Working instructions: How to go to Cannes-from SKF TEAM

Pat Benatar was singing "Love is a Battlefield" - which is of course true, by the way - but now we can sing "Business is a Battlefield" with no doubt. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't have made this World Final more thrilling. We can only describe what was going on here in Austria - but let us assume the very same scenarios were happening at the very same time in some specific places in Poland, Spain, Hungary, Latvia and Sweden.

After you successfully managed to beat a number of other teams out of the tournament in qualification round and semi-finals, you will be one out of six finalists - leftover from 300 teams which entered the BTS Global Tournament. In the world final, do as follows:

Tuesday afternoon...
Schedule a nice little meeting in the afternoon, starting at 3pm. Well, at 19:30 you will have to order some Pizza to keep the systems running. The meeting will be a heavy duty test for your coffee machine. At around 22:00 you will be already more clear about what to do. Finally you send in your decisions for the first round...

Wednesday afternoon...
Same as above. This is the time to realize - there is some serious competition. Refine your strategy and put up an action plan. The Pizza service will come in again at 19:00...

Thursday morning...
Starting at 07:00 you will need some fresh ideas to improve your business and somehow beat those ...aarrghh... competitors. Good sales and production alone won't win the competition, pay enough dividends, motivate your employees.
From round to round you will come closer to the edges of your seats. The coffee machine will at this time be in continuous operation. Lunch is of course only sandwiches while you fight your battle...

Thursday afternoon...
Before you send in your decisions for the last round, you will already know that the final scores won't be far from each other - everything is still possible. Then at around 16:11 you will stare at your screen with eyes wide open - the relief... you will have to look at the results more than once to realize - your team has made it. Finishing in third place (optionally: first, second), you will be going to Cannes.

Friday morning...
Exchange nice mails with the other teams, have a look again at the pictures from previous award ceremonies, check if your dinner jacket still suits you, gear up your cigar depot and wait for BTS to book your flights...

Congratulations to the winners Schenker and second Accenture - be sure we will have a drink together in Cannes...
...and greetings to all from the third, team of SKF (Austria) - Erwin Übleis, Simon Blasl, Jörg Schlager and Klaus Zeppezauer

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

SKF Austria goes BTS World Finals 2008!

Coming from Steyr, a small town in the middle of Austria, SKF rolling bearings as well as SKF BTS Tournaments participants conquer the world.The motivated finalists are team leader Erwin Uebleis (controlling), Simon Blasl (business development), Joerg Schlager (supply chain) and Klaus Zeppezauer (human resources) - in the picture from left to right. Veronika Pfeffer, participating in the first round, stepped out due to her pregnancy. Veronika, in this way we wish you all the best for your personal challenges ahead!

Over the last five years, SKF - a Swedish company and world leader in rolling bearings and relevant products - has sent over 30 teams from 17 nations to participate in the BTS World Tournament. "Out of those, three teams have made it to the semi-finals, and we are the first team to enter the World Finals", says team leader Erwin Uebleis without hiding his pride.

Being among the top six of over 320 participating teams of this year´s Global Tournament is certainly something special. "The first three will make it to the BTS awards ceremony in Cannes. However, we won't compete for the third place - we will go for victory", says business developer Simon Blasl, knowing his optimism was always reasonable so far.

Not everyone was so happy from the very beginning - besides the BTS Tournament, there was a lot of "real" work to be done. However, what SKF does - we do properly, and with the success in the first round, the fire got started. "Now we see the BTS Tournament as an excellent way of learning in a challenging, competitive environment and working as a team close to the reality of company management - including the time pressure" says Six Sigma Black Belt Joerg Schlager.

"The competition became more and more realistic. In the semi-final, personnel was increasingly important, as it is in reality. In the final round, we will probably have to think about proper training of our virtual employees - for example by BTS", says Klaus Zeppezauer, representing the HR part.

The Team of SKF Austria looks forward to the upcoming challenge of the World Finals - take the chance now or never, following the SKF vision "To equip the world with SKF knowledge".

Elisabeth Krennhuber, Personnel and Organizational Development, SKF Österreich AG

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

Losing is not an option - UPM Kymmene

OptiComm team from left to right: Denis Voyat, Juha Ukkola, Niels Schepers, Kevin Smith.

OptiComm team from UPM Raflatac set off to the business tournament with the above motto and came out as the winner of its division. The team is now preparing for the semi-finals that will take place in September. The members of the winning team come from different functions and countries in Europe. They posses s a range of business experience in marketing, business development, management accounting, supply chain and process development.

"We are all used to working in international teams, but have never worked together in this set-up before. Today's on-line group work facilities enabled us to work together seamlessly despite the distance. It also gave our team the flexibility to schedule our meetings around daily business agendas. I think we may even have proceeded more slowly had we had face-to-face meetings, as they typically include more argumentation," Juha Ukkola explains.

"We felt most excited during the entire tournament, which helped the team to weld well together. The competition in our division was very tough and we had to increase the level of precision every round to stay ahead of the others. The simulated environment created a high level of motivation for learning in a most subtle way," Ukkola says.

"We do not make similar business decisions in our own work, but we quickly got the hang of making such decisions. It was learning by doing," Niels Schepers explains.

"I was able to use statistics to propose company direction that I don't really have exposure to in my daily life. Essentially the training forced me to have a helicopter view so to speak rather than focusing on the detail," Kevin Smith says.

"The element of competition added an extra dimension to the business simulation. After each round we found the tournament more exciting...especially when the intermediate results proved we were on the right track. We achieved the victory through a good team work and our learning," says Denis Voyat.

"The tournament is an innovative learning solution introduced by UPM as part of the Learning to Lead framework. It's a great opportunity for the team to learn about business dynamics, and practise decision making in a safe environment, " explains Paul Norrington, HRD manager at UPM Raflatac, who advised the team to participate the business tournament as a training for a large commercial project they were to deliver.

SKF Austria proceeded to BTS Semi-Finals!

Finishing in first place, ahead of our eight competitors, it is the first time SKF Austria reaches the semifinals of the BTS Tournament! Our team consists of persons out of different departments (Sales, Controlling, Human resources, Quality and Supply chain), the different experiences supported our decision-making-process. After a period of 10 exciting weeks, where the simulation illustrated us the economy processes in a realistic way, we learned how top management has to balance the different requirements from customers, employees and shareholders. The training is an excellent team building exercise and we are looking forward to the September semifinals.