Merry Xmas and a great year 2007

On behalf of the BTS Tournament Team thank you for your support and co-operation. We wish you Merry Christmas and Successful Year 2007!!

On the picture from the left Petteri Salokangas, Juan Llaneza, Jan Luukkonen and Taavi Thiel.

This Excellent biography of Mr. Stefan Widomski tells his story of becoming the legendary Export Director of Nokia and the BGF Chairman. The book also includes the story of how BGF was founded and how the "flying embassador of Nokia" became my personal mentor. Currently the Book is available only in Finnish, unfortunately.

In the picture from the left Mihail Gorbatshov and Stefan Widomski.

BTS Business Tournament 2007

After knowing the champion and the results of last year tournament. The BTS business tournament is starting again.

We are running our business simulation together with most of the world leading companies (in the link you can see some of our references). These teams have been part of the world’s largest web based business tournament, with more than 500 teams participating from 65 countries. BTS Tournaments focus on providing premium-quality business simulation training in the spirit of the company motto “Get the big picture!”

The idea in brief is to gather up team/teams (3-5 persons) from your organization's key people to participate in the event. The focus with this tournament is to develop your organizations overall business skills, team work skills, team spirit, decision-making skills as well as profit orientation. The team itself will be motivated by the fierce competition.

The task is to run a company on a world market in competition with other teams. The typical team is 3-5 Managers or future Managers who need training in understanding the big picture, how everything in a company is financially connected and eventually leads to the profit and loss statement. The team will also see how effective processes affect quality and profitability. It is also great teamwork training!

Learning objective

The objective is to improve participants’ business understanding and related skills

Skill improvement areas

- Big picture: “See how different aspects of business relate to each other!”
- Strategy: “Understand your business and position yourself effectively!”
- Analysis: “Know the numbers and analyze the market and competitors!”
- Decision-making: “Make decisions that move you towards the right direction!”
- Teamwork: “Get the full benefit of the different points of view in your team!”
- Processes: “Improve your processes for increased profitability!”

Starting options:

January, March, April, May, September, October and November.

Interested?

Please contact me and I would be more than happy to provide you with more information.

Taavi Thiel
BTS Tournaments

Taavi.Thiel [#] bts.com

BTS Business Tournament - Results 2006

(On the picture the World Champion team "NetAReal" from Nokia: from upper left-hand corner Pekka Säynätjoki, Anna Ryden, Stefan Nymander and Istvan Kello)

RANKING:

1) Nokia (Finland), Team Leader Pekka Säynätjoki
2) Philips (Spain), Team Leader Juan Carlos Aguilera
3) StoraEnso (Finland), Team Leader Anu Silvennoinen
4) Ericsson (Germany), Team Leader Markus Feld
5) Vattenfall Europe (Germany), Team Leader Wolfgang Hechler
6) Sun Microsystems (Spain), Team Leader Cristina Aparicio

Novemver 28, 2006 -- Nokia Networks from Finland has won the BTS Tournament 2006 beating over 500 competing teams in the process. This is the third time that a team from Nokia has won the tournament with participants from sixty five countries.

The BTS World Final was fierce as usual, as the teams ending up as finalists tend to be extremely talented, disciplined and competitive. The World Final was carried out via internet, just as the preliminary heats and the semifinals.

The second best team was from Philips Spain. The Philips team was smart , leading the competition until the last round before the Nokia team took the lead and the victory. The third best team from StoraEnso Finland was showing steady performance during the whole final, securing their place in the BTS Awards, a luxurious reward trip for the top three teams in the tournament. The BTS Awards ceremony is held next March-April on the French Riviera.

(On the picture the second best team "Spainet" from Philips: from upper left hand corner Juan Carlos Aguilera, Fernando Boraou, José Ramón Córcoles, Ana Solano and Susana Sebrango )

BTS BUSINESS TOURNAMENT

- The biggest web based business tournament in the world.
- Tournament structure: winners of the Preliminary Heats proceed to the Semifinals, and the winners of the Semifinals further to the World Final.
- The program builds strategic excellence, management board dynamics, ability for financial analysis and fact based decision making and precise follow up.
- The business simulation is done in a team of 3 to 5 participants who all will be acting in a management board of a global company with the task of running the business successfully for 5 fiscal year.
- The winning criteria is total company shareholder value.
- Hundreds of companies and organizations participated in the preliminary heats in the 2006 tournament representing more than 65 countries.
- The preliminary heats are organized depending on customer circumstances and wishes, either as an open tournament or as an in-house tournament.
- The three best teams of the year will be invited to the BTS Awards, organized in Cannes, on the French Riviera.
- The tournaments are available in English, Spanish and Finnish

On the picture Stora Enso's winning team "Chu Ban Zhi" on their way to Cannes to the BTS Awards in the spring. In the picture from the left: Anu Silvennoinen, Harri Taipale, Sanna Sorsa and Krista Forsström. Toni Tahvanainen is not in the picture.

BTS Tournaments

- Founded in January 2003
- World leader in web based business tournaments
- Over 30000 participants from more than 65 countries
- Local representation in 10 countries
- Chairman of the board Mr. Henrik Ekelund (President and CEO of BTS Group), other members of the board Mr. Taavi Thiel (SVP, BTS) and Mr. Stefan Widomski (SVP Nokia international trade affairs until 2006, now retired)
- http://www.btstournaments.com/

More information regarding the tournament:

Taavi Thiel
BTS Tournaments

Taavi.Thiel [#] bts.com