Prof. Dr. Dominik Grosse Holtforth

AN OBITUARY FOR A COLLEAGUE AND COMPANION

Prof. Dr. Dominik Grosse Holtforth – A scientist by passion

“Do what you love and love what you do” – the Steve Jobs’ motto was also true to Prof. Dr. Dominik Große Holtforth, who was a big fan of the Apple founder. Prof. Große Holtforth was curious, committed and helpful. He was a passionate scientist who did not sit in an ivory tower but always looked for practical relevance.

For Dominik Große Holtforth, the sentence “Do what you love and love what you do” was not just an empty phrase, but an apt description of his work and activities in all areas of life. Whether in his function as Dean of Studies and Professor at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, as Managing Director of the E-Commerce Institute, an affiliated institute of the university, his online shop “Meine Orangerie” or as a family man – he did all this with great enthusiasm and commitment. Combining his theoretical knowledge with practical experience has always been a particular concern to him. He wanted to get to the bottom of things and prove that what he taught the students in his lectures really works in practice.

As a technology enthusiast and plant lover, he, therefore, founded the online shop for citrus fruits “Meine Orangerie”. And with success. This was later followed by the founding of the E-Commerce Institute. His mission: to provide customer-oriented assistance in the development and implementation of forward-looking and sustainable e-commerce projects based on empirical research and application-oriented studies with and for companies.

Dominik Große Holtforth never found new technologies threatening, but always saw the opportunities and was convinced that what matters is the people who use the technology and actively help to shape it. That also distinguished the native of Lower Rhine: he was towards people, always positive thinking and helpful. For over ten years he has shaped many colleagues and students at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences with his open nature, supporting them in realizing their potential and developing further. The topic of further development also played a major role for him: for example, on a student excursion to the USA, he found that he was no longer able to speak English fluently and then immediately took a business English language course.

Prof. Große Holtforth held a professorship for Media Management and Business Administration at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and held various offices during his career: he was dean of the full-time bachelor’s program in Media and Communication Management at the Cologne location and program manager for Media and Communication Management for the Idstein, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich locations. In addition, he was a member of the faculty council, where he always contributed to the academic self-administration work with constructive design proposals.

Prof. Dr. Grosse Holtforth: his focus

His main focus in teaching was the basics of business administration, strategic management, media economics, entrepreneurship, online marketing and e-commerce. A significant part of his teaching activities also included the supervision of business plans, case studies and start-up projects of the students. These teaching areas also corresponded closely with the content-related work areas of Prof. Große Holtforth. He dealt intensively with start-ups and business planning, especially in online markets, as well as with questions of strategic management in the media and internet industry.

Prof. Dr. Große Holtforth studied economics at the universities of Bonn and Cologne. He received his doctorate under Prof. Brümmerhoff at the University of Rostock with the topic “Media, Attention and Political Competition – a Public Choice Analysis of the Relationship between Media and Politics”. After completing his doctorate and working as a research assistant at the University of Rostock, Mr. Große Holtforth initially worked as an economics consultant at the Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media Area (KEK).

There he was instrumental in preparing the KEK’s first concentration report. Afterwards, various management and management positions in the commercial area led him to ZDF Enterprises and other associated companies of the ZDF network, as well as to action concept as an associated company of RTL. Since 2008, Mr. Große Holtforth has worked full-time at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.

On October 17, 2018 Dominik Große Holtforth died unexpectedly and much too early at the age of 50 in his house in Brühl. The colleagues, the management and the executive committee of Fresenius University of Applied Sciences are deeply shaken. His enthusiasm and creativity will remain in inspiring memories for them in the future, too, according to the motto.

“DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND LOVE WHAT YOU DO”.

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As Professor of Business Administration and Media Management at the Fresenius University in Cologne, Prof. Grosse Holtforth has taught in the following areas

E-commerce
Online marketing and analytics
Entrepreneurship

In his scientific work, he has intensively dealt with strategic questions of e-commerce, digitization and the Internet sector. As the founder of the e-commerce company Meine Orangerie, he was also familiar with online trade as a practitioner and online marketing professional. Prof. Große Holtforth also regularly supervised research and consulting projects which focus on conception and management issues in e-commerce business models.

Project topics of the E-commerce Institute

Projects of the E-Commerce Institute take place regularly in the context of university cooperation. Student teams help companies to solve demanding problems in online marketing and e-commerce, but professional consulting is also part of the project catalogue:

Shop and e-commerce systems in mobile commerce
Conversion Optimization
SEO and SEA strategies
Implementation of WebAnalytics
Market entry strategies in e-commerce
Company valuation in e-commerce
Strategies in Multichannel Retail
Implementation of Same-Day-Delivery
Online Marketing Agency Audit
Digitisation of educational companies
Content Marketing, especially in the DIY & financial sector
Returns Management
Data protection for videoconferencing systems in the health sector
Comparison of merchandise management and processing systems in e-commerce

Publications by Prof. Große Holtforth

In his articles and blog posts, Prof. Große Holtforth addresses fundamental but also current issues in e-commerce. There is a regular focus on quantitative, analytical or technological issues.

Schlüsselfaktoren im E-Commerce: Innovationen, Skaleneffekte, Daten und Kundenzentrierung. (Key factors in e-commerce: Innovations, economies of scale, data and customer focus). Berlin, Heidelberg 2016
Numerous posts as a guest blogger on Ryte.com
Contributions to the e-commerce strategy, controlling and analysis on www.ecommerceinstitut.de, 2012 – 2018
Various contributions on consulting.de
E-commerce und Crossmedia (E-commerce and Crossmedia), mit Elena Metallidis, in: Martin Schneider (Hrsg.): Management von Medienunternehmen – Digitale Innovationen – crossmediale Strategien, Berlin, Heidelberg 2013, pp. 155 – 180
Dynamik und Wandel in der Medienindustrie – Ansätze zum Management kreativer Geschäftskonzepte in der digitalen Welt (Dynamics and change in the media industry – approaches to managing creative business concepts in the digital world), in: Becker/Schwaderlapp/Seidel (Hrsg.): Management kreativitätsintensiver Prozesse, Berlin, Heidelberg 2012, pp. 133 – 152
Die Entstehung von Aufmerksamkeitsmärkten in Online-Medien (The emergence of attention markets in online media), in: Klaus Beck/Wolfgang Schweiger (Hrsg.): Attention please! Berlin 2001
Öffentlicher Rundfunk im digitalen Zeitalter. (Public broadcasting in the digital age). Working papers of the Institute for Broadcasting Economics at the University of Cologne, No. 135, Cologne, 2000
Medien, Aufmerksamkeit und politischer Wettbewerb. Eine Public Choice- Analyse der Beziehungen zwischen Medien und Politik (Media, attention and political competition. A public choice analysis of the relationship between media and politics). Berlin, 2000
Zwischen Pressefreiheit und Propaganda. Ökonomische Ansätze zur überzeugenden Kommunikation in der Demokratie (Between freedom of the press and propaganda. Economic approaches to convincing communication in democracy). Working Papers of the Institute for Broadcasting Economics at the University of Cologne, No. 85, Cologne.

The CV of Dominik Große Holtforth

Born on January 23, 1968, in Wesel on the Lower Rhine

1998 to 1994: Studied economics at the universities of Bonn and Cologne

1995 to 1999: Research assistant at the University of Rostock

1999: Dissertation on state regulation and doctorate as Dr. rer.pol.

1999 – 2000: Economics Officer at the Commission on Concentration in the Media (KEK)

2000 – 2005: Project manager for corporate development and investments at ZDF Enterprises GmbH in Mainz

2003 – 2005: Authorized signatory of doc.station medienproduktion GmbH in Hamburg

2004 – 2005: Commercial managing director at Screenworks GmbH, Wiesbaden

2005 – 2007: Commercial director of Gruppe Filmproduktion GmbH, Cologne

2007 – 2008: Commercial director of action concept Film- und Stuntproduktion GmbH, Hürth

2008 to 2014: Dean of Studies at the Fresenius University of Cologne

2009 to 2014: Founder & CEO of Meine Orangerie

Since 2014: Head of the Cologne E-commerce Institute at Fresenius University

Since 2016: Blogger at Mein mediterraner Garten

Photo: John M. John

AN OBITUARY FOR A COLLEAGUE AND COMPANION