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

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 Customer Tournament for Syngenta

Five teams of Syngenta coming from different countries (Brasil, Singapore and Swizterland) were participating successfully in the BTS In-house Business Tournament.

Andreas Steinle, member of the winning team in the business tournament said: "What an exciting time! For 4 weeks our daily work life has been additionally animated by a challenging and thrilling business tournament. Analysing the market, seeking opportunities and making your own decisions - in short: running our own business was worthwhile doing a few extra hours. The competition illustrated in a very entertaining way, the complexity of a company and how difficult decision making can be. But there is not only the learning effect, which makes this tournament a special event. Competing against 4 other teams of the same company, the tournament became very quickly one of our main topics during coffee and lunch breaks and therefore also delivered a nice social component.

The final result of the first round tournament was very close. Luckily we managed to finish first, and, as we had to defend the leading position right from the beginning, it turned out to be quite a tough race. How we did that, we are not going to tell yet, of course. There is still a Semi-Final to tackle and we are very much looking forward having another go."

Team CellStar from Syngenta Switzerland: Simon Grundy, Kriszta Olah, Franziska Badertscher, Rodica Evtuhovici, Andreas Steinle.

For more information:

Petteri Salokangas

BTS Tournaments

petteri.salokangas [#] bts.com