The Authors

Prof. Dr. Bernd W. Wirtz, studied business administration at Cologne, London and Dortmund. His doctoral thesis was on "Strategic Management in the Media Market" and his promotion as professor at the University of Zurich was for "Success factors in Business Relationship Management". Prof. Dr. Bernd W. Wirtz has served as a private lecturer at the University of Zurich since 1999. From 1999 to 2004 Bernd Wirtz held the chair of business administration at the University of Witten/Herdecke. Since 2004 he has served as chair of information and communication management at Speyer University. He has also been active as a management consultant for Munich-based Roland Berger & Partners, and as a manager for Andersen Consulting (Accenture), Strategic Competency Group, Frankfurt a. M.

Walter Raizner, born in 1954, studied economics and business informatics at Nuremberg and Erlangen. He attained his degree in business administration in 1983. After his studies Walter Raizner worked for Nixdorf, then IBM in a series of sales, marketing and management positions. In 1995 he transferred to IBM in the United States (punctuated by an interim assignment in London), becoming General Manager of the worldwide IBM Storage Products Division in Somers, New York. In January 2003 he was appointed CEO of IBM Deutschland GmbH and IBM Central Holding GmbH. Since November 2004 Raizner has been in charge of the Broadband/Fixed Networks Strategic Business Area of Deutsche Telekom AG, with a seat on the Board of Management. Raizner also heads up the T-Com corporate division.

Dr. Hubert Burda, Dr. Hubert Burda, born in 1940, studied art history, archeology and sociology in Munich. He is publisher and CEO of Hubert Burda Media and President of the Association of German Newspaper Publishers (VDZ) as well as a founding member of the European Publishers Council.