INTER CORPORATE BUSINESS QUIZ -98

The 1998 edition of this annual business related Inter Corporate Invitational Quiz (ICIQ) was held at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The Quizmasters were P. S. Sriram and Shridhar from Infosys Technologies. Another team from Infosys Tech stood first, Kirloskar AAF was 2nd and Ogilvy & Mather came third.

WHO AM I

I. Clues
i) He has been a prof of Electrical Engg and Computer Science at the Massachussetts Instt of Technology for 35 years
ii) His products are used in GM Cars, Zenith and Phillips TV divisions, NASA space shuttles, the Queen Elizabeth liner, and Broadway theatres.
iii) His father fled from Calcutta where he was wanted by the British police for revolutionary activities.

II. Clues
i) Born in 1837, descendent of Welsh ancestors who came to Massachussetts in 1636, he began his career in 1856. He disliked and disagreed frequently with Theodore Roosevelt, and when the president was off on a safari in Africa, he said ‘I hope the first lion that he meets does its duty’.
ii) He was once asked for money by a friend in need. He took the friend for a walk all around New York and after an hour, told him ‘Now you have been seen with me, you will have no problems getting a loan’.
iii) A churchman called him ‘Pierpontifex Maximus’. The Wall Street Journal called him ‘the undisputed leader who has stood between the business of this country and disaster’

III. Clues
i) In 1923, he left Kansas and boarded a train to California with $40 in his pocket. When a fellow passenger asked him about his intentions, he said ‘I’m going to direct great Hollywood motion pictures’
ii) After seeing ‘The Jazz Singer’ he wrote to his brother : "I think this is Old Man Opportunity rapping at our door. Slap a big mortgage on everything we’ve got and let us go after this thing in the right manner"
iii) In 1938, he received honorory degrees from both Harvard and Yale universities, and also accepted an award from the League of Nations.
iv) He started the ‘Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow’ center in ?

IV Clues
 i) He called his wife ‘The Believer’ because she encouraged him at a time when everyone else called him crazy
ii) John Kenneth Galbraith said this of him : "If there is any certainty as to what a businessman is, he is assuredly the things ________ is not."
iii) Thomas Alva Edison once told him ‘Young man, you have the right idea. Keep at it’.
iv) He got his greatest inspiration while watching Chicago meat-packers cut beef that moved past them on an overhead trolley.

V Clues
i) He has launched a university at Elk Grove Village, Illinois
ii) President Nixon once met him and asked "What is it now, eight or nine billion?" To which he replied, "Mr.President, it is 12 billion".
iii) When his company’s market value surpassed U.S.Steel’s, Senator Lloyd Bentson complained ‘Something is wrong with our economy when the stock market is long on _____ and short on steel’
iv) At the age of 72, he acquired the San Diego Padres baseball team. Till the age of 52 he was

VI Clues
i) He came from a rich family and was sent to Harvard, where he failed to complete his first year.
ii) His father helped him go into business but he lost $30000 in the first year.
iii) He spent $25000 per week and in 1937, his empire was in debt of $126 million.
iv) He was partly instrumental in causing an Spanish - American war, and once unsuccessfully tried to disrupt the premiere of a Hollywood movie based on his story

VII Clues
i) He set up shop in 1859 as a dry goods trader. The business thrived in 1861 after the outbreak of the US Civil War, when the US Army bought a lot of grain and supplies from him.
ii) He was a regular at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church in Cleveland and served as a Sunday School Superintendent.
iii) In 1881, he set up a trust of dozens of companies that controlled 80% of a particular industry. Other industries followed suit and this started off the first ‘Anti-Trust regulations’ in the USA.

VIII. Clues

i) In 1928, he offered President Calvin Coolidge a partnership on the condition that the President endorsed his views in public, but the president declined.
ii) He was the only representative of Wall Street in the 1947 Forbes magazine’s list of 50 Business Leaders
iii) His company was the first private partnership to publish its annual report

ELIMINATION ROUND

1. Identify the brands associated with the following adlines (1/2 point for each) a) "I Can" b) "Engineered to move the human spirit" c)"Value beyond Chemistry" d) "Here Today. Here Tomorrow"

2. This company’s newest ad campaign is a TV film called ‘Birds’. It has recently split with its sister concern. Name the company.

3. October 15, 1932, a light, single engined Puss Moth plane flew from Karachi to Bombay piloted by J.R.D.Tata. This flight was significant in Indian business history. What landmark was it?

4. Which company has released a 250 year vision of its role in world society?

5. Fortune Magazine brought out a list of the Top Philanthropists for 1997. Ted Turner was number one on their list. They also censured someone who they felt should have been on that list but was not. who are we talking about?

6. Who was the first American to make $100m a year?

7. Bayer used to sell morphine under a brand name that became eponymous. Name the brand.

8. They come in eight sizes, the largest being a ‘Nebuchadnezzar’. What are they?

9. ‘Saat swaad mein lijjat lijjat paapad’ : why saat swaad?

10.Which company, located three floors above an art gallery on a slightly seedy street in Seattle, offered a 10% discount to people who visited them on January 7, 1998 between 10 am and 9.15 pm?

11.The Rutherford Institute is a 15-year old foundation describing itself as ‘an international non-profit legal and educational organization that specializes in the defence of religious liberty and human rights’. Why are they in the news currently?

12. What is common to the following books : "The Art of the Deal", "Surviving the Top" and "Art of the Comeback"?

13. Who said "I myself signed the declaration of war yesterday... I stand for competition.Hats off to the Indian consumer"?

14. On August 10, 1897, a chemist called Feliz Hoffman discovered the world’s first synthetic drug. Name the drug.

15. Steven Spielberg was flooded with requests to use the Extraterrestrial he created to promote various products. He refused all but one request. Which company, and what was the adline used?

16. ‘Made in America’ is Sam Walton’s book about the WalMart company. About which company is the book ‘Well Made in America’?

17. In 1948, a researcher from the Battelle company and an Ohio State University Classics Professor coined a word from Greek origin for a new product. What was the word?

18. Connect Jack, John, William, Robert and the entertainment industry.

19. What policy decision did the Time magazine put into place starting from its January 94 issue?

20. Name the organization that has started organizing beauty contests for the aged, where "vitality and presence of mind are emphasised rather than appearance and dress". The contestants aim for the crowns of Grandpa King and Granny Queen.

21. What was called by a US Newspaper last year as a ‘congressional plea to boost the military budget’?

22. What is common to Kapildev, Mithun Chakravarthy, Zakir Hussain, Kamalahaasan

23. Name the first Indian company to be rated by Standard and Poor as well as Moody’s. (It is also the first Indian company to show a profit of Rs.1000 cr)

24. In the seventies, it was only jaggery. In the eighties, potatoes were also included. Now there are four more : castor, black pepper, turmeric and hessian. What are we talking about?

25. Connect the first Governor General of independent Pakistan with an Indian company.

26. Who was the first Newspaper owner to allow journalists a paid annual holiday?

27. What is the Greek word for a bank?

28. Name the American company with the German name for a town in Czeckoslovakia.

29. Common to : Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Boss’s Day, Secretary’s Day, Turkey during Christmas, Happy Birthday to You’?

30. Which term comes from the following quote by Marshall MacLuhan : " The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a _____"

31. Which company had a simple mission statement : "Maru C"?

32. Who is the only entertainer to have won the Oscar, the Tony, the Grammy and the Emmy.

33. Masaaki Imai "3 religions in Japan : Buddhism, Shintoism and __"

34. Which party promises that it will abolish Income Tax
 

FINALS DRY

1. A company called HVM, incorporated in 1931, produced 12 brands, including Lotus, Butterfly and Tiger. By 1939, however, only one brand survived. The company is no longer a going concern, but the brand still exists and is doing well. Name the brand.


2. Connection : US Presidential Elections 1992, 1996 Indy Car race, World Cup Soccer 1998, General Motors?


3. A lawyer named Brad Smith said this in a US court recently "We cannot slice it and dice it with a legal meat cleaver". What is ‘it’? .


4. US Airlines are cracking down on something called Back-To-Back ticketing. What is this?


5. The first product made by this company was a car record player. They gave themselves a name similar to the name of the market leader in record players in those days. Name the company.

6. "Amakudari" is a term used to describe a particular trend in Japanese industry. The word means "descent from Heaven". What is the trend? -


7. European company, into forest products for the first 130 years of its existence, diversified into Television manufacturing in the eighties, but lost money there; burnt its fingers making computers and ultimately sold the computer division, faced a slump during the Russian recession of the early 90s, went deep in the red, and its CEO committed suicide. The new CEO decided to change the business they were in, and virtually reinvented the company. Name the company.


8. His ventures range from selling socks, mineral water and chrysanthemum tea that bears his name. He owns a modelling agency, a health club, dumpling shops and a garage. He endorses Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Mountain Dew products and promotes a line of clothing called JC RalliArt. Name him


9. Guarantee Trust is the first and so far only Non-South African insurance company to do what?

10.This company introduced cheques only in 1997. Cheques must be purchased at the Central Bank and filled up carefully (Cheques can be rejected if the first word is not in capitals). The payee has 15 days to cash the cheque. Which country?


11. In the field of mergers and acquisitions : what is the Hirshman - Herfindahl index?


12. Part British, part French, part Jewish, part Catholic, as a schoolboy at Eton he won LBS8000 by betting on a horse. In 1954, he eloped with Isabel Patino, daughter of a Bolivian tin magnate but had multiple affairs, which he never concealed. He once remarked "When you marry your mistress, you automatically create a job vacancy". Who?


13.The MacDonalds clown is called Ronald McDonald all over the world, except in Japan. What is it called in Japan?


14. When the Titanic sent SOS signals over its wireless, this 21-year old was listening, and he continued to do so throughout the rescue operation. He then sold the transcripts to William Randolph Hearst’s paper, ‘American’, which sensationalized the event and mentioned the 21-year old’s name for the first time. Name the kid.


15. David Ogilvy was firmly convinced that Celebrity advertising was a big mistake. He used to insist that the product be the hero of the commercial because otherwise people remember the celebrity and not the product. This was after he had burnt his fingers once by advising a client to pay a certain celebrity $35000 to endorse his product, which subsequently never took off. Name the celebrity.


16. This company was formed in 1850 as a temporary solution to a bitter feud between two transportation companies in New York. They decided to stop their price war and found a new transportation company which would automatically dissolve in ten years. After ten years, the company was making so much money that the partners did not have the heart to dissolve the company. Instead they sold off the assets of the company and started a new company with the same name. Which company?


17. Who is credited with the following quotes : "We were not really in the communication business... we were in the surviving business"; "Ma Bell is a lying mother"; "I run the company by observing what AT&T does, and bolting in the opposite direction"


18. A graduate student at the Wharton School, his MBA thesis arguesd that debt should be managed within a corporate not merely as a source of capital, but as a hedge against the current market conditions. Who?

19. When the French scientist Lavoisier was guillotined by the French Revolutionaries in 1794, his widow Marie Pulze came to this man for assistance, and he gave her shelter. In 1800, he emigrated to USA and set up a factory in Wilmington, Delaware to manufacture gunpowder. Who was he?


20. Who said the following things : "If I entered into an agreement with that man, I would be sticking my head in a moose"; "They always bite the hand that lays the golden egg"; "When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you"; "I had a great idea this morning, but I didn’t like it"

21.  company asked the Boy Scout mission for use of their motto ‘Be Prepared’ in their advertisement. Name the product.


22. In 1886, Richard Warren ___ was working for the Minneapolis & St.Louis Railroad. One of the jewellers in Minnesota refused to accept a large unsolicited consignment of watches, which Richard bought at $12 and sold at $14 (although the market price was $25). He made $5000 and started a watch company. To handle repairs, he advertised for a watchmaker and hired Alvah Curtis ___ of Hammond, Indiana. Name the two men.


23. In a square in the city of Bruges, there was a huge building belonging to a family whose coat of arms, representing three purses, was painted on the walls. The merchants of Bruges used to meet in front of this house and conduct their business. Name the family.


24. This institution had its origins in a coffeeshop opened in London in the late seventeenth century. In 1941, when the Bismarck was sunk by British ships, bells pealed all over Great Britain, but the bell at this institution was rung only once because of a certain tradition. Which institution?

25. By 1861, this product, produced in USA enjoyed higher sales abroad than in USA. In Africa, salesmen had to customize the machine because the tribesmen wanted it noisier saying ‘Good iron makes loud noise’. Mahatma Gandhi called it ‘one of the few useful things ever invented’. Name the brand.


26. Harry Moock, Vice President of Chrysler Corp., described the ideal man of a certain profession as "He should have the curiosity of a cat, the tenacity of a bulldog, the friendship of a little child, the diplomacy of a wayward husband, the patience of a self-sacrificing wife, the enthusiasm of a Sinatra fan, the assurance of a Harvard man, the good humour of a comedian, the simplicity of a jackass, and the tireless energy of a bill-collector". Which profession?


27. Wrigley’s once airdropped 4 million chewing gum packets on Phillippines with this guy’s most famous statement on it. He was at one time chairman of Remington Rand. Who?

28. Daodayal Mehra loved a Hindi play called ‘Vir Balak’ so much that he watched it umpteen times. He had two sons whom he named after the 2 brothers in the play. The elder brother was called Sona. Mehra also called the company he owned after the name of the younger son. Name the younger son.


29. William Thourlby has written two bestselling books ‘Passport to Power’ and ‘You are what you wear’. He was also the wardrobe advisor to George Bush. But he is not so well-known for a certain landmark in advertising. What?


30. Dettol, when first introduced was marketed under the company name ‘Suffolk Chemicals Co.’ although it was owned by Reckitt and Coleman. Why?


31. When China opened its first amusement park in the eighties, it called it Disneyland. Disney sued, as they had not sought permission for use of the name, but withdrew the case when they heard the Chinese explanation. What was the explanation?


32. In 1969, BBC was telecasting ‘The Jazz Singer’. There was a phone call in between and they actually stopped the telecast in between to deliberate whether to continue or not. After about 10 minutes they decided to continue. What was the doubt about?


33. At a meeting of advertising heads at National Cash Register which was going nowhere, this young Sales Manager jumped to his feet and yelled ‘The trouble with every one of us is that we dont think enough. We dont get paid for working with our feet - we get paid for working with our heads. Any man on the selling force could make two dollars where he now makes one if he would think along the right lines. ‘I Dont Think’ has cost the world millions of dollars’. Who?


34. This product is considered the best of its kind. The first one was completed in September 1968, took four years and $1.5b to build, and the effort almost sank the company and threw the city of Seattle into a depression. 7000 men worked to make it. What?

35. What is common to the following words : gingham, calico, bandana?

36. In Office Architecture jargon, what are "Dilbert Willies"


37. "I thought it is a people matter - food. This is why, if my name works for customers, to hell with it. I can risk it’. Who about what?

38. He sold seats for Air India, and appeared in MAD magazine, which called him a tasty Indian nut. Who?


39. Mitchell Kapor a Bostonian is a teacher of Transcendental Meditation and a Buddhist. In 1988, he started a foundation for electronic free speech. But he is the founder of a well-know company. Which?

 

EXTRA QUESTIONS

1. Connect ANZ Grindlays Bank with the Nanavati murder case 

2. Microsoft issues a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ to guard against counterfeit software. It has a watermark with the image of a woman. Name the woman. 

3. Which company connects Shah Rukh Khan, Jackie Shroff, Ajay Devgon, Nagarjuna, Manisha Koirala and Gulshan Grover?

4. America Online UserId "BOYSRCH" was in the news recently. What was his real name ?

5. In Japan, what is hole-in-one insurance?

6. A new German anti-eavesdropping law has been passed allowing the police new freedom to spy electronically on all conversations of suspects with journalists, lawyers, doctors, tax consultants and in general anybody, with two exceptions. The first is conversations with ministers. What is the other?

7. Which is the most tattooed product in the world?

8. In the Pharmacetical industry, what is ‘pharming’?

9. What principle of stock speculation was first propounded by Thomas F. Woodlock?


 
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

1. What is common - creep, rise, gallop, burgeon, increase, climb, soar ?

2. What did Jesse Jackson & Henry Kissinger do that Castro and Gorbachev refused to do ?

3. After holding a minority stake for over 20 years, ford Motor Co., now has a controlling interest in which Japanese Motor manufacturing company ?

4. Which management buzzword appeared initially in an article in the Harvard Business Review by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahlad?

5. In the Amul ad, what does VDIS stand for?

6. First Xerox model was called the Xerox 914. The next model to come out was called the Xerox 813. Why?

7. ‘Is Rajesh Khanna secretly married to Anju Mahendroo?’ What is the significance of this statement?

8. ‘This book is dedicated to my wife and best friend, Nancy - with Love’ -

9. During the Atlanta Olympics Nike had an interesting slogan. What?

10. Which city earlier was the sleepy deteriorating Southern city. Now an International urban center often compared to hk for its dynamism, called the northernmost latin city and the capital of Latin America

11. Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will - Noel Tichy and Stratford Sherman. This was a subtitle  of a book. Which one

12. Name the Indian Chapter of the World Economic Forum at Davos?

13. Harvie and Hudson, hilditch and key turnbull and asser - jermyn street - are what?

14. Over 75 % of  what is  produced by Madagscar, Comoros and a bunch of other tiny islands off the East African coast?

15. In Japanese corporate circles who/what is mof-tan? .

16. What is "Indian talkies"?


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