(On the picture, GRANIOU team from Spark Ibérica Spain (Vinci Energies), from left: Raúl Olid, Carlos Fresnillo, Marc Kienzler, Edgar Meseguer and Luis Enrique Truc) Once again the competition was tough but rewarding! We have 8 new teams proceeding to the semifinals of the BTS Business Tournament:
- Atlas Copco Compressors, Canada, team 40PLUS
- Turku Energia Oy, Finland, team MAKERS
- Spark Iberica SA, Spain, team GRANIOU
- SKF Industrie S.p.a., Italy, team T9ITALY
- SCA Hygiene Products spol. s.r.o., Slovakia ,team FEMPRO
- Oy Metsä-Botnia Ab, Finland, team BOTNIA4
- SCA Hygiene Products, Czech Republic, team BIMBIS
- KONE Liften en Roltrappen BV, Netherlands, team SNEBB
On the picture 40PLUS from Atlas Copco (Canada): Front Row - Serge Labrecque (Area Customer Care Manager - Eastern Region), Leo Di Bello (Sales Manager - Eastern Region); Back Row - Al Moubayed (Custom Solutions Manager), Michael Pezzuto (Credit Manager), Michel Favreau ( Customer Service/ Supply Manager)
(On the picture Maria Pennanen, Sales Director and Marko Ruottinen, Technical customer service from Oy Metsä-Botnia AB) There were four teams coming from the in-house tournaments: Atlas Copco, SCA Hygiene Priducts, Metsä-Botnia and KONE Liften en Roltrappen BV.
(On the picture Jyrki Merisalo, Business Development Vice President from Oy Metsä-Botnia Ab) The BTS In House Tournament is arranged as a closed session for the client company, which takes client’s managers to an exciting ride in the global business world at the top. The internal competition and networking will lead to knowledge sharing among the teams and benchmarking from other great talents within the organization. In addition to this, the winners of the tournament will proceed to the Global BTS Semifinals, where the world leading companies are competing for entering the BTS World Final. As a reward, the three best teams in the world will be invited to the BTS Awards, a luxurious prize giving ceremony in Cannes, on the French Riviera.
(On the picture SCA Hygiene from Slovakia)
Juraj Oravec from SCA Hygiene Slovakia said: "It was very positive experience for us to join this business tournament. Through it we learnt how important is to focus on each area which has impact to shareholder value of the company. It was also a good team building activity for us. Our vision was: "It is not needed to be perfect, but to be the best"
BTS Business Tournament is the biggest web based business tournament in the world. The tournament structure includes preliminary heats, semifinals and the BTS World Final. The three best teams of the year will be invited to the BTS Awards, organized in Cannes, on the French Riviera. BTS Business Tournament builds strategic excellence, management board dynamics, ability for financial analysis and fact based decision making and precise follow up.
The participants will be acting as the management board of a global company with the task of running the business successfully for 5 fiscal years. The winning criterion is total company shareholder value.
(On the picture, SNEBB team from Kone Netherlands: Back Row - Paul van der Kwartel, Rudi van Seters, Tijmen Leusink; Front Row - Ruud Feenstra and Bas Degeling)
Some testimonials from the Kone In-House Tournament:
“It was an exciting tournament with several advantages, like getting to know the other team members coming from different functions in the company. During the training you can see the influence from the aspects (e.g. marketing, process improvements) that contribute to the benefits of a company and you learn to manage them in a sensible way. The competition was strong; this forced us to participate in the tournament in the best possible way which made the tournament even more exciting!! We think it is a great training simulation to learn from and above all enjoy it!” Ruud van Seters, Commercieel specialist, KONE bv Liften en Roltrappen
“My team found the whole experience both interesting and enjoyable. The competition aspect of the tournament adds an extra layer of focus to the learning experience. Background material and "rulebook" is valid and thorough.. It was a good opportunity to work closer together with colleagues that otherwise does not work together regularly. I speak for the whole team when stating that this was the most fun, comprehensive and, not least, instructive business tournament any of us has participated in.” Erik Johnson, Installation Manager, KONE Scandinavia
“The development of team’s financial and decision making skills are made by building participant’s own understanding of material rather than the memorization of facts. This is very effective method to learn how different functions work together in the organization. It also demonstrates how the top management needs to balance between different expectations of the customers, employees and shareholders. Business tournament was an excellent team building exercise. It will help you to get to know everyone in your team and work out a decision making process to reach the objective more efficiently. Overall, I can truly recommend this tournament to build better teams.”,
Tuukka Komssi, Senior Specialist, KONE Corp.
(Team MAKERS from Turku Energia on the picture from left Markku Vesala, Anki Kiviniemi, Mika Karbin, Jani Rantanen and Jukka Hummelin)
(Team Bimbis from SCA Czech Republic, from left Petr Sztkowski, Jitka Strnadova, Jozef Bojkovsky, Helena Dvorakova, Marcel Fajtova and Igor Holzknecht)
Four teams from KPMG Sweden will compete against each other in a Business Simulation over four days. The goal with this In-House Tournament will be for the participating individuals to improve on business acumen or “Get the Big Picture of Business” resulting in an improved understanding of their customers. Another base ingredient is that the participants will use this training as a team-building exercise whereby team members can exchange business ideas, thoughts and daily work procedures as a unit. 
