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Standard Chartered champions at Microsoft Corporate Challenge

Special Correspondent

A series of mental, physical challenges spread over five stages and two days

Kochi: In a nail biting finish, Standard Chartered Bank emerged top among the 35 teams that faced a battle against time and a test of endurance, physical fitness and effective strategy at the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006.

The contest 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, the event organisers.

Rediscovering values

In a setting far away from the office and boardroom, the corporate world rediscovered the values of teamwork and effective strategy that set champions apart at the Microfosft Corporate Challenge 2006 — a gruelling series of mental, physical challenges spread over five stages and two days on the FACT campus and the beautiful adjoining backwaters of Kochi.

"The Microsoft Corporate Challenge tested us from all possible angles. Mentally, physically and emotionally. The key to winning is to plan, strategise and execute as a team. The lessons learnt here are very much applicable in corporate life," said Tarun Dhingra, associate and team captain, Standard Chartered Bank.

Bennet Coleman and Company team and JM Morgan Stanley team emerged second and third champions. "We received an overwhelming response this year from companies for the MCC. Having successfully organised an event of this magnitude, involving months of logistics planning and behind the scene activities, we are confident that we can look at a location abroad next year for the MCC," said Venkat Vardhan, managing director of DNA Networks, organisers.

"The Microsoft Corporate Challenge was a great way to discover oneself and optimise 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 person's 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, 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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