Monday, March 19, 2012

The Strategist Quiz (#245)


The Strategist Quiz (#245)
Gaurav Sri Krishna / New Delhi Mar 19, 2012, 00:11 IST 
  1. “IBM wants to wipes us off the face of the earth”, who said this to the Fortune magazine while discussing his company?
     
  2. The introduction of the pressure cooker in the late 1930s and an 11 herbs and spice formula invented by its founder has made this brand what it is today. Name it.
     
  3. Name the company which during the 1930s that invited the rich zamindars of South India to arrive in their horse drawn carts and drive out in a car. It also used leave a Chevrolet car, complete with chauffer free for a week with the rich customers for a trial. A pre cursor to today’s exchange offer and free trial, were pioneered by this company.
     
  4. Name the famous consulting company and the model or term it invented that characterises the uber enthusiasm and subsequent disappointment that typically come with new technologies.
     
  5. A Siren of Chrome ended up marrying Hank the Deuce. What is the connection here?
     
  6. Which brand is rebuilding its lineup of products that use an operating system based on software used to run nuclear power plants and unmanned aerial drones?
     
  7. This company was registered in London in1897 and remained to be a British company till 1978. Later it was acquired by and Indian business group in a most haphazard manner. Its current vice-chairman bought a parcel of shares from the open market. The patriarch of this business group was totally opposed to it, and he is said to have not eaten for two days when his son told him about it.
     
  8. What technique did Mahindra & Mahindra use to display a cheetah alongside its XUV500 in the recently concluded Auto expo in India and Godrej Interio use to display its new furniture line at the Lakme Fashion week recently?
     
  9. Name the first person to be listed as the richest in the world by Forbes when it started the world’s billionaires listing?
     
  10. Identify the company from the visual that displays its first logo created when it was formed in the 1890s.

Answers to last week's quiz (#244)


Answers to last week's quiz (#244)
Strategist Team / New Delhi Mar 19, 2012, 00:13 IST 
  1. Apart from being chiefs of their respective Central Banks, what is common to RBI Governor D Subba Rao and US Fed Chief Ben Bernanke?Both of them are alumni of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Subba Rao was the Humphrey fellow at MIT in 1982 and Bernanke got his Phd from MIT in 1979.
     
  2. Which company has its headquarters on One Geoffrey Way and why so?Toys R Us has its headquarters on a street which is named after its mascot Geoffrey.
     
  3. Name the business strategy that is named after a form of martial art where the size of the opponent is used against him. As a business strategy, the central idea is turning an opponent’s strength into a disadvantage.The Judo strategy, named after a form of Japanese martial art. It was used as a metaphor in the book “Judo Strategy” (2001) by David B Yoffie and Mary Kwak.
     
  4. Who has launched a body wear (innerwear) collection branded after David Beckham?H&M (Hennes & Mauritz), the Swedish retail company.
     
  5. Name the oldest soft drink brand of India.Dukes, it was established by the Pundole family in 1899. It is now owned by PepsiCo.
     
  6. An Indian brand named after the youngest daughter of its founder way back in the 1930s and a 40 yr old German brand named after its founder’s daughter coincidentally have a JV in India. The German brand is considered as a leader in the water filteration products business. Name JV.Usha Brita. Brita is a German company that began production under a pear tree in the founder Heinz Hankammer’s house in 1966.
     
  7. The resurgence of which company is linked to the strategies of introducing a two way communication channel called Freevoice with its CEO and conducting formal summit meetings called “Getting There” to get its leaders aligned with its market ambition? The CEO also donned the role of the Chief Happiness Officer.Mahindra Satyam
     
  8. Elon Musk, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Ken Howery are founders of a company and together are known by a notoriously famous term. What is it?The PayPal Mafia. They were the founders of the company.
     
  9. Which company’s research team is making a way to next generation of vehicles by using a low on nutrition cooking ingredient that is sourced from a plant having a scientific name of Zea mays to manufacture body parts for cars?Tata Motors is experimenting with Cornstarch to make car body parts.
     
  10. Identify the mascot from the visual and mention the organisation he represents.Coffee Swami is the mascot of the Coffee Board of India.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Answers to last week's quiz (#242)


  1. Koryo is a Future Group brand, who owns Koryolink?Koryolink is a JV between Egyptian company Orascom and North Korean Posts and Telecom Corp
     
  2. This company was known as a start up factory in 2001. At that point in time it had thrown up more than 50 start ups and 88 CXOs, many of whom set up Indian operations for giants like Lucent, HP and Philips. Name it.Wipro
     
  3. Whose advertisement copy reads “Help save the Laptop”? It has an image of a fishing boat. WWF. It is to bring attention to the Yangtze River region in China, where most of the world’s laptops are made and this has left its natural resources stretched.
     
  4. Who are the owners of a company set up by the name NourishCo?NourishCo is a Tata and PepsiCo JV company  
  5. The publisher of these books in the late 80s liked the quirkiness of the animals and insects on the cover and thought it would help to make the books stand out from those published by others. Today, this publisher is well known all over the world for his animal branding. Name the publisher. Tim O’ Reilly publisher of books related computer technology and the web  
  6. It was during a trip to Italy in 1819 the founder of this brand discovered the sale of this particular item being sold for the first time. In those times the exotic product was sold at the chemists as a fortifier, and at a price only the nobility could afford. He wanted to change all that and on his return to Switzerland, he opened a small factory where he manufactured the same product of best quality at a price affordable for many people. Name the founder and the brand.The Mason Cailler chocolate brand founded by François-Louis Cailler and now owned by Nestle
     
  7. Connect Agatha Christie to a village between Brussels and Lille (French speaking part of Belgium) and identify a beer brand.The Beer brand Ellezelles is named after the home town of Hercule Poirot, a character created by Agatha Christie
     
  8. The founders of this company were known for their fun and pranks. They called the Vatican by pretending to be Henry Kissinger wanting to speak to the pope by using one of the contraptions they assembled together. Name them. Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs founders of Apple used the blue box, a device which allowed one to make long distance calls for free
     
  9. For what did the prestigious “Charleville Hotel” built around 1870, provide the initial infrastructure? The National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie. It is now known as the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.
     
  10. Identify the brand from its logo.Microsoft Windows 8

The Strategist Quiz (#243)



  1. “I was an ugly child. What can I say? Someday I hope Hollywood makes a film about ______, and they’ll be sure to cast somebody who looks like Tom Cruise in the lead role — but in the non Hollywood version, things don’t work out that way.” These are the opening lines of whose book?
     
  2. What technique came out of a Stanford University study which analysed data from Fortune 500 companies and found a 35 per cent discrepancy between the companies’ objectives and what was actually implemented?
     
  3. This ad agency was set up by bunch of students in 1993 because they couldn’t get an interview with traditional agencies. Recently Forbes rated them as one of the top 5 performing agencies in the world and a circus art and street entertainment company has taken a stake in it. Identify the agency and mention how it got its name.
     
  4. This youth brand that sells about 1 million sun glasses in India is foraying into motorcycle helmets, footwear and apparel. It plans to design and launch bicycles and may consider taking over a FM or TV Channel. Name it.
     
  5. Dow Corning expanded a self service web based distribution channel called Xiameter to market low cost silicon materials. From a business management perspective what concept does this act relate to?
     
  6. This company has a sole shareholder and therefore a general meeting is not held and its powers are executed by this sole shareholder. For its brand campaigns it uses the baseline “Simply Clever”. Name the company.
     
  7. Which brand runs a loyalty program that gives rewards on its Angel card?
     
  8. This person’s first business enterprise was selling Pepsi-Colas from a makeshift stand in his family’s front yard in US. Later on he invented a mechanical device in the 1920s which helped build his own business that is now a global brand. Name him and the brand.
     
  9. Invented by a St Louis advertiser in the late 1920s, this drink claimed that it would cure hangovers that plagued depression era Americans. Name it.
     
  10. Identify this Silicon Valley business and technology forum from its logo. It has already celebrated its silver jubilee.
Ten all-correct entries will receive a copy of Brian Tracy’s Change Your Thinking Change Your Life published by Wiley India (books courtesy: Wiley India). One lucky winner will also receive a cheque for Rs 2,000. Send your entries to strategist@bsmail.in. All entries must carry the postal address of the contestant. Last date for receiving entries: March 6, till 8 pm. Previous winners, employees of Business Standard and Wiley India and their families are not eligible to participate.