Business Quiz

3. Prelims
 15 Questions: 15 Points
 Half a point each for questions with two parts.
 Prelims Score x 5 will be carried over to the finals.
 All the best.

5. 1
Whose print ad?

6. 1

7. While sitting in his younger brother Albert's fountain parlour,
the Varsity Sweet Shop in San Francisco, Joseph Friedman
noticed her daughter Judith’s difficulty to drink a milkshake.
What did Friedman subsequently invent?
2

8. Bendy Straws
2

9. In July 2018, it was reported that an international giant had
been granted an order from the Delhi High Court, ordering
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube, to remove or
block various "disparaging and defamatory" posts
perpetuating a false rumour that one of their famous
products contain plastics. The rumour had frequently been
spread via videos depicting the product being flammable.
The company faced criticism over the move as it also
included the geoblocking of Twitter posts that were clearly
satirizing the controversy and order.
Which giant? What product?
3

10. Kurkure from PepsiCo
3

11. Since its inception in 1991 at Kattappana, Crown Products
has evolved gradually and has become an innovator and
proven leader in quality skin care product development and
manufacturing. What is their most famous product?
4

12. 4

13. Zamzar is an online file converter; it allows you to convert
files to other formats without downloading any software
tool. It was founded by brothers Mike and Chris Whyley and
supports over 1000 different conversion types.
Why the name Zamzar?
5

14. Gregor Samsa
5

15. What word that describes a profession originates from two
Persian words, one meaning ‘water’ and the other meaning
‘doer’? It also happens to be the name of a 1988 movie
directed by IV Sasi.
6

16. 6

17. The ingenious terracotta pottery of this place earned GI tag
more than a year ago. However, we know this place for
certain events with tremendous historical significance that
happened in the second half of the 20th century, once in the
70s and then in the 90s.
Which place?
Images follow
7

18. 7

19. 7

20. 7

21. Pokhran
7

22. Seen here is the logo of The
Signpost, an online in-house
magazine of a community. It
was founded in 2005 by
Michael Snow who was a
contributor to the community.
Which community?
8

23. 8

24. In 1968, he appeared in a commercial for the French
chocolatier Lanvin in which he proclaims: “Je suis fou du
chocolat Lanvin!’’ (I’m crazy about Lanvin chocolate), while
biting a morsel, causing him to become cross-eyed and his
moustache to swivel upwards.
Who?
9

25. Salvador Dali
9

26. What has been blanked out?
10

27. Kinder Joy10

28. Gabrielle’s mother died at an early age, so she grew up in
an orphanage. It was there she learned to sew. When not
sewing, she sang at a cabaret. She was a poseuse, a
performer who entertained the crowd between star turns. It
didn’t take much time for her to realize that she is getting
nowhere with music.
She was the mistress of a lot of people: the French ex-
cavalry officer Etienne Balsan, Captain Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel,
Duke of Westminster, German diplomat Hans Gunther von
Dincklage etc. It has been said that she collaborated with
the Germans during WW II.
Who was Gabrielle?
11

29. Coco Chanel
11

30. WHSmith PLC, one of the largest bookselling and
newspaper vending business in the UK, is named after WH
Smith, the son of Henry Walton Smith who founded the
company in 1792. In 1965, they sought the help of Gordon
Foster, a professor of statistics at LSE and later at Trinity
College, Dublin, for creating a system. The system went on to
become adopted internationally.
What system?
12

31. ISBN
12

32. Mary Baker Eddy established the Church of Christ, Scientist,
in Boston in 1879 as a Christian denomination and
worldwide movement of spiritual healers. She wrote and
published the movement’s textbook, Science and Health With
Key to the Scriptures and 15 other books.
However, the venture she founded in 1908 has always been
praised for its neutrality towards religion and for avoiding
sensationalism.
What venture?
13

33. 13

34. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was an adept soldier and
cunning politician from Mexico who dominated the country’s
history in the first half of 19th century so much so that the
period in Mexican history is called ‘the age of Santa Anna’.
He was overthrown by the liberal Revolution of Ayutla in
1854. He lived the rest of his life in exile.
To get back to his old stature, he wanted to become rich. To
aid this, he sought the help of an American and provided
him with a raw material to make a cheap rubber substitute.
However, the venture failed.
What was the sticky result of this interaction?
14

35. Chewing Gum
(The American was Thomas Adams and the raw material
was chicle)
14

36. Before ball point pens
became popular, people
generally used ink pens. The
most prominent brands were
Hero and Parker. However,
they were expensive.
Keralites had a cheap
alternative to it founded by
Haji Syed Muhammad X.
What was the brand’s
name, something
associated with a good
beginning for Muslims?
15

37. 15

40. Round 1
 6 Questions: Clockwise
 Bounce: +10
 Pounce: +10/-5
 All the best.

41. 1
In 2000, Hemant Jalan was visiting a family-owned chemical
unit in Jharkand. Realizing that even local businessmen there
make a lot of money from this sector without knowing much
about marketing, he was inspired to set up a business. A few
month’s later, he set up a factory in Jodhpur, marking the
birth of his company.
The company’s logo depicts something, that normally occurs
in black and white, in multiple colours, to dramatize the
unexpected nature of the brand’s solution.
Which company?

42. Indigo Paints
1

43. ZERO Halliburton is a company that manufactures a specific
type of product, mostly made of aluminium. The aluminium
version was commissioned by Erle P Halliburton in 1938
when he realized that the aircraft engineers needed a
product that would endure their rough travel through Texas
Oil Fields. It has been used in over 200 Hollywood films and
TV shows, often as a MacGuffin.
The most famous piece of this item is often covered with a
black leather jacket to make it look less militaristic in
diplomatic situations.
What product is this? What is the most famous piece
referred to here?
2

44. Briefcase
2

45. Nuclear Football
2

46. This international sportswear brand that caters to more than
100 sports was founded in 1999. It was named after a well
travelled rugby team which was formed by two regiments
of the British army. While one of them was the Royal Air
Force, the other regiment had its members recruited from a
country that is neither a territory of the UK nor a part of the
commonwealth. The team was named Flying Xs, after a
famous belonging of the members of this regiment.
Name the brand.
3

47. 3

48. Oswald Labs is an India and Netherlands-based
accessibility technology company that builds products for
individuals with disabilities. It was established in 2016 by
Anand Chowdhary, Nishant Gadihoke and Mahendra
Raghuwanshi after their product, Oswald Extension, won an
event at the AngelHack hackathon in New Delhi. The
company was named after Oswald Berkhan, a German
physician.
What is Oswald Berkhan’s claim to fame?
4

49. Identified Dyslexia for the first time.
3

50. This is a screenshot from which company’s official
website?
5

51. 5

52. Venkatesh Rajagopal joined the civil services in 1979. After
10 years of service he finally couldn’t ignore his inner calling
to be an entrepreneur. He resigned in 1988 to start his own
export-manufacturing outfit called Celebrity Fashions. In
2000, he started a brand as a division of Celebrity Fashions
which primarily exported apparels to leading international
brands like Timberland, LL Bean, Tommy Hilfiger and
Nautica.
Origin story of which brand?
6

53. 6

54. Round 2
 3 Questions: Written
 10 points for each.
 All the best

56. 1
Due to his morose character, this former employee of Ogilvy
and Mather was nicknamed ‘Salmon Fishcake’. His notable
ads were for Aero chocolate, UK Milk Board, Daily Mirror,
American Express etc. He worked there for 10 years.
Who?

57. Salman Rushdie
1

58. After ending his service in the army, he wanted to marry
Zelda Sayre, but Zelda would agree only if had enough
money. So, he took a job at Barron Collier, where he wrote
advertising slogans for $35 a week. However, he was a
failure in this profession. So, he reworked his college-written
novel a third time and published it. Titled This Side of
Paradise, the book was a huge success and they were soon
married.
Who?
2

59. 2

60. Take a look at the print ads in the following slides and tell
me who created them.
3

61. 3

62. 3

63. 3

64. Norman Rockwell
3

65. Round 3
 6 Questions: Anticlockwise
 Bounce: +10
 Pounce: +10/-5
 All the best.

66. 1
In 2014, in order to celebrate a 20th anniversary, Warner
Bros teamed up with the coffee brand Eight O'clock Coffee
to come up with an event aptly titled ‘The One with the Free
Coffee’. It featured a pop-up replica of a neighbourhood
coffee shop at 199 Lafayette Street at the corner of Broome
Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighbourhood.
What was its name?

67. Central Perk from F.R.I.E.N.D.S
1

68. Drinking the Kool-Aid is an expression commonly used in the
United States that refers to a person who believes in a
possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived
potential high rewards. The phrase often carries a negative
connotation. It can also be used ironically or humorously to
refer to accepting an idea or changing a preference due to
popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion. The phrase refers
to an incident in which the drink involved could also have
been Flavour Aid.
What infamous incident from 1978?
2

69. Jonestown Massacre
Jim Jones, the leader of the religious cult People’s Temple,
massacred around 900 of his followers by urging them
drink powdered milk laced with cyanide.
2

70. Founded in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger, it is
one of the largest companies in the world by revenue
(ahead of VW, Apple, Amazon etc.) and is known for its
secrecy. It is an energy and commodity trading company
that handles more than 7 million barrels a day of oil and
products, roughly equivalent to the daily consumption of
Japan, the third largest oil consumer in the world after US
and China. The company is known for its willingness to do
business with places others would run a mile from. For
instance, Kurdistan’s quest to break away from Iraq was
kick-started when the company helped them to sell Kurdish
oil independently of the Iraqi government.
Which company?
3

71. 3

72. Though he is hugely unpopular in his country, he has so many
fans in the west, which is why the ad was not shown in his
country. He received a lot of requests to feature in ads, but
he declined most of them.
He arrives by a limousine at a X outlet and some patrons
notice him. An older man grumbles, ''Because of him, we
have economic confusion.'' A younger man disagrees, saying,
''Because of him, we have opportunity.'' Patrons continue to
argue, until an older woman pipes up, ''Because of him we
have things like X.'‘
Who? What is X?
4

73. Gorbachev in Pizza Hut ad
4

74. Warsaw is a city in Indiana, US. In 1895, Revra DePuy
invented an alternative made up of fibre, to something, the
wooden versions of which were already in use. He then
started a company, becoming the first company in the world
making X appliances. Justin O Zimmer joined him as his first
sales representative. He later left the company and founded
his own, named after himself. Thanks to these companies
being the early X appliances manufacturers in the world,
Warsaw began to be called the ‘X capital of the world’.
What is X?
5

75. 5

76. This question is about two logos that share a nickname.
One of them is that of a company that used the word X for
its aircrafts although X was commonly used in a nautical
context. Jules Verne’s book X of the Clouds had inspired
Igor Sikorsky to invent the helicopter.
In the other logo, the sphere represents a planet, the stars
represent space, and the red chevron represent aeronautics.
If in the two-word nickname, the first is the colour of the
logos and second is an edible item, which two entities are
we talking about? What is X?
6

77. Pan Am Airways & NASA
(Blue Meatball Logo)
6

78. Clipper
6