David Brown grew up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where his parents taught him many invaluable lessons about running a business. He studied Philosophy at the University of North Carolina and went on to earn a master’s degree in Global Marketing Management from Virginia Commonwealth University. He now lives with his family in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he works as a Pricing Director.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CXO Outlook Magazine, David shared his professional trajectory, insights into the evolution of the pricing function in the next 5-10 years, the secret sauce behind his success, future plans, pearls of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi David. What inspired you to specialize in pricing capabilities, and how has your journey evolved?
When I first started my professional journey, pricing departments rarely existed in companies like they do today. At Unilever, for example, where I worked as a Finance Business Partner, the pricing decisions were taken in a coordinated way between Sales, Marketing and Finance. I quickly found that pricing questions were the most interesting and impactful ones, and so I began to focus my energy and attention on solving these issues.
My first official pricing role came at BlackBerry, where I took on the role of Director, EMEA Pricing. At that point, I began to read every pricing book I could get my hands on so that I could learn more about the subject. It was a fascinating journey, because the books described the pricing challenges that I was seeing in the market and offered insights that were effective, so I wanted to learn more.
After several years of working in the field, I invented a system called “The Nine Boxes”, which captures the different pricing tactics and allows a company to create a unified practice around the fundamental pillars of governance, price setting and price defending. This theoretical approach has served well to help me explain the purpose of a pricing department and how it should work day-to-day.
What do you love the most about your current role?
I most enjoy conducting price setting workshops for new-to-the-world products and services. I use a workshop process that leads Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Finance through an intellectual exercise that clarifies the value proposition of the product and defines its differential value to the competition. It can be later tested with more sophisticated methods, but I’ve found that simply organizing the company’s best thinkers around value gets most of the job done. This is the most exciting time for a company and the decision about how to price an innovation can have a massive impact on the growth and profitability of the company.
What skills do you think are essential for a pricing professional to succeed?
I was asked by Andreas Hinterhuber to write an entry for the “Encyclopedia of Pricing” on this very topic. In my opinion, a pricing professional needs to build a strong pricing practice using “The Nine Boxes” approach and this means leading the company through a series of discrete projects that will strengthen pricing muscle and ultimately lead to the creation of a value mindset in the wider company. Hence, the key qualities a pricing professional must possess are effective organizational skills and process analysis, the capability to assess the value of a company’s products, and strong commercial acumen and conflict analysis. The last one is critical due to the nature of the external and internal pressure around pricing decisions.
How do you see the pricing function evolving in the next 5-10 years?
Pricing as function is still in its infancy, as exhibited by the relatively low adoption of pricing departments in companies, the debate about to whom Pricing should report, and the massive room for improvement in the human and IT systems that support pricing.
That said, I see pricing growing in different directions, with some companies elevating the pricing function to VP and C-level status, while others may choose to externalize key processes of the pricing department with the help of advanced technology and services. What’s more important than titles and org charts, however, is that companies develop strong pricing skills and a clear value mindset. Technology will play a role in that for sure. But I also believe that leaders will prioritize pricing in a way that they build organizations around better management and delivery of value, so that fundamentally they are easier to run and less bureaucratic. This is what I refer to as the value architecture of a company, and it’s the area where a company has the most to gain.
What inspired you to write “Banned Business Books, Volume 1, Pricing,” and what message do you hope readers take away?
I simply felt the need to put down everything I had learned about pricing in one place, so writing a book was the natural choice. At first, I started down the path of non-fiction, but I quickly got bored with the idea and decided that readers should learn pricing in a comprehensive but also fun and engaging way. For that reason, I chose to write a fictional story, because it helps the reader immerse themselves in the concepts of pricing while being entertained.
I’d like the readers to take away lots of different ideas actually! The pricing practice I write about is complemented by different business theories I’ve picked up along the way. Hopefully, a reader will come away with a clear idea of how to implement “The Nine Boxes” and will think more deeply about product innovation and customer feedback as well.
You were recently recognized as one of the top Pricing Leaders to Follow in 2025. Our readers would love to know the secret mantra behind your success.
It comes down to committing to making small bits of progress daily. Writing is part of my early morning routine before everyone else in the house wakes up. I dedicate about half an hour each day, and I do this with a clear mind and cup of coffee.
Is there a particular person you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are?
Poonam Kapoor was my first boss in a pricing job. She is an excellent negotiator and defender of value. And she represents for me the ideal of how a pricing person should carry themselves in a meeting, either internally or externally.
How do you keep your mind healthy and stay resilient? And how do you motivate your team?
The hardest thing to remember is that there are ups and downs in a professional career, and it’s especially difficult to pull yourself up from the low points. In this respect, the best thing to do is to write down on paper who you aspire to be and what your long-term goals are. This will help keep you on the right path.
I’ve found that the best motivation for a team is helping them get small wins early in the pricing journey. This builds confidence and helps the company greatly.
What do you hope to achieve in the next 5-10 years, and how do you plan to get there?
Mainly, I’d like to continue publishing books in the Banned Business Books series, tackling topics like Marketing or Finance while focusing on the idea of value architecture. To do this, I need to continue reading about those topics and continue my morning routine!
What advice would you give to organizations looking to strengthen their pricing function?
Start out by finding quick wins. Often the most basic fixes, like price optimization, can bring the most value in the short term. That creates space and time for the team to focus on longer-term projects like improving their pricing systems or working on value-based selling.