The Quintessence of Strategic Management

Prof. Dr. Philip Kotler (M.A., University of Chicago, Ph.D., M.I.T.) is the S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He published his 13th edition of Marketing Management, the world's leading textbook in teaching marketing to MBAs. He has also published Marketing Models, Principles of Marketing, Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations, Social Marketing, Marketing Places, Kotler on Marketing, Marketing Insights A to Z, Lateral Marketing, Museum Strategies and Marketing, Standing Room Only, Corporate Social Responsibility, Chaotics, Up and Out of Poverty, Marketing 3.0 and several other books. His research covers strategic marketing, innovation, consumer marketing, business marketing, services marketing, distribution, e-marketing, and social marketing. He has been a consultant to IBM, Bank of America, Merck, General Electric, Honeywell, and many other companies. He has received 12 honorary doctorate degrees from major universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Prof. Dr. h.c. Roland Berger is Honorary Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has grown to become the number 5 among the world's leading strategy consultancies with 36 offices in 25 countries. Since 1996 he has been a lecturer and since 2000 Honorary Professor of Business Administration and Management Consulting at the Brandenburg Technical University in Cottbus. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of his private Roland Berger Foundation. Roland Berger is a member of various supervisory and advisory boards of national and international companies, foundations and organizations. These include Fiat Group, Turin, Italy; Telecom Italia, Milan, Italy; Fresenius SE (Chairman Audit Committee), Bad Homburg; Prime Office AG, Munich (Chairman). He is also a member of various international advisory boards, including Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt, Germany; MillerBuckfire New York, USA; Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and The Blackstone Group, New York, USA.

Prof. Dr. Nils Bickhoff holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in business administration and began his career as a consultant with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1995. He advised international clients on matters of strategy, organization, branding, and corporate finance, and was also responsible for Roland Berger's global research & development activities. In 2005 he founded his own company and has since been advising top managers on all issues of strategic management. Nils Bickhoff has authored and published management books in several languages, is editor of the "Quintessence" series, gives lectures and seminars, and is Professor of Strategy and Marketing at the Euro-FH in Hamburg (University of Applied Sciences).