Robert Ribciuc

Working with Robert was an absolute pleasure and proved tremendously successful. […] He completely absorbed himself in OUR BRAND so that whatever data became relevant, was complemented with our brand values, strategy and DNA. This was more than “just” a pricing exercise – it helped us encompass consumer mindset and purchasing patterns across multiple points of distribution, AND gave us the basis […] to make very critical decisions. Robert’s expertise is important anytime, BUT NOW, in light of the macroeconomic impact on costing/pricing/revenue and ultimately deliverable profit, it was an absolute necessity. Highly recommend.

EBITDA Catalyst has been a repeat performer with strong value creation in the all-important top-line management, pricing strategy and pricing execution domains. Their domain expertise and versatility with pricing levers and analytics, comes with a hands-on operator mindset. Anchored in a pragmatic focus on what portco teams can implement promptly with great ROI, and getting management teams the clarity to act. A go-to, must-have partner in a critical value creation area!

EBITDA Catalyst delivered a lift to our pricing decision-making process that will drive both short-term and long-term impact at Kodiak Cakes.  The facts, analysis and insights provided allowed us to quickly reach conviction and consensus in key pricing actions that will contribute substantially to growth and profitability.  They engaged and understood our business very quickly, and stepped up in close partnership with our team to support our ambitious timeline.  Lastly, they illustrated and rallied us around having a “pricing culture” where we grow our capabilities and focus on pricing as a consistent toolset over time.  I look forward to our continued partnership!

Robert has the experience and gift of simplifying potentially complex pricing terms and methods to business owners who may not have the practical or academic experience to understand the power of pricing. In particular, Robert takes a very easy to understand approach to researching and activating a Willingness to Pay (WTP) framework that every business needs to understand. Robert was flexible and agreeable to customizing his existing, rich pricing content to accommodate the audience. In particular, Robert takes a very easy to understand approach to researching and activating a Willingness to Pay (WTP) framework that every business needs to understand. Looking forward to Session 2 in 2023!

We developed the ideal partnership with EBITDA Catalyst who helped us monetize and improve our pricing as we grew our successful SaaS company.  We brought in EBITDA Catalyst for multiple projects through various acquisitions to help successfully execute offering designs for our new flagship platform which allowed us to migrate plans for pricing transition from multiple legacy platforms during integration.  EBITDA Catalyst developed analytical tools with business insights at a level previously unavailable to us, helping to drive sales discipline and pricing execution for more value from lagging parts of our portfolio.  EBITDA Catalyst became our go-to partners for Pricing strategy with multiple members of CLT.  Not only did they help us deliver positive business results, they helped us shift the narrative by enhancing pricing philosophies. Some of us now use “Willingness-to-Pay” (WTP) as a part of regular vocabulary. Their passion for driving financial results, while also educating everyone at multiple levels in our company about the power of Pricing is contagious!

Having used the same model for 15 years we were left with a new approach to our participant and sponsorship pricing for our events and campaigns. The impact of the change will enable a stronger financial gain which will ultimately impact our mission-related services and allow future growth. We were impressed with Robert’s overall knowledge and ability to ask thought-provoking questions. But moreover, we were impressed with his compassion and understanding for our agency’s mission which created a strong sense of trust for us. Throughout the project, they challenged us to work outside our norms, uncover value-added opportunities, and decide based on data and goals.

We saw terrific growth not just in our revenue, but profits and quality of relationship with our clients as well. For our CPA firm, getting away from a simple hourly rate / cost of time mentality and thinking broadly about the value of our services made a big difference, the kind you can clearly see on a before-and-after chart!

Robert was awesome to work with; he went the extra step and came to our museum to see all that we had to offer. His underlying knowledge on consumers and pricing strategies is very evident. We all appreciated his time and energy spent with us. He embraced the Judy Garland guided tour, archive tour and her life story as a whole. He understands the impact and potential our museum has with the right pricing and marketing platform which will allow us to continue telling Judy’s compelling story for years to come. I would highly recommend working with Robert.

Extensive intellectual horse-power, a thought leader with the ability to lead, work within and across teams, and an ability to master extensive detail yet drive big-picture solutions that deliver shareholder value […] excellent business instincts, an unsurpassed work ethic and a solution-oriented attitude […] worked closely with our Chief Technology Officer and our Senior Vice President of Operations, both of who give him glowing reviews […] exhibits the highest personal and professional ethical standards.

This is truly a game-changing strategy shift for Sales, and exactly what we have needed.  We just didn’t know how to articulate it and put it in a way we can take back to the Sales teams.  Charging in ways that match the value of our incremental add to customers’ bottom line makes this a partnership that works for them every time.  The results will just take care of themselves.  Thank you for being the first to see this and help bring us along!

Under very demanding circumstances, Rob led Pricing to terrific contributions to the business.  Both the financial and the people results were clearly prioritized to elevate our execution capabilities to a different level.  We deeply appreciated his deep expertise and unrelenting focus on the internal credibility and stakeholder relationship-building the Pricing team needed in order to execute successfully.  Finally a highly capable Pricing partner and the results we had been waiting for!

Robert’s work led to several outstanding improvements for our organization.  His skills in pricing, negotiations and contracting drove lift for hundreds of millions of dollars of our business assets.  Whether the market was commoditized, or required tackling novel, high-uncertainty/high-potential-profitability assets, he would deliver the highest-impact, segmented approach to defend or expand our ROI/IRR.  The decision-making was always backed with top-flight modeling or analytics, resulting in better pricing and value-harvesting.  When we had to price new asset types, negotiate deals in new geographies, or hire and deploy an analytics team, he was always top of mind and often the go-to choice.

Robert provided a major boost to the global integration and financial results of our Pricing function as we partnered on several initiatives with transformational impact in our Commercial Excellence and Strategy functions.  With the benefit of our partnership, we delivered strong price realization in a highly competitive distribution industry.  He invested in building relationships with key stakeholders, and getting deep into the intricacies of our Pricing strategy, segmentation, and algorithms. Robert used his deep Pricing and Analytics expertise, change management skills, and keen interest in learning our business to recommend improvements that we still benefit from today.  Robert’s balanced, fact-based, analytics-supported approach, doubled by genuine interest in people at all levels, won many fans in our organization, and the credibility to move across the finish line projects that overcame budgetary and political constraints.

Not a day goes by when I don’t use something we learned from you.  The Pricing Analytics and strategic insights that EBITDA Catalyst developed for our business were so effective, we got addicted to their power.  On some days, we feel like we’re picking the competition’s pockets.

EBITDA Catalyst and Robert helped key parts of our business turn the corner of previous challenges and mount a strong EBITDA margin gain.  The “catalyzing” insights started with confidently pointing opportunities in our pricing strategy.  They provided analytical tools and visualizations that in some cases turned into game-changers.  By supporting strategy concepts with conclusive data that tipped risk-benefit analyses we needed resolved, we were able to take decisive actions.  These led to clear, and in some cases unusually fast, profit and growth improvements, whether it was for an entire division, or for specific segments or accounts.  We were appreciative of their attention to the human element, and noticed how vested they were in being part of something that improved not just a company, but delivered tangible sharing for our employees who powered our success.