Ron’s Books
VeraSage founder Ron Baker, author of several books below, is in the midst of a series on “Intellectual Capitalism.” The 4-part series consists of:
1) Pricing on Purpose (available now, see below)
2) Measure What Matters to Customers (available now, see below) Describes Key Predictive Indicators and why leading indicators are necessary rather than lagging performance measures to drive customer service excellence.
3) Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth (in progress, due for release October 27, 2007). A book on why intellectual capital is the driving force of wealth creation in today’s knowledge economy.
4) The Invisible Handshake: Doing Well and Doing Good (schedule pending) A book on the ethics and morality of free markets and capitalism, based on Adam Smith’s metaphor of the “Invisible Hand.”
Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value
The book presents the theory of value—long established in economics—and details how any business can use various pricing strategies to create, communicate, and capture the value of their products and services. It takes a new approach of focusing on the external value as perceived by the customer and advocates matching price to value. Written in everyday language so it’s valuable to beginning executives as well as professional pricers and marketers, it covers:
- What and how people buy
- The fallacy of commodity thinking
- The five Cs of value
- The market share myth
- The difference between cost-plus pricing and value pricing
- A comparison of the Subjective Theory of Value and the Labor Theory of Value
- Customer segmentation strategies
External book reviews:
Amazon
Visit our partner Wiley to save 15% on Ron’s books and more! Your discount will be applied automatically upon checkout. If you do you not see the discount being applied, please enter code aff15 in the Promotion Code field and click the Apply Discount button.
Measure What Matters to Customers
Describes Key Predictive Indicators and why leading indicators are necessary rather than lagging performance measures to drive customer service excellence.
Buy it now from Wiley
>Visit our partner Wiley to save 15% on Ron’s books and more! Your discount will be applied automatically upon checkout. If you do you not see the discount being applied, please enter code aff15 in the Promotion Code field and click the Apply Discount button.
Mind Over Matter
Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth (in progress, due for release October 27, 2007). A book on why intellectual capital is the driving force of wealth creation in today’s knowledge economy.
The Firm of the Future
Provides accountants in small and medium sized firms the tool to expand services beyond attest and compliance functions. Shows how to transition to other professional services that client’s value. Provides a pro-forma business plan for mapping a three to five year plan for the transition to a successful practice. Positions consulting as an extension to traditional services, not just an alternative. Includes many real world examples of accountants who have made a successful transition to new services, discussing the challenges and the results achieved. Focuses on quality of life issues and how to get there.
External book reviews: Amazon Smartpros Interview
Buy it now from Wiley
Visit our partner Wiley to save 15% on Ron’s books and more! Your discount will be applied automatically upon checkout. If you do you not see the discount being applied, please enter code aff15 in the Promotion Code field and click the Apply Discount button.
Professionals Guide to Value Pricing, Sixth Edition
Our guide will show you how to price your services for greater profit. Packed with all the information needed to evaluate the economics and ethics of alternative billing methods, we provide you with the information you need to analyze the variety of billing methods and select from them with respect to your individual practices and clients.
An indispensable tool to help you implement the switch from hourly billing to value pricing and perfect this method of pricing within your firm.
External book reviews Amazon Reviews (don’t buy it here, Amazon is not an authorized reseller of CCH’s product), Webcpa Review
ACCA Booklets
Ron Baker is also the author of several booklets below, available for free download. This three part series is published by The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA website)
1) Burying the Billable Hour This booklet provides theories and concepts to enable practitioners to move from hourly billing to value pricing. pdf.
2) Trashing the Timesheet This booklet is a companion to Burying the Billable Hour and explains why the common practice of completing timesheets and tracking time spent in accountancy practices measures the wrong things, and is not an adequate indicator of team member (i.e. staff) effectiveness or efficiency. The booklet goes on to explain what should replace the timesheet as an adequate measure of team member effectiveness and efficiency. pdf.<
3) You are your Customer List is a companion to Trashing the Timesheet and Burying the Billable Hour and completes the trilogy. It emphasises the importance of customer selection, retention and firing to an accountancy practice’s team member’s morale, quality of life and profitability. Together with the two earlier booklets, this booklet rounds out the three most important aspects of leading a successful accounting practice—pricing, measuring what matters and customer selection/retention. pdf.