Standard Chartered champions at Microsoft Challenge 2006

KOCHI: In a close finish, Standard Chartered Bank, Bennet Coleman and Company and JM Morgan Stanley emerged as the top three teams among the thirty five teams’ that faced off in a battle against time and a test of endurance, physical fitness and effective strategy at the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006.

The Challenge tested each team in five stages that involved running, cycling, light engineering, mental activities like cracking codes, trekking through the wild, rowing across the backwaters all along the challenge, which demanded teams to push themselves to the extreme and stick together till the end.

“Although many of the participant members were meeting each other for the first time, it was amazing to see how they came together as a team in an extremely difficult competition that pushed each member to the extreme. The Standard Chartered team revealed that physical strength was not the deciding factor, but teamwork, “said Prem Bhatia, managing director, Sports Media Limited.

In a ,setting far away from the office and board room, the corporate world rediscovered the values of team work and effective strategy that set champions apart from the others at the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006 - a grueling series of mental, physical challenges spread over five stages and two days at the FACT (Fertilizers And Chemicals Travancore) campus and the adjoining backwaters of Kochi.

"The Microsoft Corporate Challenge tested us from all possible angles. Mentally, physically and emotionally. The key to winning was to plan, strategize and execute as a team. It has been an amazing and exhilarating experience to have participated in MCC. The lessons learnt here are very much applicable in corporate life”, said Tarun Dhingra, Associate, and team captain, Standard Chartered Bank.

“We received an overwhelming response this year from companies for the Microsoft Corporate Challenge. Having successfully organized an event of this magnitude, involving months of logistics planning and behind the scenes activities, we are confident that we can look at a location abroad next year for the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2007,” said Venkat Vardhan, managing director, DNA Networks.

“The Microsoft Corporate Challenge was a great way to discover oneself and optimize our team spirit to the greatest extent possible. The games pushed us to our limits both physically and mentally and very clearly it was the team spirit and not any one single persons’ ability that won out. It is an awesome way to learn team building and we would recommend it to everyone from any industry worldwide!” said Team Infosys.

Some of the other big names that fought it out were ICICI, Barclays Bank, the Indian Navy, Indiatimes, Pepsi Foods, RMZ, Infosys, Microsoft, GE Money, Thomson International, Unilever, Ashok Leyland, Motorola, JWT, Hutch, Reliance Capital, Worldspace, Grey Worldwide and McDowells.

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