Revenue Management [Paperback]

Robert G. Cross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 1997

From the man the Wall Street Journal hailed as "the guru of Revenue Management" comes revolutionary ways to recover from the after effects of downsizing and refocus your business on growth.



Whatever happened to growth? In Revenue Management, Robert G. Cross answers this question with his ground-breaking approach to revitalizing businesses: focusing on the revenue side of the ledger instead of the cost side. The antithesis of slash-and-burn methods that left companies with empty profits and dissatisfied stockholders, Revenue Management overturns conventional thinking on marketing strategies and offers the key to initiating and sustaining growth.



Using case studies from a variety of industries, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, Cross describes no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech methods that managers can use to increase revenue without increasing products or promotions; predict consumer behavior; tap into new markets; and deliver products and services to customers effectively and efficiently. His proven tactics will help any business dramatically improve its bottom line by meeting the challenge of matching supply with demand.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Everyone has encountered revenue management, although most don't know it by that term. Revenue management is timing price increases or discounts to boost profits. Airlines, for instance, often use special fares to fill otherwise vacant seats. The author founded a consulting business that maximizes the corporate income of his clients by using complex computer models to determine the best pricing systems. Cross, as reader, provides a clear presentation. He offers useful examples of how revenue management deals with supply and demand issues, although at times he seems to be using his platform to drum up business. This marketing topic is a bit technical, but even small businesses would benefit from the author's ideas. Recommended for medium to large public libraries.?Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Booklist

Corporate downsizing does not work. Cost cutting and reengineering do not restore the luster of lost profits to once financially sound U.S. corporations. On the basis of his years at Delta Airlines and consulting gigs in the travel and tourism industry, Cross frames a new way for marketers to generate monies by posing the question of how to maximize revenues on each and every sale. True to the consultant mind-set, he does not give away the exact formula and answers to his query; instead, readers will evaluate case studies and lists and concepts to prove to themselves the worth of revenue management (RM). Perhaps the best-known success is American Airlines, which, thanks to its crusty CEO's intuition and perspicacity, pioneered the idea of "all fares--and customers--are not created equal." Will Cross' ideas play in Peoria? Watch the business media be filled soon with news and views of this latest profit-producing strategy. Barbara Jacobs --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767900332
• ISBN-13: 978-0767900331
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert G. Cross is the Chairman and CEO of Revenue Analytics (www.revenueanalytics.com). He is widely recognized as the foremost expert in the field of Revenue Management.
Robert Cross guides Revenue Analytics' strategic vision and provides a wealth of industry expertise. He is actively involved in client work, and his leadership has been instrumental in helping develop industry leading Revenue Management capabilities for Revenue Analytics clients, including General Motors, Coca Cola and InterContinental Hotels Group.
Labeled the "Guru of Revenue Management" by The Wall Street Journal, Robert G. Cross, prior to Revenue Analytics, founded Talus Solutions, Inc., a company credited with creating billions of dollars in value for clients such as Delta Air Lines, Marriott International, Ford Motor Company and UPS. Talus was acquired by Manugistics Group, Inc. in December of 2000 for $366 million.
Robert G. Cross authored The New York Times Business Best Seller, Revenue Management: Hard Core Tactics for Market Domination, (Broadway Books 1997), which has been subsequently published in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Portuguese editions. He is in demand as a global lecturer on Revenue Management and is frequently quoted in international business publications. His writings have been included in the Book of Management Wisdom (John Wiley & Sons 2000) along with such business luminaries as Bill Marriott, Jack Welch and Lee Iacocca.
Robert G. Cross also served as a Distinguished Executive-in-Residence at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He holds a JD (cum laude) and a BA in Chemistry from Texas Tech University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revenue Management: A Hard Core Book for Knowledge, April 18, 2001

By 

Chad Pearson (Redondo Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revenue Management (Paperback)

This book was a great introductory on the theories and applications of Revenue Management in the workplace. Robert Cross combines a great deal of experience and knowledge along with actual examples of his ideas in many different business situations. For anyone who deals with complicated supply and demand models this book is great.

The reading helped me to become more aware of the different ways that revenue management can be used to help the bottom line of company profits. The book gave great examples of how we can earn more revenue dollars out of markets that we have already tapped and how to explore new markets, that at first glance may not be chasing. By using tracking and accurate historical data, we can help correctly predict where out business is going and how to best take advantage of the more profitable strategies.

The real life examples made the reading enjoyable, by showing how the theories work. He made examples of companies that are no longer in business that could have used his theories and stayed successful.

This was a book that was assigned to me to read, and with some dread I picked it up. I would say that this, while not a book to read for enjoyment, is great if you are looking to get information that you can use in real life.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Superficial coverage of a complex topic, November 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Revenue Management (Paperback)

This is a 250 page self-promoting sales book. Its essence could have been expressed in five pages; there are no concrete analytics of how the concept should be implemented at all.

Additionally, many important factors are glossed over; the manner in which market segmentation is accomplished is a foundation of revenue management, and is given lines like "you should segment your market" without any real explanation on what that means or how difficult it can be. While airline inventory (and, likewise, car/hotel/cruise inventory) is susceptible to market segmentation, it is very difficult to do this effectively in most other markets. The lack of exploration of those practices is a glaring omission, even in a book so obviously self-congratulatory in its recounts of successful endeavors by its author.

For a more thorough analysis of pricing (which is what I was searching for), I found "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing" (Nagle, Holden) to be a much more rigorous exploration of theoretical pricing issues and their practical applications. Its basic mathematical models far surpass the overwhelming hyperbole found on most pages of "Revenue Management".

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lots of "why," but no "how to", December 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Revenue Management (Paperback)

This book makes a good case for revenue management, but it provides virtually no information about HOW TO DO IT. It's basically a sales brochure for the author's company.

Save your money. I wish I had.