Boston University International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition

Your Fearless Leader

2011-09-09T12:29:00.000-04:00

Meet Todd Valentine, Committee Chair for the 7th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition.

Todd is pursuing the MS-MBA with a Strategy and Business Analysis concentration. He interned with VMware over the summer in their Cambridge office. Before coming to BU, he was an account executive for a media and entertainment company based in Denver, Colorado with accounts from Finland to Australia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Technical Journalism from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He enjoys camping, cooking, and watching movies.

Save the Date

2011-08-30T16:29:00.000-04:00

The 7th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition will be held March 29-31, 2012.

Do you have what it takes?

And the Winners are ....

2011-03-27T21:21:00.003-04:00

Fun and Work with Ericsson Executives

2011-03-27T21:20:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the committee

2011-03-26T19:59:00.000-04:00

This group of dedicated committee members have truly outdone themselves. From making sure every team knows where to go, to manning top-secret envelopes, to supporting their fellow classmates with high fives and back slaps, they've made sure every minute of this weekend was on track. Nate, Chair of the Commitee, personally spent three months pouring hard work into organizing the 2011 Tech Strategy Competition. His leadership has translated seamlessly. Let's give the entire 2011 committee a big THANK YOU for all of their hard work, and for making this one of the most fun Tech Strategy Competitions in a long time. Great work guys.

Presentations Come to a Close!

2011-03-26T19:29:00.000-04:00

The fourth team, Ericsson Jakarta, just completed their presentation and the case competition has come to a close! The judges had a barrage of questions that made a some audience members raise their eyebrows. But the team answered every question, no matter how difficult, without missing a beat. Great job guys!

Now the only thing left to do is announce the winners. Oh, and finally have a drink to celebrate a successful competition. The reception is happening now on the 4th floor. See you there!

Final Case Competition Presentations Underway!

2011-03-26T18:20:00.001-04:00

The final four case presentations are underway in the auditorium. Students have 20 minutes to present their cases and then 10 minutes for Q&A from the judges. Team Ericsson Santiago made the first presentation look effortless, delivering their presentation with confidence after 32 hours of non-stop work. They handled questions from the judges around competitive landscapes, timelines and budgets. Great work Ericsson Santiago!

Not much longer now until the winner will be announced, and four students will be $25,000 richer.

Team Ericsson Santiago presents their work in front of four judges and more than 60 students from around the globe.

What's Your Favorite App?

2011-03-26T18:02:00.000-04:00

Andrew MacDonald and Abishek Chopra of Team 6 joked during the collaboration round presentations after giving a flawless presentation to the judges.

"After the case competition, I wasn't looking forward to this project. But this turned out to be so much more interesting and fun that I thought it would be."

Andrew and Abishek had two Ericsson employees working with them during the collaboration round. They helped the students keep their big ideas in check, and focus their presentation. And they got the students engaged, refreshing their tired minds by facilitating their new ideas and new people in the room.They had a lot of ideas to start with, but both students were suprised at how easily a group of six students who've never met before could work together.

"People were really receptive to eachother's ideas. It was so great to see our exchange of ideas get connected," MacDonald said.

But both, who had only gotten 1 hour of sleep the night before, agreed that the case competition was much harder than the collaboration round. But they were running on adrenaline fumes and had stopped caring about sleep.

So while they were busy developing new apps. for Ericsson to transform the health care industry with, I wanted to know what were their favorite apps on their iPhones?

"Definitely the Bloomberg app.," Andrew said.
"Yeah, LinkedIn and Facebook are the best," Abishek said.

Four Final Teams Announced!

2011-03-26T16:50:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to the four final teams who will advance to the final presentations at 5 PM! The teams will present their cases to a new set of judges: Arun Bhikshesvaran, Martin Zander, and Andreea Timberlake of Ericsson, and George Thomas of IBM. Thank you again to our judges!

And the final four are, in no particular order....(drumroll please)!

Ericsson Santiago
Ericsson Beijing
Ericsson Budapest
Ericsson Jakarta

Collaboration Comes Full Circle

2011-03-26T16:35:00.008-04:00

The collaboration round presentations are underway right now! The atrium is buzzing with students in suits and spectators who've come out to show their support. After 30 hours of competition, this is the final lap for these talented students.

13 teams are presenting their work to two Ericsson judges, with just four minutes to explain how their app will revolutionize either the health care of energy industry using mobile + broadband + cloud technologies.

The ideas presented were limitless! Here are just four examples of the creative solutions these innovative teams came up with in just four hours:

Team 1 proposed that patients will no longer need to interact with doctors physically. With their app. patients could diagnose themselves, send their symptoms to the cloud and then doctors can access this information and prescribe medicines proactively. Pretty cool huh?
Team 2 recommended developing an end-user app. that would smartly manage your energy consumption using Facebook as a platform! The app. would offer real-time data and allow users to remotely manage facilities.
Team 5 focused on the nonprofit sector, suggesting an app. that would broker communications across language and expertise barriers to enable doctors in more disadvantaged locations to offer more accurate diagnoses, in a real-time format. Think Doctors Without Borders meets social media.
Team 6 outlined an app. where all users would have their medical data pre-stored on their phones. This app. would automatically share this information with doctors offices, saving 15-20 minutes of patients' time to fill out forms, omitting data errors and streamlining the healthcare paperwork system.

This is just a snapshot of the 13 amazing ideas presented. With just four minutes to get their ideas across, it was a scramble to explain it all to the judges. Some students studdered from sleep deprivation, and others thrived off the adrenaline, delivering flawless presentations.

Thank you to Georges Antoun of Ericsson and Mike Lawson of BU who helped judge their hard work during the collaboration round!

Professor Venkat Explains the Relationship between Mobile + Broadband + Cloud

2011-03-26T15:43:00.003-04:00

Hans Vestberg's Opening Reception Speech

2011-03-26T15:41:00.003-04:00

At the opening reception on Thursday night, Hans Vestberg delivered a moving speech on the power of telecommunications and technology, and every human's right to basic communications. Below is a transcription of his 11 minute speech that was transcribed from an audio recording. Thank you Mr. Vestberg for sharing your innovative ideas with our case competitors!

Hello everyone, it is a great honor for Ericsson to head up this Case competition.

Ericsson has several reasons for doing this:
1. We believe telecommunications is a very important part of society.
2. When we think about Ericsson and the future we think about great things.
3. You will help develop part of our strategy, and be part of our research and development for this strategy by participating in this competition.

First, a couple of words about Ericsson. We serve in more than 175 countries, with approximately 90,000 employees, $35 billion dollars, and it is an extraordinary company. We do everything from equipment to services. It’s a broad company. But most importantly, we were founded 135 years ago.

The founder, Lars Magnus Ericsson, once said, “Communication is a basic human need.” I wish he could be here today to see just how relevant that statement really is.

We believe that our industry is part of the 5th technology revolution. 5.3 billion people have a mobile phone, and it took 25 years to build this infrastructure. In 5 years from now we expect there to be 8 billion mobile subscriptions, more than people on earth. That is of great importance because that technology will be so broadly distributed throughout the world.

The first phase of a technology revolution is to build technology and distribute it. The second phase is to use that technology to apply solutions. Leaders in the first phase are not necessarily leaders in the 2nd phase. Google is an example of this.

Ericsson sees a networked society emerging in the next 10-15 years. Everything that can be connected will be connected. The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity is a transformation by using mobility. It’s going to have a huge impact on society. The major challenges on earth will be addressed through this. For example, in health care you can bring solutions out by using mobility broadband.

This will also help reduce CO2 emissions, using less power. We believe that we can impact 20-50% of CO2 emissions. An example of this is connecting cars, telling them which route they should take so they don’t have to give off more emissions than necessary. We can impact the industry. We will have a huge responsibility in the telecommunications industry to work with other industries, and show them that we can have an impact.

Ericsson’s vision is, by 2020, there will be 50 billion connected network devices. What you’re about to be part of is the 2nd phase of this technology revolution. To use the mobility broadband because that’s going to bring down the barriers in the world and bring a lot of good.

In 2050 the population will have tripled. That means that the infrastructure will need to increase by three times as well, three times as many roads and schools, etc. Technology will enable this process, because it is no longer physically impossible to triple the infrastructure of this earth.

Today, 85% of the population has mobile coverage. In five years this will be over 90%. That means that anyone on this earth can access internet, and we never thought about that when we invented our technology.

Moving into a networked society, it will be moved by technology and telecommunication because that is what’s going to move the industries. Again, we will impact businesses for sure.

I hope you will plan for the next 24 hours well, given the experience I would not plan for too much sleep (laughter). I think this experience will bring out the best in your work. And working in a team, will bring out the best of the group not the individual. And that’s the task we have at Ericsson too, to bring out the best of 90,000 employees every day.

Thank you very much.

Ericsson Talent Acquisition Team

2011-03-26T15:19:00.001-04:00

The Ericsson Talent Acquisition Team joined students from around the world for the two-day competition to network with students. They most enjoyed the excitement at the opening reception on Thursday night, and meeting the Dean of the Business School. But they were most impressed with the students' knowledge about Ericsson as a whole, and their understanding of the company's goals. The team, which is based in Plano, Texas, were visiting Boston through Sunday.

Every student loves freebies!

2011-03-26T14:59:00.004-04:00

Jennifer Bonicelli, an Ericsson executive, holds up a 2011 Tech Strategy Case Competition travel mug that was given to all the students who participated. This is just one of several momentos that students received for their hard work over the weekend. (Not to mention the $25,000 reward for the winning case competition team, still yet to be announced!)

Professor Venkat: Collaboration and Innovation

2011-03-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

Professor Venkat stopped by the graduate loung to share his thoughts on two themes that have emerged at the 2011 Tech Strategy Competition: collaboration and innovation.

He shared that, as a professor at BU, he ensures that students stay ahead of the curve. "When business and technology intersect, they are constantly changing," he said. "I make sure that my students are not learning something that happened five years ago - and I use current blogs and video to supplement materials for my classes."

He explained that students have to compete as evolving leaders in their field. The collaboration between Ericsson and Boston University is one way that the MBA program is making this happen. And the collaboration round at this year's competition, which is a new aspect of the program, is an extension of this.

"The most beneficial part of partnering with Ericsson is giving these students a real and timely case that was created through active collaboration," Venkat said.

Every day, the MBA program also fosters collaboration through group class projects, integrated projects that span multiple courses, and merging multiple viewpoints in class.

"To see students give these final presentations, and take away a rewarding educational experience from this competition has been so rewarding for me today," he said.

David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management - Professor Venkat

Lab coats at an MBA Competition?

2011-03-26T14:16:00.002-04:00

Every great presentation needs a prop, right?

One collaboration round team thought so when they came into the graduate lounge with an urgent request: one lab coat needed for their “awesome” presentation within one hour. Bishal Gupta, MBA ’12, Jennifer Bonicelli, an Ericsson executive, and Elana Horowitz, MS.MBA ’12, set off to make sure the students had what they needed. They made a few phone calls and realized that their best odds of finding a lab coat were in the nearby chemistry department. When they knocked on their door to ask to borrow one, a friendly Japanese woman tried to help them but she couldn’t quite understand English. Elana stepped up to use her Japanese to translate. Elana happened to have studied abroad for one year in Japan and taught English there. This team of Tech Strategy Conference Committee members are not only talented business students, but they are bi-lingual.

That team owes you one Elana!

An Ericsson Perspective

2011-03-26T13:39:00.000-04:00

During the collaboration round, I caught Marcin Galwas, Key Account Manager at Ericsson Egypt Ltd., in the hall after he grabbed a cup of coffee. He was kind enough to share his thoughts on the students competing in the competition. He was most impressed with how sharp they were, and the different perspectives they brought to the table. Overall, it was a very interesting discussion for him.

What was his most rewarding part of participating in this competition? He said, "Seeing their ideas crystalize and watching their professional perspectives develop is very rewarding."

Thank you again to Ericsson and all the executives who participated in making this competition such a sucess.

Brain Food

2011-03-26T11:59:00.001-04:00

Lunchtime! Before breaking off into the collaboration round, the groups chowed down on healthy sandwhiches from Catering on the Charles. What could be better to help you refocus than Miss Vickies Simply Sea Salt chips, bananas, petit fours and chicken curry salad sandwhiches? No time to spare though, this is a working brown bag lunch. With only four hours to create their visionary apps., it's time to eat and collaborate!

Collaboration Round Briefing

2011-03-26T11:48:00.003-04:00

Boston University Professor Venkat welcomed the 16 teams to the collaboration round briefing. (Prof. Venkat developed the complex and challenging Ericsson case for the competition.) After a grueling 24 hours and first-round of presentations, the group was issued a new challenge for the collaboration round.

They must choose one industry, either healthcare of energy, and develop a vision for a mobile app. that will help create Ericsson's vision of a networked society. In six slides that will be pasted to poster boards, they will have to answer questions such as:

Who should launch the app.? Should Ericsson or someone else?
What will the price be, will it be free?
Where in the globe will it be launched?
What should the initial launch platform be? Apple or Android?
What is the Differentiated Value Proposition of the app.?

This is where it gets interesting. Previously in groups from their respective schools, the students will now be shuffled into new teams of six and have four hours to work in their new groups. They will have to get out of their comfort zones, and interact with Ericsson executives to absorb as much as possible.

At 4 PM the teams will display their posters in the atrium and give 5 minute presentations to share their vision. As one MBA student put it, "they have to be sharp!" Winners of the collaboration round will receive $3,000 as a prize.

First-round Presentations are Complete!

2011-03-26T11:18:00.003-04:00

Stay tuned to see who is going to the finals round! Judges are deliberating as we speak. Congratulations to all the teams on a job well done!

Party in the USA

2011-03-26T11:17:00.001-04:00

Team Ericsson Rome was definitely the most musical of the teams.

“We just plugged our laptops in and blasted the music all night to stay awake.” "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus and "Black and Yellow" by Whiz Khalifa kept them motivated.

The team, who met for the first time this weekend after getting off a red-eye flight, found that meeting for the first time before the competition actually helped them work better as a team.

“We had complementary viewpoints, and all approached the weekend with a sense of humor. And dancing…we all like to dance,” they said before laughing and pulling out a phone to play Black and Yellow one last time.

The hardest part of the case for this team was the broad topic, and trying to make case recommendations for two completely different industries: healthcare and energy. They tried to be innovative by adding a personal touch to their presentation and creating a fictional character named Emma who had chronic diseases. Emma was used to illustrate how their recommendations would affect people in a networked society.

When asked if they knew if other teams tried to personalize the case, they didn’t know. “People have been pretty tight lipped about how they’re approaching this.”

Keep on dancing guys! Next up, the collaboration round briefing.

A moment of silence

2011-03-26T10:11:00.002-04:00

The graduate lounge is alternating between frantic and calm. Between the basket of Doritos and granola bars, two MBA students and fellow International Tech Strategy Committee members catch up on emails. Another student takes advantage of a few moments of silence to nap under her coat in a tiny chair. There are water bottles and coffee cups strewn about. And it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop. At least it will be for another ten minutes or so, when the third round of case presentations comes to a close.

Akshay Shah, MS.MBA ’12, comments on the quiet, “It’s a moment of solidarity for the teams presenting right now. Or a moment of mourning, we’re not sure yet,” he jokes with another volunteer.

How did it go?!

2011-03-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

In one word, "Great!" Team Ericsson Bucharest said.

It's amazing that they even have the energy to add an exclamation point to that statement after 24 hours of hard work and no sleep. But Team Ericsson Bucharest has emerged from their presentation with smiles on their faces.

"We did everything we could, and win or lose we'll be happy," they said.

The team felt the high point of their presentation was their cohesion and flow, from working together in their team-based MBA program. Based on the judges' feedback and reactions, they thought they were engaged, and were so bold as to say intrigued. The Ericsson executives asked them what one of the challenges of the case was, and the team unanimously felt it was having to propose a solution to something with assumptions - something they did with their energy sector recommendations.

But overall, the team was almost giddy with relief and accomplishment. "It really was more of a conversation than an interrogation," one member said.

Humor definitely got this team through the past 24 hours. The funniest moment for them? When they got stuck in the elevator for 25 minutes and had to climb out in the basement. They really were ready for anything. Nice work guys!

Now to celebrate before the collaboration round. First up: sleep, a hot shower and maybe a beer.

First up: Team Ericsson Bucharest

2011-03-26T09:17:00.001-04:00

The big moment is here! The case presentations are underway as we speak. And team Ericsson Bucharest wasn’t phased by being one of the first teams to present. Going on no sleep, the team was excited and confident to present to the Ericsson execs.

Going in, they knew it was harder to prepare for the energy portion of the case because the industry is still evolving and it’s difficult to define the needs of key players. They see the healthcare industry as more defined today, and understood what innovations will be needed in the future.

But this particular team wasn’t worried about that, since they came from a team-based MBA program and used that to their advantage to hone their strategy and presentation in just 24 hours.

Good luck guys! We’ll see you afterwards.

Pizza Break

2011-03-25T23:58:00.000-04:00

Continuing one of the best traditions of the case competition, teams were greeted by 20 pizzas for their midnight snack. Teams are showing a remarkable amount of energy more than halfway through the competition - maybe they are just starting to get delirious from the lack of sleep... Either way, they were excited for their midnight treat and have all returned to their rooms to continue burning the midnight oil.

I heard someone saying "Pictures speak louder than words !"

2011-03-25T22:41:00.021-04:00

Time to get back to work!

We are visual people, given a chance we will write even on the walls !

Some cute still moments ..

Its show time !

That's what we call an awesome helicopter view !

I need to be up all night, time to get caffeinated !

Its fun working together !

Professor Venkat briefing the case

Oh my God ! There is a a hell of a work to be done by tomorrow morning.

Meet the cheerful organizing committee with Chris

Smile please moment

We are happy to be here at Boston University!

Dean Chalykoff with participanting students

We are excited !

Nate, Hans Vestberg, Venkat, Ken Freeman, John Chalykoff

John in a discussion with participating students

Ericsson representatives with the participating students.

Some happy moments

Candid moments with participants before revealing their revolutionary strategies !

2011-03-25T17:27:00.001-04:00

"Disclaimer !" - This blog post will be more of an informal expression of what's going on in the minds of the extremely talented pool of students who are today scripting their vision and strategies to revolutionize future !

Here we are at Boston University, meeting and speaking with students from the leading MBA programs across the world. Blogging down some of the really candid responses from them.

Since it is an intense 24hr business case competition, it very important to have the time frame. So, here it is -

Mar 25, 2011 - 3.30PM (EST)

And the clock is ticking..

We entered the team rooms and aksed - Guys, will it possible to take a brief 3-5 min interview?

We had different reactions and emotions in the team rooms where these students from various participating schools are working on their case. Some laughed and said "sure, come in", and some "hmm.. aannhh.. naaa... hmm.. okay.. 3 mins that's fine" and some said "No, we are lagging behind in our schedule so can we have it later during the evening."

So, here it goes -

How do you feel about your today's progress?

Some of the words from their responses were-

Ericsson Santiago - "Good progress" and "Lots of ideas on the table".
Ericsson Delhi - We have a timeline and and we will stick to it.
Ericsson Jakarta - "We have a high level story", "Hypothesis building stage is done" but they did unanimously said "Oh, come on, this case definitely requires more than 48 hrs"!
Ericsson Queens - "We have identified Ericsson's key competencies and will be aligning those with their future strategy"
Ericsson San Jose - "Brainstorming in progress", "Behind schedule"
Ericsson Rome - "Lots to consider", ""Narrowing the questions and quantifying the results"
Ericsson Tokyo - "Coming up with differentiating Ideas"

Did you prepare before you came for this case competition? If yes, how ?

Ericsson Santiago - "Analysed the company (Ericsson), financial statements and competitive landscape"
Ericsson Delhi - "Did research on recent developments, events going around in the industry and possible challenges for Ericsson"
Ericsson Jakarta - "Had anticipated about the healthcare sector concern but not much for Energy"
Ericsson Bucharest - "Ericsson Annual reports", "strengths and opportunities of Ericsson"
Ericsson Rome - "Too busy, din't get enough time to work before"

What do you feel about tomorrow?

Ericsson Delhi - "Pretty confident"
Ericsson Jakarta - "Cautiously optimistic"
Ericsson Bucharest - "Comfortable", "Have the vision but at the same time are little anxious"
Ericsson San Jose - "Not thinking about it, don't want to take that pressure"
Ericsson Rome - "Collaboration round should be interesting"
Ericsson Cairo - "We are on a mission, we will win"

Do you plan to stay awake all night? If yes, do you mind sharing your secrets with us?

Ericsson San Jose - "Not sure, but yes, it would be Coffee for sure"
Ericsson Tokyo - "9pm-12 midnight would be key for us", "if nothing works, we will do some push-ups !"
Ericsson Delhi - "Red Bull (sugar-free)!"

As the day goes along, we will keep you posted !

Case Briefing - 50 Billion connections in Network Society

2011-03-25T15:26:00.001-04:00

The case briefing was done for the 16 teams today morning by Prof Venkat. It talked about the 50 billion connections in the Network Society. In today's society there are about 5.3 billion mobile subscribers of which one-tenth are smart phone users. It is expected that in the next 5 years, of the 5.3 billion mobile subscribers most will be using smart phones. This explosion in smart phone usage is going to drive data usage more aggressively and cause voice usage to drop significantly.

For many of the network providers to be competitive they need to more than just channels through which to send data. They need to stop acting as "dumb pipes" and provide more value service to customers. Today AT&T, Verizon and many of the top network providers are facing this challenge and are already seeing their market saturating in North America and Europe. For them to increase their revenue they need to target developing countries as well as find new ways to target customers in developed countries.

We are already seeing the converge of three industries - mobile + broadband + cloud. This new industry would be the industry of industries and would revolutionize the IT and telecom companies. It would provide value to transportation, logistics, retail and utility companies.

Ericsson's challenge remains that they want to be at the convergence point of mobile + broadband + cloud. They clearly understand they are leaders in the 1st two industries but are still learning about the cloud market, as its' in its infancy. Also the building blocks are in place, such as LTE/4G will provide them better mobile and broadband coverage.

Some of the questions posed to the participants was how would Ericsson capitalize globally, keeping the above information in mind, in the Healthcare and SmartGrid markets in the next 5 years. What should they do next? That the million dollar question we all want answered!!

The Case Briefing

2011-03-25T15:06:00.001-04:00

Earlier this morning, Professor Venkatramen and Associate Dean John Chalykoff briefed all of the competing teams on the competition rules and presented the case details.

This year's case (smgworld.bu.edu/casecomp/) will challenge the teams in ways different from year's past. Teams are excited about the topic and we are anxious to see the innovative ideas and solutions they propose tomorrow.

The Calm before the Storm - Volunteers taking a break

2011-03-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

As the 16 teams continue brain storming about how to solve a Ericsson's problem in the next 24 hrs, the volunteers take a break and catchup with some school work? Really!!

Lunch

2011-03-25T12:53:00.002-04:00

Lunch has been served to the teams. Half the teams took a nice break from the case to enjoy their lunch while the other half grabbed their lunch to go and went right back to work. We'll see which strategy pays off tomorrow!

All the teams are now back in their rooms hard at work until the next meal break!

A Link to the Case

2011-03-25T10:56:00.000-04:00

Check out the case that the competitors are working on! Here's the link:

http://smgworld.bu.edu/casecomp/

Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, sharing his thoughts

2011-03-25T08:57:00.002-04:00

Hans Vestberg, the CEO of Ericsson, sharing his of vision of 50 billion connected devices by 2020 with case competition students on Thursday evening. He did mention in his speech how technology in the last 5-10 years had radically changed the way we communicate and do business. We are right now entering the 5th revolution. The last being the internet and mobile revolution. It was a delightful experience listening to him as well as other Ericsson executives speak. The 16 international teams are very excited about knowing their fellow participants as well as what the case might bring them on Friday morning.

One can only guess what the next challenge Ericsson is trying to address - Smart Grids, mobile health, M2M or connected devices using LTE/4G technology!

From Thursday Night's Reception

2011-03-25T08:30:00.001-04:00

The 6th Annual International Case Competition is Here!

2011-03-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the day. In less then 12 hours, the kickoff reception at Boston University will begin this year's case competition. The teams get to mix and mingle, enjoy the open bar and hor devours before the 24 hour marathon competition heats up Friday morning.

16 teams
64 participants
8 countries
24 hours
1 case
$25,000

Are the teams ready? After months of planning, Boston University sure is.

We are waiting with anticipation!

Almost There!

2011-03-23T19:13:00.003-04:00

We are now less than 24 hours away from the start of the 6th Annual Tech Strategy Case Competition! Teams have started to arrive and the excitement is building!

Save the Date

2010-09-27T15:16:00.001-04:00

Mark your calendars! The 6th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition will be held at Boston University on March 24-26, 2011.

Brave Souls who went out to Party

2010-03-28T02:43:00.006-04:00

After not sleeping for close to 40 hours, some 50 hours depending on their time zones, teams continued par-taying at Cask & Flagon's and then Cornwall's. The only group that was truly inspirational were the London Business School (staying past 2am with the Case Comp organizing committee). The generosity of this team extended buying rounds of more than 20 shots, a few Coronas, 1 gin & tonic and then some... *details too graphic for this blog of substantial importance*.

In addition, if you have been wondering who has been behind these brilliant posts. That's me!

Till the 6th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition in 2011!

Signing off CaseCompetition 2010...

The Winners of Case Competition 2010

2010-03-27T21:44:00.010-04:00

The winners of the 5th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition 2010 have been announced!

First place: Team Abu Dhabi - London Business School

London Business School's post-win interview

Second place: Team Madrid - Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Third place: Team Santiago - IESE Business School. University of Narrava, Spain

Fourth place: Team Beijing - McCombs School of Business, University of Texas Austin

CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS teams!!

The party continues at the Cask'n Flagon...

Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson speaks to us

2010-03-27T21:40:00.007-04:00

We had the immense pleasure of having President and CEO of Ericsson, Hans Vestberg speak on the most important issues on his mind and close to his heart. He remarked how wonderful it was to "bring the most intelligent in the world together", he was hugely impressed by the "diversity of the group which delivered fantastic results".

Vestberg took over as CEO in January 1, 2010 and considers the role of communication as the single most relevant platform in the world. "In 1876, Lars Magnus founded Ericsson, 130 years later, communication is still relevant". His number-shattering example of during Chinese New Year, 2010, "2.3 billion sms text messages were exchanged, and of course, this traffic was handled by Ericsson".

The 5th technological shift that has taken place over the last 200 years that Vestberg spoke about alludes to the fantasy which bears no limitation.

Vestberg illustrated how a camel buyer who would travel 3 days to sell his camel now needs only an sms to figure out demand and can fetch a higher price for his stock displays the power of instant communication and how this can help solve one of the world's biggest problem of poverty. Clearly, this has significantly changed the lives of many.

Vestberg was emotional when he spoke of how attendance in schools in India jumped signficantly because the parents were now comforted by the tracking abilty of mobile devices.

Thoughts from Geoff Hollingworth and Rehan Hassan

2010-03-27T19:00:00.003-04:00

Geoff Hollingworth (Director of Strategy and Marketing, Ericsson, co-writer of the case question with Professor Venkat): "the industry is changing so quickly that what once was, isn't any longer". He appreciated the "intelligent thoughts and discussion" but was particularly impressed with Team Santiago's map of market segments and the different disruptions within each segment".

I asked Geoff whether Ericsson's trade secrets and direction in the future might be compromised with such wide publicity in this competition and he said the "company in this industry that win in the end are the ones who can best leverage their strengths and make new distinct differences with risk mitigation. Businesses that thrive are the ones that have a competitive advantage and talent. Success lies in how good they are in innovation. There will always be competition, but the key is to focus on what Ericsson does best".

Rehamn Hassan (Vice President, President & Head of GCC countries, Market Unit Middle East) said that "whatever was delivered in the presentations were not new, but it confirms our convinctions in those sectors discussed".

Final Presentations Complete!

2010-03-27T17:32:00.009-04:00

With Team Santiago's final presentation completed, a hour of pre-dinner drinks accompany the wait while our panel of judges deliberate.

The entire congregation is invited to the Atrium for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres before the banquet dinner and announcement of the 5th Annual International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition 2010!

Winner's list update will be reported live. Hold your horses, people!

Team Abu Dhabi finally done!

2010-03-27T17:07:00.003-04:00

Team Abu Dhabi's idea of Ericsson entering the British Petroleum industry and already consider themselves part of Ericsson! The "me" has become "we".

Final Presentations Underway!

2010-03-27T15:36:00.013-04:00

Team Beijing currently presenting their presentation to the panel of top Ericsson executives:

Sanjay Kaul (Vice President & Head of Innovation Centers South Africa, Ericsson)
Andreea Timberlake (Director of Network Solutions, Infrastructure, Ericsson)
Johan Wilbergh (Senior Vice President & Head of Business Unit Networks, Ericsson)
Ron Conway (CEO & member of the board of GSMA Association)

Some heavy technical aspects currently discussed in a grilling Q&A.

Team Madrid are finally done with their presentation!

Preliminary Round Results

2010-03-27T14:30:00.000-04:00

These are the 4 teams moving on to the final presentation (in no particular order):

Team Madrid
Team Beijing
Team Abu Dhabi
Team Santiago

Congratulations teams!!

Presentations start in the Auditorium promptly at 2.30pm! Watch this space for live updates!

Team Madrid Go to the Finals of Case Competition

2010-03-27T14:29:00.002-04:00

Team Santiago in the final round

2010-03-27T14:28:00.003-04:00

Team Abu Dhabi in the finals!

2010-03-27T14:27:00.003-04:00

Waiting for the results!

2010-03-27T14:08:00.000-04:00

The results were annouced during lunch.

The anticipation was building up!

Feedback for Team(s) Dusseldorf, Istanbul, Santiago and San Jose

2010-03-27T14:07:00.006-04:00

Ajay Sood (Vice President, Ericsson): "Good analysis on metrics from the business industry. Teams found real business models which we found really relevant but the vision was not well discussed. The flow of the presentations varied and some teams were good at the hand off to the next presenter but other teams were lacking in that aspect. We would have liked to see some bold statements, the teams were too conservative in their approach!"

Team Santiago

Feedback for Team(s) Sao Paolo, Tokyo, Jakarta, Abu Dhabi

2010-03-27T13:58:00.005-04:00

"The teams are like Mozart and the panel of judges are like music critics". The teams were measured against professional consulting firms like McKinsey which had access to information and a lot more time for its report as compared to these teams which had only 24 hours. The comments provided are only as potential for improvement. Ericsson will be using all insights as strategic corporate development.

Team Sao Paolo: "Work on time management and work on organization. Your team had very heavy slides which were at times difficult to follow".

Team Abu Dhabi: "Well structured, clear executive summary, which is very good for me, an old guy to follow. Well documented, borad overview into monetization model".

Team Tokyo: "Interesting comparison to a used case, unclear analysis of the value chain and for the large part, lacked realism. Need more meat to the bones. You discussed the industry of healthcase in India but we were confused why the implementation was in North America and Europe".

Team Jakarta: "Good presentation, well connected slides. You chose to focus on the car industry, easy to follow straight forward concept but we would like to have seen some analysis on barriers to entry and competitive landscape".

Feedback for Team(s) Madrid, Stockholm, Cairo, Johannesburg

2010-03-27T13:53:00.007-04:00

"Within 24 hours, we know how hard it is to do a job well done. We were impressed with the various ideas and the industries considered. However, the evaluation was based on the balance of the 3 requirements: (a) task, (b) execution and (c) financial projections. There were great technical ideas and innovative thoughts but Ericsson was more concerned with profitability growth and the showings of revenue potential".

The judges did not provide individual feedback to the teams but were "happy to talk to the individual teams after lunch".

Team Cairo

Team Johannesburg

Feedback for Team(s) Delhi, Beijing, Istanbul, Dallas

2010-03-27T13:37:00.007-04:00

The judges were shocked by the high level of reseearch and analysis done by all 4 teams in the last 24 hours. Individual feedback was given to all the teams:

Team Delhi: "Very professional slides and well timed presentation. Excellent Q&A displayed and analysis was comprehensive and well packaged. However, the business direction that the team took was not as compelling as Ericsson would have liked to seen. In addition, the team did not take the judges through the theme of "Nagivating the Sea of Connectivity".

Team Beijing: The team selected the machine industry which was the same industry Ericsson was also looking at. However, the judges felt that the team underexplained various aspects of their analysis. Another tip to the team was to reherse more before the presentation and the interaction between the various team members was lacking.

Team Istanbul: Logical and recommendation to go into the cloud was compelling but was the tiered pricing model really relevant?

Team Dallas: Good analysis and landscape. The key algorithm recommendation provided a good framework. However, the concern from the judges was how to bring the algorithm to practice, what is the impact in revenue and again what is the relevance of network intelligence in the :Sea of Connectivity"

Waiting for the results!

2010-03-27T13:30:00.002-04:00

The results were annouced during lunch.

The anticipation was building up!

Pre Lunch Preliminary Round Comments from the Judges!

2010-03-27T12:08:00.009-04:00

Patrick Melampy (Chief Technology Officer, Acme Packet) commented that the 4 presentations saw lots of "innovative ideas and good solutions" although the teams "did not completely think through the profitablity and growth perspectives". They were looking forward to the teams making bolder statements and assumptions.

Ian Hall (Head of Strategic Business Development): "The lack of data and information should not deter the teams from making financial and profitability projections. 2 teams out of the 4 teams did not provide the financials that the judges were most interested in. More importantly, none of the teams "provided any estimation of costs, investment plan that were critical to the overall credibility of the analysis.

"One team stood out by utlizing a human perspective to the solution and approach" and with Ericsson as a global company, the case question provided an interesting view of the world (not just the US) but across regions and vertical industries".

Ajay Sood (Vice President, Ericsson) thought that the teams "covered the objectives quite well and clearly understood what was expected of them". Helena Ola "it was interesting to see the trends emerging in the market" but thought that the assumptions of the 4 teams were of a strking range and were of a wide spectrum.

A venture capitalist, Charley Lax (Managing General Partner, GrandBanks Capital) was hoping for bolder ideas and suggested that "instead of ties, the teams might be more creative with no ties and T-Shirts".

IPADE hard at work

2010-03-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Too Conservative!

2010-03-27T11:25:00.005-04:00

Team Santiago had a little under an hour's sleep last night

but "did what they could". The judges jumped straight into their financial projections and were of the view that the team were too conservative with their projections! The team was put under pressure during the Q&A but were able to answer confidently and were hopeful that they managed to pull it off.

Borrowed Suit and Tie

2010-03-27T11:20:00.004-04:00

Hareesh Chander from Team Johannesburg used a borrowed suit and tie during the formal presentation.

The team was very concerned with the financial slide that they forgot in the slide deck as the team had loaded 3 versions of their slides and had unfortunately removed the version that they had intended to present. The judges further grilled them about the technical aspect of the presentation. I hope that the unfortunate incident will not ruin their chances at success!

Second Round of Presenters

2010-03-27T11:14:00.005-04:00

Team Abu Dhabi emerged from the room looking very confident and commented that "they had a good time". Although "the judges asked insightful questions", they were concerned that the judges were not paying attention during their presentation, but felt better during the Q&A when the judges intently took notes. The team were happy with the overall structure of the Q&A and felt that the team was able to bring forth more data, details and tell a better story, than they did in their presentation. "A 37.5% chance of getting into the next round". I asked if the team were on their way to the hotel to rest before lunch and Gobind Bansal remarked "NO, we're getting ready for this afternoon's presentation!"

Second Presentations are Over!

2010-03-27T10:38:00.004-04:00

The second round of presentations are over and the third round is underway! I spoke to Team Stockholm which thought that the team "blew the judges away" but were impressed with the judges who were very interested in what they had to say and were "taking notes" although the first question during the Q&A discussion completely deflated their confidence but managed to recover quickly. The team took a radical approach to the case but hopes that the chances they took, albeit risky, might gain them high returns. The team feels that they have about a 25% chance and although missed their initial target of 12 hours, managed to squeeze in 6 hours of sleep.

First Team Presentations are Over!

2010-03-27T09:40:00.006-04:00

With the first 4 teams presentations over, they were really looking forward to some well deserved breakfast. I had a chance to interview 3 teams:

Team Istanbul thought that the presentation went well and were able to flesh out more ideas where the implications and lessons in differential pricing were concerned during the Q&A panel. They said that the judges were very engaging and were genuinely interested in what they think about the business about how Ericsson can develop its strategy.

Team Moscow did not have a problem with their presentation but were concerned about their alternative argument where they advocated focusing on old technology in emerging markets. The judges however were more focused on breakthrough technology in developed markets in the sectors of gaming and video. In general, the presenters understood Team Moscow's and we hope it pays off!

Team Sao Paolo (the only 3 person team in the competition!) were able to catch a good 4 hours sleep in a hotel room that was much too cold for their comfort. I think one team member wore fleece and extra clothes to sleep. Their handicap of a 3 person team definitely did not deter the team from leaving the building at 2am. They were adamant about not "pulling an all-nighter". Roberto, a former consultant remarked that "the marginal time after a certain hour is counter productive". Team Sao Paolo took a different approach on their judges and felt that "the judges did put them on the spot (which they appreciated) and thought that the judges wanted to hear what they wanted to hear. But the team took chances with their argument and what they wanted to convey".

2 teams are done!

2010-03-27T02:26:00.002-04:00

Teams Sao Paolo and Stockholm have left Boston University and have retired for the rest of the night. Congratulations both! You're some brave souls!! It's now 2.27am in Boston, about 6 and a half hours to the start of the presentations!

Exactly what they had in mind

2010-03-27T02:11:00.009-04:00

Team Jakarta apparently has been thinking about the issues raised in the case question for the past month and commented that they "loved" the question that was presented. With all the thinking and analysis that the team did for a month prior to the event, the team seemed to have an advantage over the rest of the teams.

Due to present at 11.15am, the team's position looked probably the strongest among all the teams. The team members were in high spirits and were all smiles when I interrupted them with my questions. At this point, they are working on refining and fine-tuning their story. With a limit of a 20 minute presentation, the team is drilling down to the key points and actionable items in their analysis.

Midnight Mayhem

2010-03-27T02:03:00.008-04:00

Team Dallas looked like the most tired of the teams.

Despite the drain, the team has developed a 45 minute presentation - Type A overachievers! They are currently working on cutting the presentation to 20 minutes.

Looking forward to going back to the Hotel

2010-03-27T02:00:00.003-04:00

Team Moscow are keeping their productivity levels up as long as the team members "shut up and keep focused" Seems like a lot of unproductive banter going on in their room. Despite their misgivings, the team have their slides in place and are working on editing and beautifying their slides. They have their message and story in place and are looking forward to leaving the school soon and getting back to their hotel rooms for a few hours of shut-eye

Superstition

2010-03-27T01:54:00.004-04:00

Team Santiago has been stuck in a small team room all day - no larger than a shoebox of 10 by 10. They refuse to move to the larger, more spacious classroom as they fear that might change their luck and disrupt their flow.

The team is working in parallels, editing slides and working on their analysis and figuring out the single direction of a teleco company and Ericsson as they go along. The team feels confident about their direction and story.

Their take on the case question is the "broad scope" they have to cover and the ability to keep the "big picture in mind" and focus on specific issues and provide high level and concrete views that Ericsson will appreciate.

"Icing on the cake"

2010-03-27T01:47:00.003-04:00

As I walked into Team Madrid's practice room, I saw the slides up on the screen and a team-member looked like she was rehersing. A team member revealed that they were working on their 2nd set of presentation slides and were working on appendices as "icing on the cake". Overall, the team felt confident and thought that they were in pretty good shape.

Team Split Up!

2010-03-27T01:44:00.004-04:00

Team Cairo has split up! In the history of my Case Competition blogging career, I have never seen a team split up and head seperate ways, especially not at 2am (when most teams are finalizing their slides)... Team Cairo due to present at 11.15am consists of 2 team-mates sleeping in the hotel (they left at 10pm and 11pm) and another 2 team-mates working away on the slides.

The scarcasm continues with Kevin Dugan, Team Madrid

2010-03-27T00:57:00.001-04:00

Snippets from Ground Zero

2010-03-27T00:26:00.004-04:00

Team Delhi talking about the higher levels of caffeine in tea as compared to coffee. (Author's note: wow, I did not know that!)

Team Madrid strolled into the graduate lounge looked around and said "you can blog about how healthily I'm eating" -promptly grabbed an energy drink (author's note: which might kill you) and strolled out of the lounge..

Team(s) Stockholm, Dusseldorf, Tokyo

2010-03-27T00:14:00.014-04:00

Team Stockholm due to present at 9.45am are working on their presentation slides and making trying to keep their presentation under 20 minutes. They are into the 15th hour of the competition and one team member looks completely exhausted!

Although she was awake to tell us about her thoughts to the case question, she said "the question is of too broad a scope but she loves the concept of the nerve system and how up to date and relevant to the real world issues" the telecommunications industry is facing.

Team Dusseldorf was more generous with their comments expressing facing "ups and downs with the team and experiencing headaches and heartaches". There was one team member that was insistent on a single piece of data and has been working on it for the last few hours. The team shared their views on the case question "the case is so broad! And talking about such a broad scope in 18 minutes and the depth that is expected seems conflicting".

As I walked into Team Tokyo's team room, the team looked ready to present at that minute with beautiful slides. But not to alarm the rest of the teams, the team is still about 1/2 way through the deck and are still working on a draft of their deck and are refining the slides.

Blog for the Blogger!!!

2010-03-26T23:31:00.006-04:00

This blog is dedicated to the blogger by the Organizing Committee!

Kudos to Debra for keeping us all engaged through the blog ... She is tired, exhausted at this time, and feels she should go back to Singapore and get married to escape Blogging!!!

But she is still going to be up and awake all night to keep the Case Competition alive through her Blogs!!!

Cheers to her!!!

Pizza Break!

2010-03-26T22:34:00.004-04:00

It's 10.30pm - the pizzas from Bertucci's have promptly arrived! The teams (that went without dinner) will be kept alive.. The entire graduate lounge (the new headquarters) is filled with the lovely aroma of cheese and pepperoni pizzas! I think this will definitely provide some brain boost to the teams which are well into 12 hours of the competition!

Thoughts from the teams

2010-03-26T20:57:00.005-04:00

Gossip Update: Team Santiago remarked that they "would rather forgo the prize money of $25,000 and take ipads instead". (Just wondering why they would not use the $25,000 to buy the ipads instead!) One member of the team who had worked in the telecommunications industry had remarked that "this case was very relevant to his previous job and when he returns to the industry", he would be able to use the same learning experiences that this case competition provides.

Strolling back after dinner, Team Sao Paolo thought that the case "was definitely challenging and consisted of a lot of issues to think about". The team was now progressing with structuring the presentation and working on the slides. The team were also very statisifed with the multimedia format that the case was presented unlike the previous years where the case was distributed in paper format.

Team San Jose commented that they "were on schedule" after experiencing a slowdown for 4 to 5 hours but the "last 3 hours have a been a real burst". The team had split into 2 groups, 1 group working on research and the other working on the slide deck, it was only recently that the group got back together as a team. The team also remarked that "this year, the question was more structured as compared to last year". But overall, the team was "confident and started playing the devil's advocate and were anticipating the questions from the judges tomorrow". Looks like Team San Jose is on a roll!!!

UBurger for Dinner!

2010-03-26T19:53:00.010-04:00

The majority of the teams are heading to UBurger at Fenway / Kenmore is the dinner choice for many teams. UBurger "Above all Burgers" is only available in Boston - the teams are experiencing a little bit about Boston all within walking distance from BU's SMG building!

Team Sao Paolo can attest to UBurger's strawberry milkshake.

Team Istanbul are 10 hours into the competition and look like they are moving swiftly along with their presentation and analysis. I asked how they were working as a team and again I got a positive response. Seems like this team has got it all together!

That's me talking to Team Abu Dhabi. This team also 10 hours into the competition have accumulated massive amounts of writing on the flip charts and chalk boards. The team is skipping dinner (to save money!) and are looking forward to free pizza at 10.30pm!

Interview with Team Abu Dhabi

Team Delhi sigining out and heading to dinner. For some strange reason, looking very traumatized (see guy on extreme right!)

Earlier interview with Team Delhi

Featuring Team Tokyo!

2010-03-26T17:34:00.002-04:00

Team Tokyo is ready for the "big shift," they would be moving shortly to the bigger room.

When asked, how do they feel 6 hours into the case - They say they are so far "ON TRACK," -- just that they have changed their plan (read "TRACK") several times until now!!!

They love the multimedia format of case delivery, as it helps the entire team to view the case together ... but they also feel that one must have the art of deciding which videos to view ... Viewing all the videos may not be the wisest idea when just a few videos are the most relevant ones ...

Double Dose Kevin!

2010-03-26T14:16:00.005-04:00

Kevin Dugan from Team Madrid "I had a dream last night, I dreamt that when the case was distributed, I had absolutely no idea what the case was asking, I was confused and over my head with no idea where to start and no idea where to begin". "My team-mate, Dennis Pang had the exact same dream". At this point - I hope Team Madrid has some sort of approach to the case 6 hours into the competition!

Here's Kevin, after his double dose of coffee and energy drink..

Lunch! And extra volunteer duties!

2010-03-26T13:50:00.016-04:00

The teams are done with lunch and are finally getting down to their task at hand.

Team Beijing have cleverly sealed up their room to make sure that no one knows what is going on in their room.

Fernando is doubling up as beverage trolley guy. Have you seen a delivery guy in a suit before?

The pyramid of caffine has emerged from Fernando's trolley - drink away teams!!

BU's Promotional Video!

2010-03-26T13:34:00.010-04:00

View the video file from last year's Case Competition!

Interview with Team Abu Dhabi

2010-03-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

Interview with Team Delhi

2010-03-26T11:48:00.001-04:00

Briefing - Case Question Revealed!

2010-03-26T11:12:00.010-04:00

Professor N. Venkatraman, Jr. Professor in Management, (writer of the case question) has just finished his final round of briefings to the last 4 teams. The teams received a single portable drive each containing a comprehensive packet of information - the case question details, what is expected of teams, annual reports of Ericsson's competitors, video files of the industry, Ericsson's media presentations etc.

This year's case is more focused and specific as compared to the previous years where teams could drive the discussion to their advantage.

The setting is in March 2010 where Hans Vestberg (President and CEO of Ericsson) delivers his address offering Ericsson's positive economic performance admist the year's financial crisis. He delivers an upbeat message with the theme "the decade of mobile internet".

Morgan Stanley's report in December 2009 (The Mobile Internet Report) suggests that companies are gearing up to maximize gains on the explosive growth in the telecommunications sector. With an estimated 50 billion devices demanding internet and telecommunications services expected to come onstream quickly, how will Ericsson position itself to create and capture value in the next decade?

The notion of "Navigating in a Sea of Connectivity" is the theme in this year's case competition.

The teams have to address the various issues Ericsson is facing in the new wave of change and development. With exactly 24 hours to strategize, conduct research and prepare their presentations and recommendations. Here's to all the Teams - Good Luck from all of us!!

Group Photo!

2010-03-26T09:59:00.007-04:00

The entire 16 teams and the Case Competition Organizing Committee!

Off to a wet start

2010-03-26T08:52:00.003-04:00

It's snowing after a beautiful 70 degree week in Boston. *boo* The first group of teams arriving have to deal with the snow coming into Boston University School of Management's building.

Pre Competition Reception

2010-03-25T21:35:00.023-04:00

The participants from the 16 teams gathered a little past 7pm this evening at the School of Management's ballroom on the 9th floor. It was a first time the teams were meeting their competition, lively banter of getting to know each other were exchanged, the atmosphere was very relaxed with the students in high spirits. Tomorrow -- they become competition....

I had the opportunity to speak with a few teams.

IESE Business School's team is missing a team-mate, his flight was delayed and the rest of the team hopes he can make it to Boston before the competition tomorrow! In any case, this team comes with sound advice from the school's previous team which came in second last year.

The advice consitutes:

(1) Have a good time, don't take it too seriously
(2) Get the judges drunk the night before

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth were added to the competition at a later stage than the rest of the teams.

With only 2 weeks notice before the start of the competition, the team weren't "exactly sure what they missed out on but were excited and looking forward to the event". The team members are all second year MBAs with 3 of them working as a team on a case competition before.

Another team with all second year MBAs is the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flager Business School which hopes will work to the team's advantage. Speaking with Ramesh Gangadhar, a second time participant in the competition explained that the team this time comes with more organizational skills and structure, as compared to last year where the team consisted of only first years. Speaking of organizational skills - this team has drawn up a schedule for every 15 minutes interval!!

A less conventional (and surprising) approach comes from Boston University - 1/2 of the team is wearing the same outfit from last year, for good luck they say! Scott Lowe is wearing the same shirt from last year and Simone Patel is wearing the same shoes and nail polish from last year. I do hope they washed them before tonight!

One team with lots of good advice and practice is the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Their team has received lots of preparation, advice from the faculty on what to do, not to do, how to present. Joe Sutanto has very confidently commented that the HKUST team will get no less than 12 hours sleep tomorrow! Well, we'll have to see about that, Joe!

Steve Newman (Program Director for Executive Development, Ericsson) "We are thrilled to have 16 of the best schools in the world spend time thinking about Ericsson about the issues of strategic importance. Since 2008, Ericsson has been trying to integrate the Case Competition with the company's own Executive Program".

Par-Anders Pherson (Vice President, Leadership, Ericsson) "Ericsson has been around for 130 years, the CEO of Ericsson has continuously stressed on the challenge and importance to ensure that the company stays around for the next 130 years". And to do this, "Ericsson must connect itself to global talent. The company stays committed to what each of you have to say."

Professor Mike Lawson (Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Information Systems, Boston University) during his speech expressed his thanks for the teams' "diligence and hard work that has paid off and the excitement and ethusiasm that they bring to the competition". "Despite Thomas Friedman's book, and despite capital and people being very mobile" Professor Lawson commented that "the world is not flat but remains round and diverse economically and politically". "International events such as this promote diversity". "This is the 5th time we have had this competition and it promises to be the best and most competitive!"

So, with the best and most competitive competition ahead! - Let the games begin!!

Final Preparations

2010-03-24T23:24:00.003-04:00

Dean Chalykoff (mastermind and case competition guru) and Narayanan Raman (Committee Chair) have just finished our final meeting.

Months of preparation, hard work and meticulous planning will finally come to fruitation in a matter of hours.

Yours truly

2010-03-24T19:15:00.002-04:00

So I was asked to blog again, YES, for the second time running. *ahem* I was the official blogger last year and was invited to be part of this wonderful event..

Teams:
(1) If you see me, don't run away - I don't bite
(2) I'll be with you during the whole competition, yes... even at 4am..
(3) Note-worthy comments / insights / fainting spells / gossip etc all very much welcome
(4) If I'm on my 15th cup of coffee and 3rd piece of cake. Don't tell anyone...

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

5th International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition Countdown

2010-03-24T16:04:00.002-04:00

We are less than 24 hours to the reception at Boston University tomorrow evening where the kick-off to the Case Competition will begin. The teams get to mix and mingle, enjoy the open bar and hor devours before the 24 hour marathon competition heats up Friday morning.

16 teams
64 participants
14 nationalities
7 countries
24 hours
1 case
$25,000

Will this competition outshine the previous 4 competitions? Is the beautiful city of Boston ready? Is Boston University ready? But, most importantly, are our 16 teams ready?

We are waiting with anticipation!

Countdown

2010-03-11T13:26:00.002-05:00

Case Comp 2010 kicks off two weeks from today!

Updates

2010-03-09T15:32:00.003-05:00

There have been a couple of changes to the Case Competition lineup. Due to unforeseen circumstances, both MIT and Seoul National University have had to withdraw from the competition. We are sad to see them go, but are also excited to welcome two new schools: Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Richard Ivey School of Business from the University of Western Ontario.

Final List of 2010 Teams

2010-02-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

Boston University School of Management
Eller College of Management – University of Arizona
Fudan University School of Management, China
Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
IESE Business School – University of Navarra, Spain
IPADE Business School - Universidad Panamericana, Mexico
Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University
Kenan-Flagler Business School – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
London Business School, UK
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
McCombs School of Business – University of Texas, Austin
Queen's School of Business, Canada
Seoul National University, Korea
Sloan School of Management – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

NYTimes

2010-01-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

NY Times Business Plan Competition Guide

2010

2010-01-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! Registration info is going out soon to team representatives. Be on the look-out.

Teams Update

2009-11-12T15:04:00.003-05:00

The following teams are confirmed for 2010:

DOMESTIC

Kenan-Flagler Business School
UNC, Chapel Hill

McCombs School of Business
University of Texas, Austin

Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Marshall School of Business
USC

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

INTERNATIONAL

Fudan University, China

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China

IESE Business School - University of Navarra, Spain

IPADE Business School - Universidad Panamericana, Mexico

Queen's School of Business, Canada

Teams Update

2009-11-12T15:04:00.001-05:00

2010 Teams Part II

2009-09-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

Also returning in 2010: Wharton, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and USC Marshall.

2010 Teams

2009-09-24T09:25:00.001-04:00

Invites are out to last year's teams. IPADE and HKUST have already signed up!

Mark Your Calendars

2009-08-28T17:02:00.002-04:00

The 5th Annual Case Competition will be held March 25-27, 2010.

More info to follow!

The Post Party Party

2009-03-29T14:47:00.000-04:00

Ericsson's generosity extended beyond the lovely dinner on the 4th floor.

Ericsson invited all the participants to have drinks at a favourite BU hang-out, Cornwall's.

The drinks were flowing freely and everyone was having a wonderful time.

Ericsson Excutives certainly know how to have a good time. With removed jackets and loosened ties, most were ready for their 16th beer. Must be all the stress from judging the hard-fought competition!

The drink for the evening were some vile yagers.

That marks the end of the 4th Annual International Tech Strategy Case Competition.

We at Boston University hope that everyone enjoyed the evening, created new friendships and we hope to see you again next year!

The Winners' List

2009-03-28T21:25:00.000-04:00

Dean Lataif's (Boston University School of Management) explained his mathematics on the value of this competition: "If you pay $400 per hour per consultant to evaluate the issues that were presented in this case = $400 per hour x 60 participants x 24 hours = $576,000. So Ericsson, what you're contributing towards this competition is very little compared to the tremendous value you're getting".

After dinner and a round of speeches from Angel Ruiz (President and CEO of Ericsson North America) who noted that he was impressed with "the flavour of the issues that Ericsson are struggling with that were identified by the students in the short 24 hours".

Keeping us in suspense, one of the judges for the final round, Per Jomer (VP, Group Strategy, Ericsson) annouced the list of winners:
First Place: Ericsson Manila - Queens School of Business, Queen's University, Canada

"Queen's delivered the most logical, reasonable and possible strategy that was delivered crisply and clearly. Showing tremendous team alignment and spirit" Per Jomer (VP, Group Strategy, Ericsson)

Second Place: Ericsson Buenos Aires - IESE Business School – University of Navarra, Spain

Third Place: Ericsson Stockholm - McCombs School of Business – University of Texas, Austin

Fourth Place: Ericsson Nanjing - Sloan School of Management – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Congratulations Queen's University and all the participating teams for a fantastic job well done!!