Your Fearless Leader

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

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 ....

Fun and Work with Ericsson Executives

Thanks to the committee

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!

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!

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?

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!

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)!

1. Ericsson Santiago
2. Ericsson Beijing
3. Ericsson Budapest
4. Ericsson Jakarta

Collaboration Comes Full Circle

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

Hans Vestberg's Opening Reception Speech

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

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!

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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?!

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

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

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 !"

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 !

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 6th Annual International Case Competition is Here!

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!

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!