Bonn – On February 10, 2017, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hermann Simon celebrates his 70th birthday. The internationally renowned management thinker and pricing expert, who has been especially focusing on the success strategies of Hidden Champions, the prospering world-market leaders of the German Mittelstand, looks back on an eventful life.
Simon, a globally recognized academic in his specialist field, spent 16 years of his “early life” as a professor at the universities of Bielefeld and Mainz. He also taught as a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, the London Business School, and the Keio University in Tokyo. In an unusual turn, he ended his university career in 1995 to lead Simon-Kucher & Partners, the international strategy and marketing consultancy he co-founded and managed as CEO until 2009. As Simon reaches the milestone of his 70th birthday, he now serves as the company’s Honorary Chairman. Today the firm has almost 1,000 associates in 33 offices worldwide and is regarded as the world market leader in pricing.
In an ongoing survey, conducted by the website Managementdenker.de since 2005, Simon has continuously been ranked the most influential management thinker in the German-speaking area after the late Peter Drucker.
His 35+ books have been translated into 26 languages, with international bestsellers on the topic of Hidden Champions, a term coined by Simon himself. He is also an internationally sought-after speaker and has held more than 1,500 speeches in 48 countries.
Simon has been awarded numerous prizes (German Brand Association Award, Erich Gutenberg Award, Georg-Bergler-Prize, Prix de l’Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques). He holds an honorary doctorate from the IEDC School of Management in Bled, the University of Siegen, the Kozminski University in Warsaw, and is an honorary professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
Despite his cosmopolitan outlook, Simon grew up on a small farm in the Eifel region of Germany, and still feels strongly connected with his place of birth. He has also worked on three non-technical books about his home region. Simon has a daughter and son with his wife Cäcilia Simon, née Sossong, to whom he has been married since 1973. After failing to achieve his childhood dream of becoming a starfighter pilot due to color blindness, he pursued a career in economics.
Additional information to download:
- Hermann Simon turns 70: Everything important on one page
- Detailed résumé, created by the Kozminski University in Warsaw for Prof. Simon’s honorary promotion (updated in January 2017)
- Photo of Hermann Simon in high resolution. Additional photos are available upon request.
Simon-Kucher & Partners, Strategy & Marketing Consultants:
Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global consulting firm with 980 professionals in 33 offices worldwide focusing on TopLine Power®. Founded in 1985, the company has more than 30 years of experience providing strategy and marketing consulting, and is regarded as the world’s leading pricing advisor.