Michael Barzelay – författare

A REVOLUTIONARY NEW PERSPECTIVE ON HOW PRICING REALLY WORKS

“Contextual Pricing delivers a knock-out punch to complacent and low-return pricing approaches. . . . This book is full of intriguing, fresh insights which will expand your perspective on what is possible in maximizing revenue from your company’s products and services.”—Mark Greatrex, Chief Marketing Officer, Cox Communications, and former SVP, Global Still Beverages, The Coca Cola Company

“To effectively price, managers must understand market context—the frame of reference for buyers. Context is far more important than the usual measures of price variation. I strongly recommend this readable and useful book to any business leader who suspects his or her company is falling short of achievable revenues.”—Dave Calhoun, Chairman and CEO, Nielsen Company, and former Vice Chairman, General Electric Company

About the Book:

A few leading companies have jettisoned ideas about pricing that other companies believe are indispensible. The result has been superior performance against competitors who persist in a simplistic 1990s belief in “value.”

Contextual Pricing describes how buyers are influenced by comparison points and contextual messages more than by actual price levels. Identical products can sell at radically different prices to the same target customer—if context is strategically managed. This fact is how Procter & Gamble, GE, Coca-Cola Company, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others make sure they get the best possible price. The use of context is changing the way companies price and sell in the new global economy.

This readable and market-tested book describes the contextual pricing perspective, how it is being used in B2B and B2C markets, and how you can make the shift to contextual pricing in your own business. Whether you’re a CEO, P&L manager marketing director, sales manager, or entrepreneur, Contextual Pricing shows you how to:

Understand how your customer will make buying decisions and the role of pricing in those decisionsEstablish better, more intuitive prices using contextDevelop contextual pricing strategies that defeat competitor pricing—how contextual pricing can be the antidote to destructive price warsHarmonize your pricing with branding, product development and channel strategiesIncrease your profits with proven pricing tools, such as scientific bundling, tiering, branding, upsell “hooks” and more

Through its illuminating case-by-case studies, Contextual Pricing delivers a wide range of pricing techniques and customer insights that you won’t find anywhere else. You’ll learn how to avoid common pitfalls when raising or lowering prices and discover how you can compete in traditional or emerging digital marketplaces—and beat the competition through superior tactics, not through lower margins.

When you know the secrets of Contextual Pricing, you can name your price, drive your sales, increase your profits, and own your success.

The Politicized Market Economy: Alcohol in Brazil's Energy Strategy examines Brazil's ambitious National Alcohol Program (Proalcool) as a case study in the interplay between government policies and market forces in a politicized market economy. The book develops a comprehensive model for understanding how state officials and private investors mutually adjust their decisions in systems where the government exerts significant control over resource allocation. By exploring Brazil's energy strategy, particularly the shift toward renewable alcohol fuel as a petroleum substitute, the study illuminates the complexities of coordinating economic policies and private sector actions amidst political and institutional challenges.The book situates Brazil's Proalcool initiative within the broader historical and political context of its late industrialization and the authoritarian regime that governed from 1964 to 1985. It highlights the challenges faced in aligning sector-specific policies, such as subsidies and regulations, with private investment incentives. The study also delves into the resistance of state entities like Petrobras and the financial bureaucracy, which created significant obstacles for the alcohol program despite national directives. Through its analysis, the book sheds light on the broader implications of Brazil's steered economy for understanding the dynamics of state-led development and offers a framework for comparative analysis of politicized market economies worldwide.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

The Politicized Market Economy: Alcohol in Brazil's Energy Strategy examines Brazil's ambitious National Alcohol Program (Proalcool) as a case study in the interplay between government policies and market forces in a politicized market economy. The book develops a comprehensive model for understanding how state officials and private investors mutually adjust their decisions in systems where the government exerts significant control over resource allocation. By exploring Brazil's energy strategy, particularly the shift toward renewable alcohol fuel as a petroleum substitute, the study illuminates the complexities of coordinating economic policies and private sector actions amidst political and institutional challenges.The book situates Brazil's Proalcool initiative within the broader historical and political context of its late industrialization and the authoritarian regime that governed from 1964 to 1985. It highlights the challenges faced in aligning sector-specific policies, such as subsidies and regulations, with private investment incentives. The study also delves into the resistance of state entities like Petrobras and the financial bureaucracy, which created significant obstacles for the alcohol program despite national directives. Through its analysis, the book sheds light on the broader implications of Brazil's steered economy for understanding the dynamics of state-led development and offers a framework for comparative analysis of politicized market economies worldwide.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

How policymakers should guide, manage, and oversee public bureaucracies is a question that lies at the heart of contemporary debates about government and public administration. In their search for better systems of public management, reformers have looked in particular at the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries are exemplars of the New Public Management, a term used to describe distinctive new themes, styles, and patterns of public service management. Calling for public management to become a vibrant field of public policy, this valuable book consolidates recent work on the New Public Management and provides a basis for improving research and policy debate on managing public bureaucracies. A copublication with the Russell Sage Foundation

While the Clinton Administration and federal agencies were busy making government cost less and work better in the near-term, the United States Air Force was regularly visualizing the competencies needed to assure the organization's long-term effectiveness. As a result of steady efforts to prepare for the future conducted under successive secretaries and chiefs of staff, the Air Force has developed a distinctive approach to strategic planning. This approach is fundamentally concerned with ensuring that the organization's future capabilities support effective performance of future tasks. Such tasks are shaped by ever-changing policy objectives and circumstances of implementation. After eight years, the Air Force has not only successfully refined its distinctive approach to strategic planning, but has also leveraged change in programmatic decisions, human resource management, and operational technologies. This study provides an inside look at how the Air Force came to formulate and declare its ""strategic intent"" for developing the organization's capabilities over a timeline of more than twenty years. Air Force strategic intent is not a plan, but a shared commitment to strengthening specific core competencies and critical future capabilities. Michael Barzelay and Colin Campbell reveal how one of the nation's most significant public organizations has reassessed its own strategic intent. Drawing lessons from the Air Force experience, this book provides a significant contribution to public management research on innovation and executive leadership. One key lesson is that preparing for the future is a responsibility that organizations can discharge effectively if they combine insights with practical knowledge of executive leadership and the dynamics of policy change. Preparing for the Future provides a fresh argument about innovation and leadership in public management, while breaking new ground in the analysis of managerial practices, such as strategic v

While the Clinton Administration and federal agencies were busy making government cost less and work better in the near-term, the United States Air Force was regularly visualizing the competencies needed to assure the organization's long-term effectiveness. As a result of steady efforts to prepare for the future conducted under successive secretaries and chiefs of staff, the Air Force has developed a distinctive approach to strategic planning. This approach is fundamentally concerned with ensuring that the organization's future capabilities support effective performance of future tasks. Such tasks are shaped by ever-changing policy objectives and circumstances of implementation. After eight years, the Air Force has not only successfully refined its distinctive approach to strategic planning, but has also leveraged change in programmatic decisions, human resource management, and operational technologies. This study provides an inside look at how the Air Force came to formulate and declare its ""strategic intent"" for developing the organization's capabilities over a timeline of more than twenty years. Air Force strategic intent is not a plan, but a shared commitment to strengthening specific core competencies and critical future capabilities. Michael Barzelay and Colin Campbell reveal how one of the nation's most significant public organizations has reassessed its own strategic intent. Drawing lessons from the Air Force experience, this book provides a significant contribution to public management research on innovation and executive leadership. One key lesson is that preparing for the future is a responsibility that organizations can discharge effectively if they combine insights with practical knowledge of executive leadership and the dynamics of policy change. Preparing for the Future provides a fresh argument about innovation and leadership in public management, while breaking new ground in the analysis of managerial practices, such as strategic v

What, fundamentally, is public management? This question is rarely answered clearly and confidently, whether by students of public management or academics in the field. This book answers this question, as its readers come to know why and how public management is a design-oriented professional discipline.The argument of the book is grounded in Herbert Simon's ideas about design-oriented professional disciplines. However, Michael Barzelay's argument runs counter to the idea that public management is a design science. It envisions the discipline as a professional practice that requires the thoughtful and skillful use of purposive theories of public organizations, along with reverse-engineered design-precedents, in problem-solving for public programs and organizations. How professional knowledge about public management is to be expanded through research and analytical synthesis is therefore a major thrust of the book's overall argument.Michael Barzelay develops these arguments in a unique way, including guiding the reader through a fictional ''Public Management Gallery'' featuring key contributions to purposive theorizing about public management as a professional practice. The book is an essential resource for those wishing to strengthen the professional practice of public management - and the discipline - through education and research immediately and for years to come.

What, fundamentally, is public management? This question is rarely answered clearly and confidently, whether by students of public management or academics in the field. This book answers this question, as its readers come to know why and how public management is a design-oriented professional discipline.The argument of the book is grounded in Herbert Simon's ideas about design-oriented professional disciplines. However, Michael Barzelay's argument runs counter to the idea that public management is a design science. It envisions the discipline as a professional practice that requires the thoughtful and skillful use of purposive theories of public organizations, along with reverse-engineered design-precedents, in problem-solving for public programs and organizations. How professional knowledge about public management is to be expanded through research and analytical synthesis is therefore a major thrust of the book's overall argument.Michael Barzelay develops these arguments in a unique way, including guiding the reader through a fictional ''Public Management Gallery'' featuring key contributions to purposive theorizing about public management as a professional practice. The book is an essential resource for those wishing to strengthen the professional practice of public management - and the discipline - through education and research immediately and for years to come.