NavLink grabs LBC 2005 Championship Award
Beirut, July 5th 2005

INSEAD Alumni Association of Lebanon, Bissada Management Simulations and Berytech Technological Pole joined forces to launch the Lebanese Business Challenge (LBC) in March 2005. It was both a competition and an educational experience that had allowed senior managers from a number of blue chip Lebanese companies and students from top management schools to test their business skills in a simulated environment. The teams were divided into three parallel universes and assigned a company to manage in competition with the rest of the teams, over six consecutive periods of management decisions concerning investment, pricing, marketing, distribution, financial resource allocation and a range of related business issues.

Maroun Chammas, Chairman & CEO Berytech / Naji Chakhtoura, Product Marketing Manager, NavLink

Following three months of fierce competition that has butted 15 teams against each other in 3 parallel universes, the final decision period of the challenge has been completed. Entrusted with the management of a PC manufacturing company, contestants had to successfully walk it through the perils of mismanagement without going bankrupt. This challenge has involved some of the most dynamic companies in Lebanon; which is proof that innovation in management is as important as product innovation. If a company is not keeping up with innovation, its competitors most probably are.

The name of the winning teams was announced during a closing ceremony that took place on June 23 2005 in Berytech in the presence of all participants, economic experts and the press.  The Champion winner was the company NavLink, while F.A Kettaneh and Mitsulift came in respectively second and third.

Mr. Maroun Chammas, President & CEO of Berytech in his welcome note highlighted the importance of this initiative and congratulated all participants for their courage and endurance which proves that Berytech needs to maintain its endeavors and invest in projects enhancing the knowledge and expertise, a mission that Berytech shares with its partners INSEAD Alumni Association and BMS.

Carlos Hénéiné, INSEAD Alumnus who has devoted extensive time and effort to see this competition through announced the results of each Universe and then the overall champion.

Naji Chakhtoura, NavLink Product Marketing Manager and an INSEAD Alumnus (EDP 2004), received the Champion award on behalf of NavLink. In a few words Naji shared the team.s experience and highlighted the importance of setting and focusing on objectives from day one.

The simulation tool kept a score of the results that the teams had achieved throughout their decision periods. The top three teams have tallied the highest number of points. The next edition of the Business Challenge will take place in 2006 and will involve participants from Lebanon and the Middle-East as well.

About Berytech

Berytech tackled head on the challenging task of contributing to the economic growth of the country, by providing the opportunity for young graduates and executives to start their own companies and in turn provide openings for other professionals. This combined effort has the ultimate objective of stemming the drastic brain drain Lebanon has been experiencing in the last decade. Berytech identifies and promotes strategic sectors by implementing a synergy at the highest levels between universities and the companies hosted on the site.

By attracting professionals with varied skills and by promoting both exchange and reflection, Beryech "opens the door on tomorrow's world" by stimulating innovation, creativity while facilitating the implementation of new processes, concepts and steps.

http://www.berytech.org

About INSEAD Alumni . Lebanon

INSEAD was created initially as a European institute for management education on the model of the great US business schools. In September 1959, the first MBA participants arrived from 14 countries, immediately establishing the multicultural diversity now intrinsic in all programmes. INSEAD was the first business school to offer a one-year programme, an innovation which only recently, more than 40 years later, has been copied by other schools.

The Lebanese INSEAD Alumni Association was founded in 1984. The association operated at first under difficult circumstances with war raging on in the country. It succeeded in making its voice heard over the years, making the Lebanese association influential at home and lobbying successfully for more decentralization at the INSEAD Alumni Association level.  The Alumni Association of Lebanon is oriented first and foremost towards allowing its members to network and help one another. This is done through regular monthly meetings in Beirut and through the Association's website. We also wish to promote a better corporate environment and business ethics in the country, first by example and also through the organization of conferences and debates.

http://www.inseadlebanon.com  

About NavLink

NavLink (www.navlink.com) is a system and network integrator and managed service provider, operating primarily in Southern and Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (SEEMEA). Founded in December 1996, NavLink achieved a leadership position in high-end IP consulting, system integration, enterprise hosting and managed services serving telcos and new operators in the Middle East markets, as well as multinational corporations. NavLink operates a carrier class data center in Nice, France on AT&T network. NavLink resells AT&T wholesale and enterprise VPN services in the Middle East and Africa Recently NavLink was named 'EMEA Software Integration Partner of the Year 2003' by Sun Microsystems. NavLink is a privately owned company with AT&T as a strategic investor. NavLink is an authorized agent of AT&T.