Peter Zec is the president of the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen and president of red dot design promotion. He is a professor of business communications at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and was president of the international umbrella organization of design, Icsid, from September 2005 until October 2007. As former Icsid president, he now enjoys the rank of Icsid Senator. Peter Zec has been a communications and design consultant for over 20 years, for both German and international companies. 

Since 1997, Burkhard Jacob has worked as a strategic advisor to the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen and red dot. In this time, he has contributed to the building up of the red dot brand and in 2009, together with Peter Zec, helped bring the red dot institute for advanced design studies to life, a service and research institute that observes and analyzes design-oriented companies and branches. He is head of red dot institute. 

„I love this book because it is blowing away the age-old stereotype that design is just about culture and depends on the goodwill of a few mentors in industry. For the first time, "Design Value" demonstrates in a rational way that design is creating value and strategic potential for any company which embraces and applies its true strategic principles: creative business strategies, better and more sustainable objects, smarter functionalities, easier-to-use software applications and more inspiring, human-centric experiences. Design influences and defines about 80 percent of buying decisions and user satisfaction - now Peter Zec and Burkhard Jacob prove that design is also adding "beauty to the bottom line".

Hartmut Esslinger, founder and longtime co-CEO of frog design