Quiz XIII - 19th January 2002
1. What did Coca-Cola sell, and to whom, for a consideration of $3billion, in
1989?
# #Columbia Pictures, to Sony-These large corporates were realising that it's better
to focus on ones core competence rather than dabbling in all and sundry!
2. 2. Which company's adline, rather ironically, was "Geography is History"?
# Iridium, the satellite telephone service promoted by Motorola. The company itself
became history not long after it was launched
3. Which popular vortal has been launched by Sanjeev Bikchandani?
# Naukri.com-I guess many of you must have visited and used the vortal!
4. What resulted when Henry Wells, John Butterfield, William Fargo, William
and John Livingstone, James Wasson and James McKay met at Buffalo, New
York in 1850?
# American Express Company. The company was originally formed to provide
courier service. It later, in stages, diversified into traveller's cheques, travel
services, banking, and finally, into credit cards
5. This company was founded on 18 July 1968 as NM Electronics. By what
name is the company known today? (Eminently workoutable)
# Intel, of course, from its founders, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore
6. If it was terylene in Britain, what was it in the USA?
# Dacron-terylene is ICI's brand name, while dacron is Du Pont's
7. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, was nicknamed "Neutron". Why?
# He made GE more efficient and cost effective by substantial downsizing. So,
while the offices and factories survived, the people disappeared-an effect also
created by neutron bombs, which kill people but don't destroy property or
equipment
8. What quintessentially American product is popularly known as "Hogs"?
#Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The name is derived from the eponymous HOGs-
an acronym for Harley Owners' Groups-a society formed by Harley-Davidson as a
promo tool
9. This young man, who had initially studied physics at the redoubtable Caltech
before turning to law, started tinkering with what technology at the age of
twenty-nine, with momentous results for himself and for the world? And who,
incidentally, was this young man?
# Chester Carlson-the man who invented the photocopying machine. His first
photocopy, of a piece of paper bearing the words "10-22-38 Astoria" is the stuff of
many a quiz question
10. Which financial hero turned villain pioneered the use of junk bonds to
finance leveraged buyouts (LBOs), and in which financial company was he
working during this period?
# Mike Millken; Drexel Burnham Lambert
011. Which telecom services giant is the present owner of the "Orange" brand
name?
# France telecom, which acquired the brand when it purchased the Orange
company, which provides cellular service in the UK, from Vodaphone, which in turn
had acquired it from Mannesmann, which in turn had acquired it from the original
promoter-Li Ka Shing's Hutchison group-sounds complicated, doesn't it?
12. Which Indian economist coined the term "Hindu rate of growth" to refer to
India's modest economic growth rate during the sixties and seventies?
# Professor Raj Krishna
13. What connects the wicket keepers Godfrey Evans and Farokh Engineer with
crooner, actor and lovable clown Kishore Kumar?
# They have all been featured in Brylcream advertisements
14. Why was the Ford T model so-called?
# It followed the Ford S model
15. What, according to management guru Sumantra Ghoshal, is the "525 rule'?
# 25% of a company's profits should accrue from products launched during the last
5 years
16. What feminist organization has been launched recently by Urvashi Butalia?
# Kali for Women-a publishing company which publishes women's works
17. Why should auto executive Lee Iacocca have been grateful to Hollywood
actor Steve McQueen, in a professional sense?
# Lee Iacocca, as is well known, played a crucial role in the development and
launch of the Ford Mustang. The car, which the intrepid police officer Steve
McQueen drove in the film "Bullitt", was the Ford Mustang. This film did a lit to
popularize the car, and its success, in turn, gave a big boost to Iacocca's career in
Ford
18. What is common to Frank Packer (f/o Kerry Packer), Thomas Lipton and Ted
Turner?
# They have all sponsored, and participated in, the America's Cup race
19. What is "Gombas" the acronym of?
# "Grossly Overpaid MBAs"
20. Which was India's first branded gent's shirt to be marketed nationally?
# Liberty-not Charagh Din, as answered by many
