An event in which people navigate mazes and overcome obstacles that reflect a real-life career rat race is being held in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong : The average corporate career, with its fair share of scheming and plotting survival strategies to emerge the frontrunner among professional peers, has often been likened to a rat race.
Popular literature, epitomised by that cheesy best-seller Who Moved My Cheese?, has fed on that rodent metaphor and given honchos something to gnaw on as they scurry frenetically up the corporate ladder.
Now, a Hong Kong property company is getting set to organise an event in which men and women will scamper around the city’s financial district, navigate mazes and overcome obstacles that reflect a real-life career rat race.
But it’s all in good fun, and for a worthy cause: the Central Rat Race 2006, much like similar events in New York and Toronto, is being organised to raise funds for charity, to remind stressed-out executives of the importance of practising good health, and to reinforce Hong Kong’s image as Asia’s leading business centre.
Come October, therefore, Hong Kong will witness the comical sight of relay teams of men and women in business suits racing against one another in the downtown Central area, carrying briefcases for batons.
The 2.5 km race will take the participating teams across eight sectors with names that reinforce the corporate rat race theme, such as ‘Finding the Cheese’, ‘Job Maze’, ‘Corporate Ladder’ and ‘Watch Your Back’.
The ‘Watch Your Back’ section, for instance, is a spoof on the scheming and backstabbing that, in the popular imagination at least, characterises boardroom battles.
Participants will have to run the gauntlet of competitors who will resort to “backstabbing” — literally — to keep them from getting ahead. In the ‘Finding the Cheese’ leg of the race, the challenge for participants is to follow the instructions on a
‘Rat Card’ and find pieces of cheeses of matching colour and quantity.
In another interesting section, called ‘Corporate Face’, participants will be required to wear a set of exaggerated costumes provided, pick up a newspaper and a coffee mug and cross a pedestrian footbridge.
In the last leg of the race, called Dash-for-Cash, participants will be required to push their team mates on boardroom chairs down to the finishing line.
The competition is open to anyone over age 18 who is legally employed in Hong Kong; each participating team must consist of eight staff members from the same company.
Each team must raise a minimum donation of HK$50,000 (about Rs 3 lakh).
Nicholas Sallnow-Smith, chief executive of event organiser Hongkong Land, says the “light-hearted” event will help raise some serious funds for charity. “In providing an unusual twist to the hustle-and-bustle image of Central, we hope local residents and visitors will get to appreciate a friendlier perspective of Hong Kong as well.”
The funds raised from the Rat Race will go to Mindset, a charitable organisation that supports mental health-related organisations and projects in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Neil McNamara, governor and steering committee member of Mindset, says the event “provides busy executives with an opportunity to have healthy fun in support of a worthwhile cause, and, importantly, it helps promote the awareness of mental health issues in Hong Kong.”
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}