BTS Crowns 2009 Global Tournament Champions

Teams from Nokia, VIPnet and Syngenta
Take Top Honors

CANNES, France and HELSINKI, Finland; May 05, 2010 – BTS, the world leader in customized business simulations and other discovery learning solutions, announced the winners of the 2009 BTS Global Tournament. The top three winning teams excelled over hundreds of competitors in a number of simulations to run the most successful multinational company, striving for their share of a virtual market and shareholder value. Top winners Nokia Finland, second place winners VIPnet Croatia, and third place winners Syngenta Switzerland were honoured in an Awards Ceremony hosted by the BTS Tournaments BTS Tournaments division of BTS on April 24 2010.

The basic idea in Tournament participation is for people to enhance their business acumen and financial understanding. There were some 600 teams competing globally last year and at the end, there were as many as 12 nationalities represented at the BTS Awards in Cannes on the French Riviera.

"I have to admit, this year's Awards were one of the best ever. The location and arrangements were luxurious, yes, but at the end of the day - it is all about the people. Even with a certain volcano erupting, nothing can stand in the way of great people having a fabulous time. Just goes to show, the top three teams earned their place!", said Petteri Salokangas – responsible for arrangements from the BTS Tournaments team.

Winning Team of the 2009 Global Business Tournament - Nokia, Finland:

Second place was achieved by a Croatian network operator, VIPnet:

Third place winners are from Syngenta in Switzerland:

Once again - a big round of applause to congratulate on their genuine success.

The next BTS Global Tournament commences in September 2010. More information about BTS Tournaments is available on www.btstournaments.com.

About BTS
BTS is the global leader in accelerating strategy alignment and execution, innovating how organizations learn, change and improve. We partner with our clients to build commitment and capability to accelerate strategy execution and improve business results. The unique BTS process offers fast strategic alignment and rapid capability building through:
• Business Simulations and experiential solutions

– the most effective way to help organizations understand, align and execute.

• In-depth customization to what is relevant and actionable on the job.

• A results-focused approach that comprehensively and efficiently secures and measures business impact. BTS adds value to its clients through three practice areas: Strategic Alignment & Business Acumen, Leadership & Management, and Sales Force Transformation.

BTS has more than 300 professionals serving over 400 clients, including 44 of the US Fortune 100 companies and more than 25 of the Global Fortune 100 largest corporations in the world. BTS serves its clients from offices in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Stamford, Bangkok, Beijing, Bilbao, Brussels, Helsinki, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Oslo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Tokyo. For more information please visit www.bts.com.

BTS World Final 2009 - Announcing the Results!

The winners of the BTS Global Semi-finals proceeded to the BTS World Final. All directly involved will agree: this year's Final was extremely exciting!

The Final was held on 5 November 2009, with the best teams from the 2009 Tournament competing for highest shareholder value. All the simulated companies performed at their peak, closing their fourth financial year with stunningly close results. This was the closest it has ever been with 4th and 5th place missing out on their spot in the top three by less than 1% difference!

We at BTS Tournaments are proud to announce the Ranking of the BTS World Final 2009:

1. NOKIA / Finland - Team Uision
2. VIPNET / Croatia - Team Red Devils
3. SYNGENTA / Switzerland - Team Aspire
4. ENDESA / Spain - Team APTC
5. SEB KORT / Norway - Team PLASTIXXX
6. NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS / Finland - Team Pohjatyö
7. ANDRITZ / Finland - Team Eagles

From the almost 600 teams participating in the 2009 BTS Business Tournament, these amazing seven teams reached the World Final. So once again, a big round of applause to ALL competing Teams. They held under pressure to prove their business acumen. But unfortunately only the three best teams receive the honours of being invited to the famous BTS Awards. They will traditionally be held in Cannes on the French Riviera, in the Spring.

Thank you everyone involved for another great BTS Tournament Year!

- BTS Tournaments Team

NOKIA TEAM: There can be only one…

Reflections of Team Primrose from the BTS Global Tournament

In addition to referring to a catchphrase of a movie starred by Christopher Lambert, this wisecrack vividly depicts the grim realities of the BTS Global Tournament. In the simulation we found ourselves struggling with the challenges imposed by the management of a company operating in a number of interraled fields of business. What is more, we quickly realized that we are not alone, but pinned into a heated struggle with five other teams all with the same goal of winning the divisional victory.

The tournament was a great learning opportunity. It did not, however, let you learn by the easy way. Throughout the competition, we had to rethink and revise our strategies and keep a close eye on the other teams trying to anticipate what they had in mind. But this is the core of the experience – competing against teams of professionals from around the world with knowledge that only one team will prevail. This is the occasion when one learns fastest and most efficiently – the baptism by fire.

Team Primrose wants to thank all the other teams in the BTS Global Tournament Division 26 for a tough challenge. The battle for market share and profitability taught us all important lessons, but unfortunately – there can be only one winner. As Conner MacLeod finds out in the above mentioned movie – the business competition is not an easy one but worth the struggle as the reward is a place among the immortals.

Team Primrose consisted of four persons from Nokia located in both Salo and Espoo in Finland:

Matti Torkkeli, Senior Manager DSN Design (Team Leader)
Kaj Lindfors, Senior Manager, Supply Logistics
Antti Rissanen, Manager Mid Term Supply Planning
Sami Sarpola, Manager Supply Capability Management

NOKIA TEAM: What Is Needed for Success in the BTS Business Tournament - the Story of Team Turing&Co.

Success Factors for BTS Business Tournament:

- Motivation - Constant motivation is a must-have and the main key to success. In this case, while crunching numbers week after week it helped greatly to remember that we are on the road to Cannes.

- Crossfunctionality - The tournament demonstrates well the importance of not to sub-optimize but to think holistically, whereas the human nature tends to lure one to overemphasize the importance of his/her own functional area. Hence, a crossfunctional - or crossfunctionally minded - team is an asset.

- Time & Energy - For sure the competition required significant amount of both, but at the same time it was even surprisingly enlightening, rewarding and fun. Especially understanding the starting position and the market overall in the beginning was crucial. The last rounds were already rather routine for us.

- Strategy, Analytics & Intuition - Managing a large multinational company is challenging and we kept wondering "What would Olli-Pekka (Nokia CEO) do". Having a clear direction (strategy), understanding the situation (hard core analytics) and coping with uncertainty (intuition) proved to be a winning recipe.

- Physical Fitness - Like in any professional sport, we believe that also in this tournament excellent physical fitness takes you far. Hence we combined finetuning our analytical skills with running and gym. We plan to continue our training program and to be very fit for the semi-finals and finals - and for the beach in Cannes!

Johanna Lampinen (Development Manager, DSN Design at NOKIA),
Maija Kaukonen (Manager, Lifecycle Management - Analysis at NOKIA),
& Pekka Kokko (Manager, Marketing Investment Management at NOKIA)

BTS WORLD FINAL 2008!

This year's BTS World Final took place on 27 November 2008. It was a very tight race and everyone's mission was to make it to the very top. There were so many emotions, a lot of excitement, anxiety, and of course analysis and focus... From over 400 teams during the year and about 60 teams competing in the semi-finals, only 6 made it to the very top. This was quite an achievement!

We at BTS are very proud to announce the official ranking of the 2008 BTS Business Tournament World Final:

1. Schenker - Team LOGICART (POLAND)

2. Accenture - Team DTN (SPAIN)

3. SKF - Team SKFonic (AUSTRIA)

4. Nordea Bank-Latvia branch - Team NORDTEL (LATVIA)

5. Ericsson-Business Unit Networks - Team KEY (SWEDEN)

6. Nokia - CREATEAM (HUNGARY)


The Top 3 Teams will be flown in for the Exclusive Awards Ceremony in Cannes on the French Riviera in the Spring. There, they will be get a chance to celebrate their success together and receive their big and well-deserved trophies!
Congratulations to all Teams! You made this an experience to remember!!

Taavi Thiel
Senior Vice President at BTS

Nokia Hungary in BTS Final: Looks like we made it

"... the smell of the leather always excited my imagination
And I picture myself in this different situation
I'm a company director … lalalalaaaa"

We felt somewhat similar to what Sting sings in this brilliant song. Sitting behind closed doors, calculating, coffee after coffee, increasing pressure and feeling really important. For 24 hours during the semi-final we forgot about our everyday problems and most important decisions in our life seemed to be investing in the logistic and human resource processes of our Asian Magnetic Resonance Imaging business, or allocating money to R&D and so having a long-term effect on our lives. :-)

Besides finding the numbers for each cell in Excel, we continuously kept guessing who the other teams in the "BTS Universe" are, and what kind of thoughts they might have. Overall, this was really great fun. The 30 minutes between two rounds [waiting for results] seemed to be endless as we got closer to the last round. After receiving the reports simultaneously every member of our team jumped from His/Her seat and rushed to the "Createam Headquarters" with the new report in the hand, already having some comments about our expectations vs. actuals. Overall, the hardest part was anticipating what the reactions of other teams are going to be for the situations we were put in, and so basing our decisions on something without hard evidence. However, we seem to have had the right crystal ball, as we came first in the semi final. :-)

We are looking forward to the Final and really recommend to everyone who has a chance to go and find out what BTS Tournament is about!

May the force be with us in November!

- Createam

Greig Williams, Managing Director, Nokia South East Europe

Global BTS Semi-Finals 2008!

In September 2008, the Global Semi-Finals of BTS Global Open Tournament were held. Representing 17 countries, 38 best teams from the entire tournament year were competing against each other. The time for decision-making was short, adding more spice to the tournament excitement.

We are proud to announce that 6 of the semi-finalist teams qualified and are on their way to the BTS World Final. It will take place this November. The best three teams will be invited to our prestigious BTS Awards Ceremony, held in Cannes on the French Riviera.

Please welcome the following teams to the BTS World Final:

• Nordea Bank Finland - Latvia branch: Team NORDTEL
• Schenker - Poland: Team LOGICART
• SKF - Austria: Team SKFonic
• Accenture - Spain: Team DTN
• Ericsson Business Unit Networks - Sweden: Team KEY
• Nokia – Hungary: Team CREATEAM

Congratulations to all the teams who were participating in the BTS Business Tournament!

And all the best to the Finalists! May the best team win!!

Taavi Thiel
Senior VP, BTS

Nokia proceeds to BTS semifinals!

”The simulation produced a strong team building effect, which is not so common in traditional training events. The competition is definitely a positive aspect and drives people to think through all the new learning and strives them to understand the decisions they are making. I believe that the learning value can be easier applied this way in the future. Our team will be able to perform better in areas such as pricing of products, solutions and services and understanding product / brand value on demand creation. ´

The simulation and the competition were well organized and we are eagerly looking forward to the BTS Semifinals.”

Hannu Eronen, Director, Services and Software, Nokia

BTS Business Tournament - The Semifinalists from the April and May round

April and May tournaments are finished and we are proud to announce 11 new semifinalists that have qualified their way to the BTS Global Semifinals, taking place in September. Congratulations to the semifinalists and also to all the teams who were participating in the BTS Business Tournament.

- ABB (China) - Team Hot Pot. Members :Lisa Zeng, Simon Zhu, Susie Yang, June Zhang and Charles Wang.

- CAPSA (Spain) - Team Vía Lactea. Members: Griselda Arias, Celia González, Charo Suárez, Abelardo González and Alfredo Ron.

- Ingeniería de Software Avanzado (Spain) - Team Hal. Members: Maria Cavestany, Luis Albea, Gloria Rodríguez, Israel Rubio and David Pradies.

- Swerock (Sweden), Team Pemalani. Members: Per Swensson, Martin Lindström, Lars-Olof Persson and Nicklas Stenqvist.

- Syngenta (Switzerland). Members Simon Grundy, Kriszta Olah, Franziska Badertscher, Rodica Evtuhovici and Andreas Steinle.

- Sandvik (Finland and South Africa) - Team Serv4U. Members: Timo Sokkeili, Hennie Potgieter, Danie Burger and James Ooshuizen.

- Stora Enso Publication Paper (Germany) - Team Hedwig. Members: Simone Fiedler, Sabine Dunne, Franziska Schütt and Andreas Irmscher.

- Red.es (Spain) - Team Ñoquia. Members: Elena González, Ines Hernándo, Alberto de Vicente, Noemí Lera and Raúl Ballesta.

- Puumerkki (Finland) - Team Puumerkki. Members: Ilari Varhimo, Petrus Berg, Jari Lehto and Niklas Sundström.

- Nokia (Finland): Team Prodigy. Members: Tuomo Puha, Mikko Rieger, Catalin Gheorgiu, Mikko Nurmi and Tommi Vilkamo.

- Anima Praha (Czech Republic): Team Mix. Members: Vojtech Janouksek, Jiri Plisek, Pham Huu Uyen and Martin Kupka.

Taavi Thiel
taavi.thiel [#] bts.com
http://www.btstournaments.com/

BTS Business Tournament Awards - Cannes 2007

The luxurious BTS Awards were once again successfully arranged in Cannes, on the French Riviera, in March 2007. The top 3 teams in the world celebrated their victories together with the BTS Tournament Cannes crew. Teams from Nokia, Philips and Stora Enso were taken to exclusive dinners, to a private wine yard, a private residence on the hills of Cannes and cruises on the shore of Cannes and St. Tropez. The rumor has it that also the original Rat Pack paid them a visit and performed the old classic “come and fly with me” in tuxedos.

(On the picture the top 3 teams in the Global BTS Business Tournament in Cannes France: Nokia Finland, Philips Ibérica and Stora Enso Finland)

(On the picture the winning team from Nokia. From left to right Itsvan Kello, Stefan Widomski (board member of BTS Interactive), Anna Ryden, Pekka Säynätjoki, Jan Luukkonen (from BTS Interactive) and Stefan Nymander)

(On the picture the 2nd best team from Philips. From left to right José Ramón Córcoles, Ana Solano, Susana Sebrango, Juan Carlos Aguilera and Fernando Borau)

(On the picture the 3rd best team in the Global BTS Business Tournament from Stora Enso. On the picture from left to right Toni Tahvanainen, Sanna Sorsa, Krista Forsström, Anu Silvennoinen and Harri Taipale)

BTS Business Tournament - New semifinalists from the January tournament

(On the picture from left to right Markus Alitalo, Akira Kameda, Tomi Kuparinen, Akira Nakano and Takeshi Oyama from Nokia Japan)

- Atlas Copco Spain, Team OLÉ
- Skanska Foundation Projects Sweden, Team Grund AB
- Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting Oy Finland, Team RockRock
- Fortum Power and Heat Oy Finland, Team Chaleur
- OJSC VimpelCom Russia, Team Advanced
- Nokia Corp Japan, Team 5samurai

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.

(On the picture from left to right Carlos Moreno, Eva Hernández, Emilio Diez, Marina Romero and Roberto Pascual from Atlas Copco Spain)

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.

96% of all participants would like to participate again and recommend participation to other colleagues.

(On the picture from left to right Matti Savolainen, Oskari Lehto, Petteri Kuusela, Sakari Imeläinen and Fred Nykänen from Fortum Power and Heat Oy)

(On the picture from left to right Kimo Mikkonen, Petri Jokinen, Tuomas Salo, Juha-Erkki Nieminen from Pöyry.

Suvi Anttila, CEO and President of Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting Ltd. said: "We found the BTS Business Tournament very enjoyable and useful. It is great for team building and improves internal networking while at the same time challenging strategic thinking and analytical skills. We feel that the tournament nicely combines a big picture approach with sufficient room to maneuver and implement oneʹs strategies and tactics. The program is also very well organized and due to the conceptʹs flexibility, teams with tight schedules can also find the time to participate."

On the picture Mats Tidlund and Anneth Aglo from Skanska Foundation Projects. Missing are Joakim Berg, Frida Lindmark and Christelle Södergren. Mats Tidlund said: "The participation in the BTS Business Tournament has been an encouraging and enjoyable experience for everyone in our team. On a fundamental level, it has increased our ability to see the overall picture of business and how different business functions and the interrelations of these influence the performance of a company in a dynamic environment. The most important benefits for us were the development of our analytical and strategic skills and the improvement of the group decision-making process by taking advantage of the different knowledge and experience in the group. The competition atmosphere gave an exciting touch to the training and we will gladly recommend the BTS Business Tournament to other business units in Skanska."

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