing on Purpose: Getting Paid for the Value Your Company Creates 333Bibliography 343Suggested Reading 355Index 367