Values

HARTMUT OSTROWSKI
Chairman and CEO, Bertelsmann AG
EDITORIAL
Dear Readers,
Bertelsmann’s “legacy for our future“ was written by people, chapter
by chapter, over the course of 175 years. It was written by generations of
entrepreneurs, led by Reinhard Mohn. The high level of trust he
placed in his staff laid the foundations for our company’s decentralized
culture and structure, for the delegation of responsibility, and for the
freedom that we enjoy to this day. This freedom has made Bertelsmann
great, and it has given rise to the entrepreneurs who make up our
company. Indeed, our company’s success story is in many ways the sum
of many individual stories.
My own Bertelsmann story, for example, reads as follows: At the age
of 25, only a year after starting as an assistant, I assumed responsibility
for 50 employees. I worked my way up the career ladder, step by step,
until I was named CEO a little over two years ago. And all of this happened
because a job advertisement with a simple yet compelling
heading caught my eye: Entrepreneurial talent sought.
Many people have been inspired by this message in recent years and
decades. They have recognized and – more importantly – taken advantage
of the freedom Bertelsmann offers, freedom that they would not
have found anywhere else. Entrepreneurs like Fritz Wixforth,
Monti Lüftner, Herbert Multhaupt, Suzanne Herz, Helmut Thoma,
Axel Ganz, Hans Meinke and Annabelle Long are all part of the history of
Bertelsmann, and their stories are found in this special supplement to
the 2009 annual report. Together with many others in the past, present
and future, they make up the unique spirit of Bertelsmann: the spirit
that Reinhard Mohn once breathed into this company and that will
continue to live on long after his death.
I am confi dent that in keeping with our central theme of “175 Years of
Bertelsmann –The Legacy for Our Future,“ we will fi nd
inspiration for upcoming tasks and new ideas in our corporate history.
During the past six decades, Bertelsmann has often shown the courage to
take unusual and risky steps – especially in the face of diffi culties. Some
of these steps have led to milestones in the Group’s history. But when
they were fi rst being explored, their success was far from certain. And,
indeed, not every new fork in the road led to the desired result.
I am proud to lead a Group with such an exemplary corporate
culture. I would like to invite you to take a short break and scroll
through some high points of the company’s history – and then to look
forward again, into a successful future.
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