The 2008 Microsoft UK Challenge sees 130 teams from top UK businesses converging in Scotland to test themselves against each other whilst developing key skills and raising money for charity.
Certain key competencies are widely recognised as holding the key to boosting performance in business, say organisers Challenger World. Communication, planning, stress and time management, initiative and motivation will all be crucial in the challenges, it says, which places executives and CEO’s in an alien setting to develop and build new bonds and lines of communication.
Teams compete in demanding physical, strategic and intellectual tasks. Understanding that not all aspects required to create a united and motivated workforce can be tested either mentally or physically, the challenge also places a large emphasis on helping others - which is why fundraising is a core activity the teams undertake. Last year those taking part raised over £500,000 for the NSPCC, the official event charity.
Matt Guy, fundraiser at the NSPCC said: “Every year, the Challenger teams invest the full range of their skills, talents and energies into the competition, raising crucial funds for the NSPCC through sponsorship. We are grateful to have as many as 117 committed and hard-working corporate teams on the side of vulnerable and cruelly treated children.”
This year the teams will benefit from the presence of England rugby legend Rory Underwood MBE. Challenger World have teamed up with Rory Underwood and his partners John Peters and Martyn Helliwell at UPHltd - a team of high performance coaches who come from different backgrounds but have excelled in each of their individual areas.
“The Microsoft UK Challenge is a fantastic team building event. It’s exciting and challenging, it encompasses the ethos of teamwork and builds team spirit over four days,” comments Underwood. “Competitors will get the chance to share experiences they wouldn’t get from their everyday working environment. They will learn more about each other in four days than they would from a year together in the office.”
The challenge takes place in June.
