Metsä-Botnia enters to BGF Semifinals!

Los Molineros: Kim Lindström, Timo Malmi and Soili Numme.

Our team name LMFB comes from the Spanish words Los Molineros de Fray Bentos. We chose this name because Timo and Kim were helping in a pulp mill start-up in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. Molineros are men who build and fix wind mills that are used for pumping water for cattle. These pumps are crucial in the parts of the countryside that have no electricity, since there are over 12 million thirsty cows.

We were not able to meet as a team during the first two rounds, and after those rounds our team rank was 4. For the last two rounds we met and put much more effort into the decisions. We were mostly unanimous in our strategy and decisions; only some fixed expenses caused some disagreement. Timo wanted to spend more than Soili, but Soili understood better the impact of the growing market. A quickly growing business area does not necessarily need all that much marketing investments. We managed the risks by minimizing hazardous investments but also tried to seize the opportunity to generate profit for the company or difficulties for our competitors.

Molineros are ready to take the challenge in semi-finals with a relaxed Uruguayn attitude: Now or Mañana!!

BGF Awards 2008, Cannes, French Riviera, 3-6th of April

The Top 3 teams of the world’s biggest business tournament were again rewarded in Cannes on the French Riviera. The venue was again very chic and prestige with plenty of success stories around the business tournament together with some good wine and delicious food.

“This year we had the great pleasure of having 9 nationalities present in the Awards, which is the new record. All teams presented their own cultures in an informal way during the Award ceremony with super enthusiasm and on top of the business talent we could also see some great “show star potential”. I would like to thank all the business game stars and our host and hostess Mr. Stefan and Sirpa Widomski”.

Below you can still see the final rank of the top 3 teams in the world:

1. Pöyry Consulting, Finland

2. Tecpterol, Argentina

3. SEB, Lithuania

Many thanks to all the participants for this year’s tournament!

Taavi Thiel
CEO

Business Game Factory Ltd

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 game 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 game, which helped the team to weld well together. The game in our division was very tough and we had to increase the level of precision every round to stay ahead of the others. The game 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 game 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 game 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 game as a training for a large commercial project they were to deliver.

SKF Austria proceeded to BGF Semi-Finals!

Finishing in first place, ahead of our eight competitors, it is the first time SKF Austria reaches the semifinals of the Business Game Factory! 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 game 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 game is an excellent team building exercise and we are looking forward to the September semifinals.

BGF Business Game 2008 - Autumn semifinalists

On the picture from left to right Laurent Müller, Vesa Vilkas, Jani Virtanen, Erik Tigerstedt from GE Healthcare Finland.

September, October and November business games are finished and we are proud to announce the new semifinalists that have qualified their way to the BGF Global Semifinals 2008, taking place in September. Congratulations to the semifinalists and also to all the teams who were participating in the BGF Business Tournament.

- LLC Stora Enso Packaging (Russia)
- GE Healthcare (Finland)
- NOKIA CMO (Russia)
- Metsäliitto Osuuskunta, Puutuoteteollisuus (Finland)
- Perstorp AB (Sweden)
- Kaupthing (Finland)
- SEB (Finland)
- Skanska Project Support (Sweden)
- Svenska Handelsbanken Centrala Ekonomiavdelning (Sweden)
- Schenker Sp. z o.o. (Poland)
- Forsmark Kraftgrupp Ab (Sweden)
- SMP CZ (Czech Republic)
- KPMG (Sweden)
- Accenture (Spain)

BGF is the world leader in web based business tournaments and organizes the biggest and most exciting business tournament in the world where leading international companies are fiercely competing for market shares and profits while developing managers and key people to lead their business in a profitable and more effective way. Just like pilots in flight simulators, only in business. Why should pilots have all the fun!

Northeastern University, Boston, Chooses BGF (Business Game Factory) for Team Competition Integrating Business Disciplines

Boston, Feb. 12, 2008 – Northeastern University has long been regarded as one of the nation’s top business schools for cooperative education, graduating students with an in-depth understanding of the linkage between their learning and the real world. Now the business school at Northeastern has taken the commitment one step further, by requiring undergraduates to compete in a business simulation designed by BGF, a BTS company and the world leader in web based business simulation tournaments. The program, included in the college’s “Strategy in Action” course, requires students to work collaboratively in teams while integrating several disciplines learned during their studies. Coming at the end of their degree program, the experience powerfully demonstrates, to business undergraduates of all concentrations, the cross-functional linkages inherent in business enterprises.

Hiring trends at Fortune 1000 companies have shifted away from “content knowledge” to “systems knowledge” and an understanding of businesses decision-making across functions. Typical business education is taught in “silos” such as Accounting, Marketing and Management courses. Northeastern is on the forefront of modern business education emphasizing the interdependencies across functions within dynamic business environments. The BGF simulation tournament, in tandem with faculty lectures and support, helps counter “silo” curriculums in businesses education and expand overall business knowledge from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Northeastern runs the BGF simulation in the last three weeks of the semester. “We wanted a challenging capstone experience for a capstone course,” said Bert Spector, professor of International Business and Strategy, Northeastern University. The course included 200 participants in Fall 2007 and will have 250 in Spring 2008. The simulation itself involved teams of 5 students working together to run a business against other student teams. At the end of each ”round” of simulation, teams submit their decisions on dozens of financial and resource inputs online; simulation results are sent to the students within 24 hours.

“In the past, we’ve done simulations because it requires the students to integrate their knowledge across disciplines and also shows the impact executives have on other functional areas in a way that typical course work can’t.” said Spector. “BGF delivers business simulations for the most successful international companies, so we’re giving our students a rigorous experience.”

Northeastern selected BGF early this year because they were impressed with the simulations done for BGF’ private sector clients. In addition, they wanted a company that would provide high customer service during the process.

“We felt like we were getting a team by choosing BGF, not just a program,” said Spector. “The fact that the simulation was used in industry and not just in schools was critical to our decision.”

“Together with BTS USA we were able to create a win-win solution for Northeastern that will be a break through application also for other leading universities internationally and strengthen our position significantly in the university simulation tournaments,” says Taavi Thiel, CEO and founder of BGF.

Taavi Thiel
CEO
Business Game Factory Ltd.
taavi.thiel@bgfactory.com

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

Business Game Factory Ltd.

petteri.salokangas(#)bgfactory.com

BGF Business Tournament - Stora Enso Division

After finishing first in the September 2007 Stora Enso Division, “BBTeam” from Stora Enso Packaging Russia are now through to the BGF semifinals for next year, after tough competition from their colleagues. The “BBTeam” lead by Tamara Tsurukina just made the first place before runners up “Arteam”, also from Stora Enso Packaging Russia. Team “Picea” from Stora Enso Finland finished at 3d place, Stora Enso Packaging “Oguretz” team ended up 4th, Stora Enso “Forest” team grabbed the 5th place and Stora Enso “Telegen” team came at 6th place.

The semifinal is run in September 2008 where the “BBTeam” will face the division winners from all around the world to compete for a place in the finals. The top 3 teams in the final will be invited to BGF Awards in Cannes, at the French Riviera for the prize ceremony.

Team leader Tamara Tsurukina had this to say about their tournament experience:“We were happy that we had an opportunity to take part in this game. It was very interesting to imagine ourselves as top managers of the big international company and to understand which responsibility stands in front of them and which decisions they shall make. It was beautiful training for the company management skills development and for the understanding of the real economic processes which the model of the game simulates very realistic. Furthermore we were catch by the competitive spirit and gambling that keep in exertion from the beginning to the end of the game. It was difficult to suppose that columns of boring figures can arouse so many emotions! And of course, after the victory on this game our pleasure was increased in many times. Thanks a lot to the coaches and to our rivals.”

About the Championship in Business Management

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 other teams for market shares, profits and revenue. Besides the fun and motivational competition, the purpose of the tournament is for individuals to further develop their skills in business strategies, management board dynamics, financial analysis and team work.


Patrik Thorman,

Business Game Factory Ltd.
mobile +46 70 783 73 89
phone +46 (0)8 20 39 35
patrik.thorman@bgfactory.com

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