Earlier this week, the Simon Graduate School of Business announced a new partnership with the Professional Pricing Society to create the Center for Pricing at Simon. Under this new initiative, Simon School M.B.A. graduates concentrating in pricing will be able to learn how to direct and execute pricing strategy in any industry.
The Center for Pricing was founded in acknowledgment of the business world’s demonstrated demand for experienced pricing professionals. To this end, in addition to educating Simon School students about the field of pricing, the Center will also serve as a knowledge center where research into the field can be conducted in a scholarly setting. It will strive to facilitate a dialogue on the topic of pricing between educators, business executives and researchers and, as a direct result, hopefully facilitate progress and further development in pricing.
The Center for Pricing’s chief architect and director and professor Greg Shaffer, described the new collaboration as “revolutionary.” The Simon School’s partnership with the Pricing Society is unique.
“[Simon] negotiated an exclusive partnership with the… Society. No other [business] school in the country will be able to duplicate us,” Shaffer said.
The Society, whose mission is to “nurture a growing community of professionals committed to disseminating pricing expertise throughout the business world,” will collaborate with Simon to teach students about the latest emerging trends, technologies and strategies in pricing.
Another goal of the program will be to foster greater opportunities for networking and establishing contacts between pricing professionals and students. Upon graduation, these contacts will assist Simon graduates in finding employment, should they choose to pursue it, in the growing pricing industry.
“The Simon Graduate School of Business has taken a bold step in advancing the pricing profession with its creation of the Center for Pricing,” President and founder of the Professional Pricing Society Eric Mitchell said. “Corporations are eagerly recruiting pricing professionals, and it is exciting to see business school grad students investing their intellectual capital in this important and growing field.”
News of the Center’s establishment was welcomed by current students who have traditionally expressed significant interest in pricing. In years past, Simon School’s Pricing Policies course has been among the most popular electives.
“Recently, Simon students responded that more than 70 percent would take an advanced pricing course, and more than 50 percent would consider, if offered, a concentration in pricing. Given the students’ interest and our school’s international reputation as an economics and quantitative-based school, having a Center for Pricing was a natural fit,” Simon School Dean Mark Zupan said. “We are pleased to be working with the Professional Pricing Society to produce talented graduates who can help meet the rapidly growing demand for pricing professionals.”
While the Center for Pricing is technically already up and running within the Simon School – no new facilities are planned or likely needed for the Center’s operations – it currently offers only one course and has a faculty of only two.
However, plans are in place to hire more teaching staff and expand from one course to an entire concentration over time. Currently, corporate funding is being sought by founder Shaffer to help fuel this expansion.
Singh is a member of the class of 2008.
