Stephan Liozu is the Chief Value Officer at Thales. His expertise includes Customer value modeling, value proposition design & value-based pricing, Business model innovation & differentiation strategies, Creative & disruptive innovation strategies, Change management & leadership training.

In this episode, Stephan shares how important it is for C-suite to be more than just focusing on the usual aspects of cost improvements, acquisitions, and cash flow management. There is a need for them to educate themselves in the pricing profession on how pricing can help them drive profitability, improve customer experience and satisfaction.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out the need to convince the C-suite why understanding pricing is important
• Find out what the important objectives of the book are, ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’
• Find out the soft skill courses you have to invest yourself in to become a better leader

"Invest in yourself, learn some of the soft skills, get a better-rounded person, and in 2021 invest in training in your soft skills, and I think that will help you for the rest of your career to become a better leader."

- Stephan Liozu

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Topics Covered:

01:40 - What the C-suite has not done in the pricing profession

03:22 - What do C-suite pay attention to that they keep from wanting to do pricing

04:32 - Is thinking about cost a more tactical thing than pricing

06:28 - What’s missing in the C-suite when it comes to wanting to do pricing

07:53 - What’s behind pricing person not able to educate or inform a CEO in the organization

10:11 - What’s this book all about and what’s its purpose: ‘From the Profession to the C-Suite’

13:15 - What are the objectives of the book

15:53 - Much more on the value side much less on the pricing side

17:34 - What does work look like for Directors and VPs of Pricing

19:23 - What the leadership side of Pricing entails

20:34 - A chapter in a book dealing with strategic capabilities

21:30 - His personal mission for having the book

22:44 - What success for a company mean

23:16 - Stephan’s best pricing advice that will significantly impact your business

23:42 - Different courses you can invest in for soft skill improvement

Key Takeaways:

“We have to take the responsibility as a profession, not organizing ourselves enough, not publishing enough as a profession, not educating the C-suite enough. And I think we got to get to the point where we do it.” - Stephan Liozu

“The first objective of the book is to really show them the impact. Once and for all let's put that discussion to rest. So, there is going to be lots of chapters on impact, showing case studies showing statistics.” - Stephan Liozu

“The second purpose is really to address the myth and the lack of understanding. So, we have papers around, you know, what pricing is now, especially post-COVID. You know, what it can do for you, why do you need it?” - Stephan Liozu

“We're going to talk about the third objective and to show them what capabilities do you need to really do good pricing projects.” - Stephan Liozu

“I'm trying to convince a lot of the pricing people to invest in themselves and develop these soft skills and be able to tell stories and be able to understand the social fabric of their organization, who knows, well, this is kind of a sixth sense that we need to have.” - Stephan Liozu

“It's a question of us as a profession to send books up to the C-suite for them to read it. And then more than that, it's going to be difficult to do. But it will be, for me an objective that I always wanted to do. As you know, you and I are evangelists; we push pricing day in, day out. And I think we need as a profession to promote ourselves better and to start coordinating the messages that we have.” - Stephan Liozu

“Frankly, either we do nothing, or we try our best to do something and influence. And for us, it's not like it's going to change our life as far as income is concerned; my interest is really to get pricing much more on the radar and much more adopted, like other functions, like supply chain analytics these days. And it is a mission for me, I took it as a personal mission to really educate and get into the C-suite to make a difference.” - Stephan Liozu

Resources / People Mentioned:

• Kevin Mitchell

Connect with Stephan Liozu:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn