Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Kaupthing Champion in Business Management!


(From left to right, a very satisfied managing director of Kaupthing Sweden, Mr. Robert Charpentier and the winning KBS team: Stefan Westergren, Christoffer Wildeke and Catrin Jansson)

In November 2007, Kaupthing Bank sealed its very first BGF In-House business game tournament. Teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden competed about the glamorous victory of being the first Kaupthing team to ever win a BGF Game, and it was team KBS from Sweden who ultimately created most value with its virtual company.


The tournament was very exciting, and for long – team FIH from Denmark seemed to outperform its peers by e.g. having great utilization rates. However, the overall strategy proved wrong, and instead, in the very last round, team KBS managed to snatch the first place just before the runner-up team Finland.


Lots of "aha:s", and lots of fun, characterized KBS's evening work throughout the virtual fiscal years. And even though the competitors seemed to outperform the KBS company, the winning team was convinced that the tactics chosen were the right ones in the long run. Having advanced to the Semi-finals, the team, consisting of employees from the bank's research department, credit department and banking department, is proud of the members' stubbornness and confidence. Team leader Christoffer Wildeke says: "We did our homework well and were well prepared for possible market changes already after the first round. Additional understandings about the value drivers as the tournament proceeded made us just more confident about our initially chosen strategy. But it was meanwhile very exciting - and educational - from day one to the final closing of the books"

Petteri Salokangas
petteri.salokangas(#)bgfactory.com

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

SEB Finland, 2007 winner of SEB Championships!



After defeating the other participating SEB teams, Team HKI of SEB Finland won the annual 2007 SEB Championships in Business Management, hosted by Business Game Factory. In second place was SEB Norway, third, SEB Lithuania and fourth SEB Germany. The Finns have now secured a place in the BGF semi-finals that will take place during the course of 2008. Here the team will face international division winners from 2007. If they successfully win the semi-final division, they will proceed to our World Finals, where the top three winning teams will be selected to go to Cannes, French Riviera for our BGF award ceremony. The winners from last years SEB Championship, SEB Lithuania, went all the way to the BGF World Finals and finished 3rd. For that, they will be awarded in the BGF Award Ceremony in Cannes that takes place in the beginning of April 2008. Will the Finnish team follow in their footsteps to the French Riviera this year? Remains to be seen, may the best team win!.

Team HKI´s team member Tomi Tuominen said, "BGF Championship brought people from different functions and backgrounds to work together on a joint mission - with full enthusiasm. Although decisions in the game did not have real-life consequences, the gaming experience, teamwork, tactics, analysis and the thrill were all very real. We wish to thank BGF for creating an intriguing and realistic simulation that gave players the opportunity to put in their full focus and enjoy the game. For us, the game proved that people, who do not work together or know each other previously, can form a unified team and concentrate on the task at hand - no matter if it is a multibillion company. Participants perfected their skills in teamwork, focus, analysis and understanding of complex decision structures - all vital to success anywhere, anytime."

About the SEB Championships in Business Management

The SEB Championships have been running for four successful consecutive years. The task is to gather a team of 3-5 players. The team will then have the opportunity to run a simulated multinational company in competition with their SEB colleagues for market shares, profits and revenue. Besides the fun and motivational SEB competition, the purpose of the Championships are for individuals to further develop skills in business strategies, management board dynamics, financial analysis and team work. The SEB Championships take place every September.


James Baker-Duly,

Business Game Factory
+46735109397
James.bakerduly(#)bgfactory.com