Stuart Read
February 26, 2009
© 2009 IMD International. Not be used or reproduced without permission.
You are Nils Bergqvist:
What will you do next?
Take an inventory of your available means. What do you have
and what you can do based on what is available to help you build
an ice hotel?
Take an inventory of your available means. What else can you
do besides build an ice hotel?
How will you leverage partnerships to help you create an ice
hotel (choose a specific example and plan out how you would
approach the partner, and how would you structure the
relationship)?
What would you be willing to lose (your “affordable loss”) in
working to build an ice hotel?
How will you manage contingency (what are 5 possible
unexpected events, and how can you use them to your
advantage)?
© IMD 2009 2
The following six slides I use to give different study
groups within the same class different questions to
work on (and I debrief them in the order they are in
the deck)
Stuart Read
February 26, 2009
© 2009 IMD International. Not be used or reproduced without permission.
You are Nils Bergqvist on that rainy Monday morning.
What will you do?
Take an inventory of your personal means
(Please put these onto a flipchart or overhead)
Whom do you know?
Who are you (what do you have)?
What do you know?
You are out of money.
You need to get a new business going.
What can do right now based on what is available to you?
© IMD 2009 4
You are Nils Bergqvist on that rainy Monday morning.
What will you do?
Imagine that you have the idea of building an ice hotel.
(this is not what Neils ends up doing with the business, but be creative)
What would you be willing to lose (your “affordable loss”) in
working to build an ice hotel?
How will you manage contingency (what are 5 possible
unexpected events, and how can you use them to your
advantage)?
© IMD 2009 5
You are Nils Bergqvist on that rainy Monday morning.
What will you do?
Imagine that you have the idea of building an ice hotel.
(this is not what Neils ends up doing with the business, but be creative)
What possible partnerships might help create an ice hotel?
Who will you talk with?
What would you tell them?
© IMD 2009 6
You are Nils Bergqvist three years later.
At the rained-out ice art exhibition, you created igloos
People slept in the igloos, and liked it
The igloos became popular
People started paying to come sleep in them
The ice hotel is a real business, with a dozen rooms, and a waiting list of
winter guests
Take an inventory of your personal means
Whom do you know?
Who are you (what do you have)?
What do you know?
You want to get a new business going
What can do based on what is available to you?
Try to come up with 5 possible business ideas you could initiate, and
select one you (as a team) find the most appealing.
© IMD 2009 7
You are Nils Bergqvist three years later.
At the rained-out ice art exhibition, you created igloos
People slept in the igloos, and liked it
The igloos became popular
People started paying to come sleep in them
The ice hotel is a real business, with a dozen rooms, and a
waiting list of winter guests
How will you manage contingency (what are 5 possible
unexpected events, and how can you use them to your
advantage)?
© IMD 2009 8
You are Nils Bergqvist three years later.
At the rained-out ice art exhibition, you created igloos
People slept in the igloos, and liked it
The igloos became popular
People started paying to come sleep in them
The ice hotel is a real business, with a dozen rooms, and a
waiting list of winter guests
You want to get a new business going
How will you leverage partnerships to help create something
new?
Who will you call first?
What would you tell them?
© IMD 2009 9
