Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Strategist Quiz (#284) Gaurav Sri Krishna / New Delhi Dec 17, 2012


  1. The company that was established in the 1890s made Cigars and Cigarettes out of chocolate as an alternative to the tobacco variety. During the Second World War, the company’s machine shop even turned out parts for US Navy’s antiaircraft guns. Name the company.
     
  2. What is the sobriquet given to start-up tech companies like NationalField and Amicus and why?
     
  3. This person moved from company to company by cutting jobs and boosting profits. He believed that the primary goal of any business should be to make money for its shareholders. By firing thousands of employees at once and closing plants and factories, he earned nicknames such as Chainsaw Al and Rambo in pinstripes. Name him
     
  4. Which company is linked to the Muppetgate blunder and why?
     
  5. An actress, who started her career in 1966 as a child actor in the Telugu movie, is going to endorse a brand, which was introduced in the 1930s and was named after its owner family’s favourite horse. Name the actress and the brand?
     
  6. What travel accessory is named after a person who served as the Chancellor of Exchequer and as the Prime Minister of Britain, both at different times?
     
  7. Name the organisation, which is pushing for the development of a wireless medical device similar to the one used by Dr McCoy in the Star trek series for instant medical diagnosis. The organisation along with a maker of wireless communication technologies as its sponsor announced a prize $10 million. Also name the device.
     
  8. Whose baseline reads “Bringing our best to you”? 
     
  9. Who said this, “People ask me all the time, don’t you feel guilty for it? And I say that‘s ridiculous. It seems reasonable and rational to control the ____from where you normally sit and watch ____”?
     
  10. Identify the brands they represent



Answers to last week's quiz (#283)


  1. he name for this start-up brand was taken from a character in the song-poem composed by Roscoe Mitchell, an African American composer and Jazz instrumentalist. It was founded by 3 musicians from California, who sold freshly squeezed juice from the back of an old Volkswagen van. It was NASDAQ Company till it was bought by a global MNC. Name the founders, the brand and its current owner.
    Odewalla, a juice brand now owned by Coca Cola. It was set up in 1980 by musicians Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy and Bonnie Bassett, after they took the idea from a business guidebook in Santa Cruz, California.
  2. Connect the word TYPE with these typeface designs - Helvetica, ITC Franklin Gothic, ITC Avant Garde, Optima, Times New Roman and what do you arrive at?
    Monotype Imaging Holdings, a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts. It is the owner of all these typefaces and is listed on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol TYPE.
     
  3. Name the rogue trader and the investment bank he worked for, who accessed a secret account in his firm nicknamed the Umbrella, to hide losses.
    The Ghanaian born and British educated Kweku Adoboli who worked for UBS and was convicted recently.
     
  4. Which company is now presenting its corporate website as a digital magazine and has given it a name after an internal publication it ran for its employees from 1987 to 1997?
    The Coca Cola Company’s website is now presented as a digital magazine instead of a portal and is called Coca Cola Journey
     
  5. This writing instruments brand is believed have been named after characters from a popular vaudeville comedy double act which appeared at a Music Hall in London during the early 1900s. It was the first modern day pen maker to reintroduce the use of casein as a material for making pens. Casein made from milk protein particles are dyed and then laid down under high pressure to form slabs from which the components are eventually formed. Name the brand and its founders.
    Conway Stewart which was founded by in 1905, Mr. Frank Jarvis and Mr. Thomas Garner. Its Winston Churchill edition pen comes with a book of Churchill quotes, a Churchill cigar and a bottle of Conway Stewart ink.  
  6. Name the brand campaign that was made to bring the tea brands Agni, Gemini and Kanan Devan under its parent brand.
    Tata Tea’s Jaago Re (wake up) campaign which is now being termed as a social catalyst.
     
  7. What does this acronym MOOCS stand for?
    Massive Open Online Courses. Related to the online education business.
     
  8. In an article on innovation for the New Yorker last year, whom did Malcolm Gladwell refer to as the ‘Fox and the Henhouse’?
    Steve Jobs was the fox and Xerox PARC was the henhouse.
     
  9. During the 1880s, which alcoholic beverage brand in England got shippers to use their barrels of beverage as ballasts on ships, travelling to and from Australia, guaranteeing its product many months of additional maturation in oak, without the need to find expensive storage space? 
    In 1887, Teacher's Highland cream whisky created a new brand called Australian Bonded Whisky using their barrels of Whisky as ballasts on ships travelling to and from Australia guaranteeing the whisky many months of additional maturation in oak, without the need to find expensive storage space. Innovative indeed.  
  10. Identify the companies from their respective logos. Both are not connected to each other but are in businesses related to agriculture. It surely has a connection with slow left arm spin bowlers.
    1.Agriterra is the largest agri-operators and leading food providers in Africa. Its founder CEO is Phil Edmonds, a slow left arm spin bowler who played for England. 2. The second company is Organic Haus, an all-organic brand that sells products sourced mainly from German, Austrian and Europe. It was founded by slow left arm orthodox spinner Dilip Doshi who was one of the only two Test bowlers that played in their first tests after the age of thirty and yet went on to take 100 wickets.