Thursday, November 12, 2009

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

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Post Party Party

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!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Winners' List

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!!

Judges' Deliberation

The final applause were made indicating the conclusion of the final round of presentations. Ericsson Buneos Aires, the last team to present ended on a excellent note. The judges now have the unenviable job of deliberating on the winning positions of the final 4 competing teams.

The entire congregation in the Boston University School of Management waits with baited breadth for the results, that will be revealed shortly. Watch this blog closely for our top team!


Ericsson Buenos Aires

Ericsson Buenos Aires started off with a key point that gripped me initially. The team was adamant that it doesn't matter who the customer really is - whether he is a farmer in India receiving a text message about commodity prices in the stock market or whether he is a user like you and me where communication and making our lives easier is what IP is all about.





Ericsson Buenos Aires is of the opinion that it is "all about data". And where the relevant industries are involved, Ericsson can capture the most space. As explained by Ericsson Buenos Aires, as we "move data from A to B, we can capture the most along the value chain". And how Ericsson can do this is from alliances with strategic IT partners - "It convergence leads to business convergence".

Ericsson Buenos Aires looked at the user today and the user in the future. What the cosumer was ultimately interested in was to enjoy a seemless experience, currently not provided in the market place.



Another interesting point provided by this team was the proposition that the now widely used and available mobile devices are considered "dumb terminals". The data storage in the future will not be confined to these "dumb terminals" but storage will be located in the grid that can be controlled and contained by Ericsson.

The team encouraged Ericsson to be proactive in leading and driving standards instead of being reactive to the new innovations when Ericsson clearly has the advantage of being a leader in infrastructure and a strong global presence.

Ericsson Stockholm

Very different delivery style from Ericsson Stockholm. Simpler slides, slower paced delivery. “Solutions are the new products” is a similar theme to the Ericsson Nanjing theme—the addition of the CSR theme though, was novel. Ericsson will enhance its brand equity by making energy use smarter and the consumer more efficient as individuals. Also it will lead to market penetration in emerging countries if Ericsson becomes more energy efficient.

Ericsson Stockholm's main ideas addressed:
· Interoperability of all systems to create a stronger, more powerful consumer
· Ericsson must enable interoperability
· Mesh networking with a bandwidth or usage revenue model
· Forming partnerships with governments






Ericsson Manila

Shaking hands with the judges and introducing themselves, Ericsson Manila gets politeness points right off the bat.

Ericsson Manila’s initial assessment of the landscape emphasizes the expanding nature of all different competitors… network companies moving towards solutions, device companies moving towards networks, etc. They also identify markets in Asia and Africa, Smart Products, and Energy Efficiency as the main opportunities. Ericsson Manila creates a great user anecdotes to illustrate the mobile convergence we expect in the future. These examples—one in the developed world and one in the developing world—demonstrate the value and the opportunities for profit available. They are great on product and services ideas, including the “dumb phone,” a bare bones device that runs off of hand crank or solar power. Cash flow from targeted advertising—a big theme seen both last year and this year… The GANTT chart scheduling the roll out of all of these plans was a nice touch.

The Q&A is a little uncomfortable at first… sometimes there’s a danger in using too many specifics! Once they got going though, they really had solid responses to the very tough challenges from the judges…

This is really going to be a tough decision for the judges!