Rolf Dobelli

Rolf Dobelli (born 1966) is a Swiss novelist, entrepreneur and chairman of getAbstract.

Rolf Dobelli

He was born in 1966 in Lucerne, Switzerland. In 1986, he enrolled at the University of St. Gallen, where he studied business, earning his MBA in 1991 and PhD in 1995. He was hired by Swissair in 1992 and held several managerial positions in his time there. In 1999, he co-founded getAbstract, a provider of book summaries (both in fiction and non-fiction).

Rolf Dobelli has a weekly book show on Bloomberg Television Germany^[1] and on Neue Zürcher Zeitung,^[2] Switzerland's most reputable daily newspaper. He has been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, Financial Times, Harvard Management Update, WirtschaftsWoche, Facts, Cash, and many other U.S. and European business newspapers and magazines. He writes a weekly column on cognitive errors for Sonnntagszeitung of Tamedia and for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.^[3] He regularly reviews books for The Washington Post.^[4]

In 2003, Diogenes Verlag published his first novel, Fünfunddreissig (literally, "Thirty-five"). It became a bestseller and was translated into several languages. His second novel, Und was machen Sie beruflich? ("What Do You Do for a Living?") was published in 2004, Himmelreich, in 2006, Wer bin ich? ("Who am I?"), Turbulenzen ("Turbulence?") in 2007 and Massimo Marini in 2010, all by Diogenes. His only non-fiction work is Die Kunst des klaren Denkens ("The Art of Clear Thinking"), published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 2011, which became an instant success and landed on Der Spiegel Bestseller list ^[5].

Dobelli's specialty is the intersection between business and fiction. The major themes in his work include the search for meaning in the workplace, the meaning of success and the role of randomness in life. His fictional questionnaires and aphorisms ^[6] on these topics have been reprinted in several newspapers and magazines. Critics and readers have praised him as "a new language in German fiction" Weltwoche and one of the few fiction writers who thoroughly understand the business world, from both an academic and practical point of view. The novel Himmelreich has been praised by several critics as a new Homo Faber (novel), and Dobelli is often compared to Max Frisch in terms of style.

Dobelli is also founder and curator of zurich.minds,^[7] an invitation-only community of the most distinguished thinkers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs in and around Switzerland.^[8]

Works

• Fünfunddreissig (Thirty-five), 2003
• Und was machen Sie beruflich? (What do you do for a Living?), 2004
• Himmelreich (Himmelreich), 2006
• Wer bin ich? (Who am I ?), 2007
• Turbulenzen (Turbulence), 2007
• Massimo Marini, 2010
• Die Kunst des klaren Denkens (The Art of Clear Thinking), 2011

Notes

1. ^ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seitenweise_Wirtschaft
2. ^ http://www.nzz.ch/finanzen/webtv/seitenweise_wirtschaft/seitenweise_wirtschaft_1.6663568.html?video=1.7422756
3. ^ http://perseiden.blogspot.com/2010/09/warum-sie-die-finger-von.html
4. ^ http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/books/2010/04/summary-george-washingtons-leadership-lessons.html
5. ^ Der Spiegel Bestseller List, 13 Oct 2011
6. ^ Rolf Dobelli
7. ^ zurich.minds home page
8. ^ New Ideas for Intelligent Minds, Handelszeitung Online & The Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2008

External links

• http://www.dobelli.com - Author's website
• http://www.getAbstract.com - Author's firm
• Portrait on German National TV

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Name	Dobelli, Rolf
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Date of birth	1966
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