Ericsson Sweden in BTS Final: the backstage story

On the photo (from left to right): Monica Jansson (Project Office Manager), Stefan Engström (Strategic Product Manager), Östen Johansson (Senior Project Manager), Mikael Wahlén (Career Model Project Manager) and Team Leader: Anette Jansson (Project Office Manager).

Ericsson is always committed to do good in business. This beautiful competition is no difference! The Team Key has found this competition very challenging and rewarding. We are very committed to go to Cannes, not being satisfied with 2nd or 3rd place. The first two rounds were very tough with fierce competition but we prevailed. We have overcome temporary setbacks, and with a lot of analysis work we managed to find a strategy that proved to be successful. We are in the finals; having beaten over 310 other teams. That is really a confidence booster.

The team consists of people from the Ericsson R&D and Product Management organisations. The team spirit is excellent with a lot of laughs and creative discussions. The basic round was extremely tough with our final colleagues SKFonic as one competitor. We meet again in the Final!!!! We are very happy to compete against such noble and respected companies as Nokia, Schenker, Nordea, SKF and Accenture. We will certainly do our best to earn the top position. The tournament as such is very rewarding in terms of knowledge and team management, thus we have learned a lot. It was very exciting in the semi final round to wait for each round result, the nails got short and the heartbeat was picking up as the clock was ticking. This type of market simulation is not only good for personal development but also a perfect break in the daily work routines. Well done BTS!

A final remark to our Final competitors:
The force might be with you and the wind might be blowing from behind. But, Ericsson with Team Key will fight to the bitter end with the goal to win the prestigious trophy and the total universal glory of being on top in BTS 2008.

May the best team win!

Best Regards
Team Key

Anette Jansson, Manager Project Office RBS Node, Business Unit Networks, Ericsson Sweden

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

Accenture Spain in the BTS Final: DTN's mission is TO WIN!

Some moths ago… In 2008, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court called BTS for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Accenture Madrid office. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as consultants of fortune (winning round after round). If you have a (business) problem, no one else can help (increasing your profits), and you can find them, maybe you can hire... The DTN-Team.

Their leader is Col. John "Hannibal" Smith (Starring David Radío Gallego and co-starring Antonio Rodriguez-Vilariño Poza who is the specialist for the dangerous scenes), whose plans tend to be unorthodox but effective. Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck (Diego Ramirez Adrados) is a smooth-talking con-man who serves as the team's appropriator of vehicles and other useful items. The team's pilot is Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock, (Sergio García Castilla), who has been declared insane and resides in a mental institution. Finally, there is the team's strong man and mechanic, Sgt. Bosco B.A. ("Bad Attitude") Baracus (Francisco Fernandez Parra).

Apart from the brave men mentioned above the team was led by two guest stars: Artemio Luna and Alfonso Peña who will be coming with our friends in the craziest adventures to achieve one target in their next mission… WIN THE BUSINESS TOURNAMENT!!!

Maria José Sobrinos, Human Resources Director, Accenture Spain

BTS and Northeastern University success story in “Business Education"

Capstone Simulation At Northeastern

The Northeastern University College of Business Administration in Boston, Massachusetts, has chosen a new Web-based simulation for its undergraduate capstone course. Designed by BTS Interactive, a Web-based business tournament design company, the simulation is run in the last three weeks of the semester-long course "Strategy in Action". More than 200 seniors take part in the simulation. Students are divided into five-person teams, each managing a global mobile cell phone manufacturing company and network service. Their goal is to win the competition by conceiving and implementing the best working strategies, winning market share, and maximizing long-term shareholder value. The simulation is held in four rounds, each equaling one year of business operation. For each round, teams submit dozens of online spreadsheets that outline their financial and operational decisions regarding product line, manufacturing options, pricing and marketing strategies, competitor analysis and benchmarking, and investment in new services such as music or games. Those "year-end" results are analyzed and returned to them within 36 hours. The experience demonstrates the cross-functional links inherent in business enterprises, says Bert Spector, professor of international business and strategy. "The emphasis is not on the technology," he adds. "The emphasis is on the process of information sharing and decision making that occurred within the groups."

BizEd September/October 2008 (pp. 67-68)

The LOGICART team (representing DB Schenker in Poland) qualified to the BTS World Final !!!

The LOGICART team consists of 5 people: Piotrek Bąbel (Sales Branch Manager), Mariusz Kozłowski (Project Development Manager), Darek Subda (Controlling Manager / Team leader), Rafał Tarasewicz (Project Manager) and Arek Wojtas (Key Account Manager).

The day of BTS Semi finals was really exciting. After the first round we were on the fifth position and we knew that it would be extremely difficult to win this tournament. Obviously we like such challenges! Then, it was only better: second place after 2 round and finally we were the first after next rounds. I think time pressure really helped us and forced us to focus only on the most important factors impacting our results, but it wasn’t easy as our competitors also did perform really well.

After all, we are definitely satisfied and look forward to the Final.

Agnieszka Józwik, HR, Schenker Poland

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

SNPower Invest win the BTS Global Energy Tournament

Teams from the Energy sector competed against one another in one of the most challenging Global Business Energy Tournaments to date!

SNPower won the Tournament with Vattenfall taking second place and Norsk Hydro in third. Jan-Erik Felle of SNPower's team “yPhone” said, “SN Power Invest participated with a team bringing in representatives from different functional areas to mirror the way we would work with many of our daily corporate tasks. The competition gave individual team members a good insight into how a company functions as a whole, and proved to be a good way to develop the key business skills of market analysis, strategy formulation, pricing, production planning and financial analysis. The competition proved to be a very good way to mimic the market dynamics, where tough competitive strategies have a direct effect on the market and ultimately on the fate of a company and its profitability. The Business Tournament proved to be a good learning experience as well as a tool for letting colleagues from various areas of our company get to know and learn from each other in an informal and fun way. A very good experience on the whole”

SNPower are now entered into the BTS semi-finals, where they will compete against other international division winners, upon success, they will be off to the BTS Finals from which the top three teams will be invited to Cannes, French Riviera for the BTS Award Ceremony.

Members of the yPhone Team are Hilde Gillebo, Kathinka Rudlang, Inge Løvåsen, Markus Wilkens and Jan-Erik Felle.

BTS would like to congratulate SNPower on their achievements and we wish them well in the semi-finals, well done!

For further information regarding the Global Energy Business Tournament or team registration:
Contact - James Baker-Duly
james.bakerduly(#)bts.com, +46 735 10 9397

Vattenfall Poland was ambitious from the very start!

SPoT Team representing Vattenfall Distribution Poland will compete in September's BTS World Semi-Finals. On the photo: Przemek Karaś, Olek Knesz, Karolina Mucha-Kuś (team leader), Asia Burcon, Andrzej Szyp and Przemek Waszczyk.

The competition gave us an opportunity to feel like Top-Managers for a while! During the Tournament, we got an overall picture of making business, and it also showed us clearly how different parts of the company interact.

We learnt to develop trust in each others’ opinions, listen and communicate in an effective way.

What made the tournament the most exciting was the competition aspect. It was an extra source of motivation and it influenced our performance in a dynamic environment.

All in all, we experienced the BTS training as both exciting and rewarding. We also had a lot of fun!

Katarzyna Markowicz, HR, Vattenfall Distribution & Sales, Poland

John Holland ready to take on the world!

Our team from John Holland (Australia's leading contracting, engineering and services provider) came from a diverse set of backgrounds. This diversity in skills and management style added to colourful, but fruitful, discussions on our BTS Tournament strategies. We found the development of our sales and marketing strategies behind a consumer product challenging at first due to our contracting backgrounds, but it didn't take us long to develop our style.

With the true spirit of the ANZACs, after trailing for the first two rounds, we didn't give up, but decided to stand behind our strategy and our consistency finally paid dividends in rounds 3 and 4.

John Holland, although predominantly operating only in Australia, is now ready to take on the world in the BTS Semi-Finals!

John Holland team: Greg Taylor, Jeff Price, Glenn Palin, Paul Gallo and Robert Rabie.