The Qs of Successful Revenue Managers: IQ, EQ and MQ

One of the most common definitions of revenue management focuses on the “4 rights” – right product, right customer, right time and right price. Before launching revenue management, however, organizations are faced with finding the “right” pricing and revenue manager to lead the charge. Over the past decade, I’ve been fortunate to not only help develop revenue management systems, but I’ve also had practical experience running revenue management within a large organization. I’ve also observed and consulted with hundreds of revenue managers. I feel my experience gives me a unique perspective into understanding the role of the pricing and revenue manager as a sticky factor which is critical to the successful implementation of revenue management. The Different Types of Intelligence Before I get to the specifics, please indulge me in taking you through a very personal journey of mine. When I was in the 2nd grade, I took an intelligence assessment as part of the public school testing regimen. At the time, I had no idea that it was anything other than an ordinary standardized test, but I remember there were folded paper problems and ink blobs, and I was asked to visualize and determine the underlying shapes. The questions were unlike anything I’d ever seen or read about, so I quickly surmised that the test was anything but standard. As a result of that test, I was put into the general education curriculum rather than pulled into a select group for high IQ students called “Academic Resources” (AR). I remember being envious of the AR group as they went on special field trips, had extraordinary speakers, did cool experiments, read better books, etc…. I talked to my mom at length about what I could do to get into AR, but without having a high IQ test score, there were no grounds for admission. I know my mom was disappointed for me, but rather than focusing on AR, she stressed the importance of being wel...