Steven Forth is Ibbaka’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Partner. Ibbaka is a strategic pricing advisory firm. He was CEO of LeveragePoint Innovations Inc., a SaaS business designed to help companies create and capture value.

In this episode, Steven advocates for proactive scenario planning, encouraging businesses to identify critical uncertainties and fortify their pricing strategies for the uncertainties of the future.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Understand the significance of pricing as a strategic element often overlooked in planning, and recognize its pivotal role in post-COVID economic landscapes
• Acknowledge the shift to a sounder economic period, where capital has a tangible cost, emphasizing the importance of net present value as a cornerstone of planning assumptions
• Prioritize fixing issues strategically, considering both short-term and long-term plays, and embrace scenario planning for effective pricing strategies in a dynamic environment

"I think we are settling into a sounder economic period where capital has a cost, net present value matters, and we need to have that as a planning assumption."

- Steven Forth

Topics Covered:

01:38 - An observation about pricing being overlooked in strategic planning for 2024 and pricing being just an afterthought

04:20 - The need to strategically approach pricing in the context of the next three years post-COVID and thoughts on the monetization of generative AI

07:24 - Important thoughts on what kind of impact will AI have in businesses in the years ahead in comparison to what blockchain years ago

09:32 - From low interest rates to normal range, the importance of capital costs and net present value as part of planning assumptions.

13:05 - The need to take realistic steps to investments in AI, impact of non-zero interest rates on capital costs, the stabilization of buying behaviors into 2024 and how all these are considered in pricing planning in 2024

18:47 - Prioritizing what needs to be fixed first rather than fixing all at once and risk messing up everything

19:52 - How often should one conduct a pricing strategy

22:25 -Two key things in mind when planning for 2024: first establish baselines and trends, then aligning pricing with the overall strategic goals of the company

27:13 - What it means to have a portfolio point of view when making pricing planning and how to implement a faster cadence to reach your pricing goals

30:09 - Attributing business results to pricing changes and introducing the concept of causal analysis

Key Takeaways:

"I think we are settling into a sounder economic period where capital has a cost, net present value matters and we need to have that as a planning assumption." - Steven Forth

"You can't really do strategic planning if you don't understand where you are and how you got there." - Steven Forth

"I would encourage people to at least consider looking at scenario planning where you plan for more than one scenario. You identify critical uncertainties and you plan for each of the critical uncertainties. That approach would make a lot of sense for pricing." - Steven Forth

People / Resources Mentioned:

• Judea Pearl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_Pearl
• The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Why-Science-Cause-Effect/dp/046509760X

Connect with Steven Forth:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/
• Email: steven@ibbaka.com

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com