In the News

This Wall St. Journal story features a BTS simulation run for client NetApp earlier this year. Participants worked to meet annual sales-growth target of 35% while competing against other teams for market share and profitability. The simulation is a leadership development tool for the second tier of 300 managers, building on BTS’ simulation communicating NetApp’s corporate strategy to top 100 leaders last year.

Brian Summerfield quotes Rommin Adl and Steve Toomey of BTS about the inaugural BTS University Challenge, a simulation contest which immersed MBA's from Chicago GSB, Indiana University , University of Michigan , Northwestern, and Notre Dame in a multi-billion dollar business competition.

Dr Andreou puts forward the ideas that although the use of gaming for learning is of great use due to the metaphors, the state of mind of participants and the nature of competition, it is much more effective to use simulations based on real problems and issues adding to relevance and applicability. It provides also a list of the ten things that are needed to design a great simulation for learning purposes.

An important article about what customers want from the people who sell to them, by Jonathan Hodge, the CEO of BTS Scottsdale and Lou Schachter, the managing director of the global sales practice at BTS. Hodge and Schachter make the case for today's salespeople to move beyond product knowledge acquisition by improving their business acumen skills in order to understand their clients' businesses better.

BTS client Kimberly-Clark and BTS are featured in a story describing an award-winning business simulation at the annual leadership meeting of the consumer-products company.

The article discusses how the simulation drove home the importance of TSR, total shareholder return, to executives. "They were totally immersed in running a company. Immersed in a competition. It felt like Kimberly-Clark," says (Lesley) Hoare. "They could really experience the levers that move TSR." They were so engrossed, she said, that the office that Kimberly-Clark had set up to allow attendees to answer their e-mails — usually a hot destination — was practically deserted.

BTS Featured in a Story about Manufacturers using Business Simulations to Accelerate Growth "Not surprisingly, perhaps, the competition among simulation participants can get intense. The action can be fast-paced, sometimes with "unexpected events" that can intervene, such as a market upturn, an unhappy customer or an explosion at a plant. "Our board simulations are kind of like Monopoly on steroids," quips Joel Reed, senior consultant in the San Francisco office of BTS USA Inc., part of the Stockholm, Sweden-based BTS Group AB, a major provider of both computer- and board-based business simulations."

Training Magazines Game Plans (October 2007) analyzes the relationship between technology, gaming and training, and notes that a simulation has a resemblance to reality whereas a game can be entirely fictional. We don't call it (our training) games," admits Jonas Akerman, president and CEO of vendor BTS USA. "Top executives don't have time for games."

Training Magazine quotes Henrik Ekelund in an article titled Sims (October 2007) advising how to select a simulation for business training. "Find out what the business outcome is. How will you run a better business after doing the simulation?" says Ekelund. (Ask them) "Is your company a simulation-centric company or a business results-oriented company that does great simulations?"

The Case Study Cingular: Getting Together (October 2007) in Training Magazine tells the story of the BTS –Cingular simulation ideation and launch for approximately 6,000 senior managers during the Cingular AT&T Wireless merger and quotes Dave Ackley. The goal was to go from being the biggest to being the best and leading in every metric that mattered, said Ackley.

Training Magazine’s October story Solid (October 2007) quotes BTS USA’s Dave Ackley and Jonas Akerman about the impact of the gaming culture on the future of training. Ackley expects more requests for online simulations, not just facilitator-led ones. "However, there has to be a realistic interactive approach. Going forward, we'll begin to see more targeted use for specific job roles that drill down to help managers do their jobs better with very specific skills.” Akerman adds, "You can easily get lost in the technology."

The Replacements: CFOs Paying More Attention to New Hires (May 2007) in CFO Magazine quotes Jonas Akerman in a story about accelerating “onboarding” of new financial hires through immersive training. The training should demonstrate how their actions and performance affect the company as a whole, notes Akerman. "Once they understand how they fit in, they align better with the company's goals."

Chief Learning Officer (7 March 2007) quoted Rommin Adl in the story No More Dry Financial Learning, which explored the use of simulation technology to teach financial concepts. Adl notes that the traditional approach taken by companies is to hire a professor or consultant who leverages PowerPoint with some exercises and examples, which is not be as effective as it could be. Computer-based simulation technology brings financial concepts to life and makes it much more engaging.

Leadership and innovation are the glam aspects of entrepreneurship. But the job description of many founders also includes a whole lot of selling. Entrepreneurs must sell investors on their ideas, employees on their workplaces, and customers on their products, value, and reputation.

Cutting edge authors, Richard Hodge and Lou Schachter, leverage Web 2.0 tools to promote hit sales book, The Mind of the Customer. The book examines tactics and lessons learned from world-class sales forces. It also shows sales professionals how to get to the next level of success with a new approach to selling based on helping customers achieve their key business objectives.

"Change Management in the Real World" Cinco dias Financial daily newspaper publishes an article (September 2007) by Dr. Philios Andreou from BTS Iberia describing the problems of change management and the difficulties in change management processes. “People do not get convinced because they see a poster on the wall. They need to discover the reasoning behind the change and they need to convince themselves,” notes Dr. Andreou.

Most prestigious business magazine in Spain does a report ( April 2007) on the use of simulations in companies and interviews BTS clients as well as BTS Iberia CEO, Dr. Philios Andreou,  who describes the evolution of training methodologies and the use of simulations in the Spanish market.