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Surprise, Surprise

So, guess who was in town helping with BU's First Robotics competition and staying at the same hotel as all of the case competition participants? None other than Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple! Pictured here with Case Competition Volunteer Coordinator and Team Host Alison Siegel... You never know who you'll meet!

And the winners are...

After the cocktail reception, a heavenly dinner (thanks to Mary Sforza!)and a sensational speech by the Ericsson CFO Mr.Hans Vestberg, the winners have been announced by the Judges.

4th Place - Ericsson Bangalore, McCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

3rd Place - Ericsson Johannesburg, LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL

2nd Place - Ericsson Moscow, UNC KENAN FLAGLER BUSINESS SCHOOL

1st Place - Ericsson Cairo, STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL

Congratulations to the winners. However, at the end of the day, I do believe we are all winners.

Cya at Cornwalls ;)

The case

Winning in the Converged Multimedia Landscape : How can Ericsson help Vodafone succeed?

How will value be created in the future multimedia industry and who will capture it?

What strategic initiatives will make Vodafone the winner and how can Ericsson help Vodafone achieve it?

Ericsson Moscow

Jason Benjamin Dean | Marcus Robert Nichol | Sumit Goyal | Varun Parmar

After an amicable handshake with the Judges, Team Moscow launched their presentation with a brief on their recommended Vodafone and Ericsson Strategies.

Their underlying idea - "In the converged marketplace media is King. But there is a still a lot of value creation in delivery, and Brand Loyalty will be strong for reliable ubiquitous providers."

The team graphically (and humorously) recognized two major uncertainties:
User Acceptance & Technology.
Based on this, they presented some ingenious service models and a detailed revenue model for developed as well as developing markets.

Towards the end, the team readily dealt with questions from Judges pertaining to - the Risk factor in implementing their ideas, Creating value, customer switching cost and the revenue model.

Kudos Team Moscow!

Ericsson Bangalore

Sumeet Daga | Darek Layne VanToorn | Nihar Paul Gupta | Tiju Tom

Team Bangalore took a holistic approach to the case. They dynamically addressed the key issues and opportunities in the industry, including a fancy futuristic analysis of a certain developing market. Their recommendations primarily centered around these areas-

Arenas - Where does Vodafone need to be active?

Vehicles - How does Vodafone get there?

Differentiators - How will Vodafone win?

Staging - What will be Vodafone's speed and sequence of expansion moves?

Economic Logic - How will Vodafone obtain returns?

The judges questioned the team about Pricing models, Cost analysis, Risk of investing in new technologies, Partnering with content providers and application service providers and Customer Experience.

Great presentation Team Bangalore!

Ericsson Johannesburg

Rene Plug | Manish Gajria | Sasa Brcerevic | Tobias Schweiger

Team Johannesburg presented a very compelling analysis of the case. Their central idea was the adaptation of converged multimedia and the offerring of value added services on top of a superior mobile broadband. They characterized today's consumer in one simple line - "anything i want, anytime i want it and anyway i want it."

They analyzed the traditional value chain and contrasted it with the convergence of the multimedia value chain. One member said, "The new value chain is characterized by Ubiquity of end user access and bandwidth availability". The team also talked about how Ericsson can be the technology enabler for Vodafone and presented some lively examples.

While the judges questioned them on the revenue model, mobile versus fixed technology, growth drivers in the segment and the significance of new investments, team J convinced them with great panache.

Way to go team J!

Ericsson Cairo

Daniel Murillo | Alex Salazar | Dafina Ivanova Toncheva | Gabriel Efstathios Tavridis

They addressed the question "The multimedia industry is growing, how will Vodafone get a share?"
Quoted by a team member - "The industry is hot. Rules of the game are not clear. The value chain is pretty complex. Transport and Delivery layer is the expertise of Vodafone. That is now being commoditized - it needs to expand up the value stream. This can only be done in baby steps."


Team Cairo's Strategic Initiative plan
1. Infrastructure improvements
2. Ubiqutous content delivery
3. Targeted advertising
4. Interactive User Experience
The bottom line is the transformation of Vodafone from a 'Mobile Carrier' to a 'Multimedia Enabler'.

The team charismatically fielded questions from the judges relating to Competition, Revenue Models, Partnerships, Data Privacy and Targeted Advertising.

Resounding Applause

5 Minutes to go

Room 208 is filling up fast. Among the crowd I spot Prof. Hall and Prof. Menezes who look very happy to be here.
Dean Chalykoff is greeting the judges at the door while Prof. Venkat is animatedly directing the Judges to their seats.

Matt Spe is introducing the judges:

Mr. Arun Bhikshesvaran VP Strategy and CTO, North America, Ericsson
Mr.Ingemar Naeve Head Market Unit Iberia and President Global Customer Unit, Telefonica Ericsson
Mr.Peter Seremetis Global Head of CIO Relationship Management, Reuters America

Team Cairo is the first to go.