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ACUMEN 2006 - National B-School Challenge

Written Preliminary Round – For B-Schools ( North Region)

Do you think you are sharp enough to take on the best in the business? Welcome then to the written prelims for the ACUMEN 2006 National Quiz Challenge for B-Schools across India, brought to you by Business Today and Aditya Birla Group. There are 25 questions in this round. The asterisk-marked questions are to help resolve a tie, if any. No negatives, so feel free to guess – imaginative and “educated” guesswork will take you a long way in this quiz. Top four teams go into the finals. All the best!

1. By the year 2000, the company was recognised as the world's lowest cost producer of steel. In 2005, the company was recognised as the world's best steel producer. Which Indian company?

*2. The first one opened in 1965 in New York City at the corner of First Avenue and 63rd Street on Manhattan's upper East side. The first menu was a chalkboard and it quickly became the meeting place for young adults grossing over $1 Million in revenues in the first year. It was further popularized by the 1978 movie by the same name, starring Donna Summers. Nowadays, this is used extensively in advertising and promotion materials around the world. What?

3. Tea was rationed during World War II, but it was not until 1953, just after rationing finished, that this company launched the tea bag to the UK. It was an immediate success. Which company?

*4. Built in 1826 by James Robertson, an infamous illicit distiller of Aberdeenshire, rival distillers burnt it down in 1841. The unit was rebuilt in 1845. Its famous prefix came after a visit and tasting session by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were camping in the nearby Balmoral castle in 1848. Name the brand.

5. ABCTCL is a Rs. 300 crore ISO 9002 certified company. What is its 16 page, all colour, monthly tabloid called?

6. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently given the go-ahead to which Indian pharmaceutical firm for a three-ingredient fixed dose anti-AIDS cocktail pill for adults?

7. Which Indian company has a license to distribute the premium fashion watch brand Tommy Hilfiger in India?

*8. She was named after a department store. Although she is generally considered African American, she is biracial, with a white English-born mother and a black American father. Who?

9. "I do not sell products. I sell an entire civilization in a jar." Quote from whom?

10. The music industry is to sue it for allegedly providing links to pirated tracks. "We've started the process and as far as we're concerned we're on a track to litigation," John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, told Bloomberg.com. Who?

*11. For the first time, the U.S. authority manufacturing it has said that it is costing more than its value to make this year, thanks to higher metal prices. "It is going to disappear soon unless something changes in the economics of commodities" is the popular perception. Gallup polling has shown that two-thirds of Americans want to keep it from disappearing. What?

12. He's the only head of state to use the internet daily as a means of communicating with his subjects as well as people outside the country. The royal site also details royal activities – state visits, aid to the poor - and some of this East Asian country's modern history. Name him.

*13. The Indian Railways are running two passenger locomotives (Thanjavur to Nagore section) and six diesel trains with a special fuel. What is it?

14. The radio station WHRB (95.3FM Cambridge), is run exclusively by students, and is given space on the university campus in the basement of a freshman dormitory. It is also home of the notorious radio "Orgy" format, where the entire catalogue of a certain band, record, or artist is played in sequence. Which university?

15. Suvir Sujan and Avnish Bajaj, both Harvard Business School classmates, joined together to form which popular Web site?

16. What would you be going for "when you care enough to send the very best"?

*17. Fund-raising under the guise of market research (using an opinion poll or contact poll) is an abuse of the MRA and ESOMAR guidelines, and is called what?

18. In June 2004 the UK's Private Eye reported that this fast food chain was handing out meal vouchers, balloons, and toys to children in pediatric wards. Which chain?

*19. The beloved founder of this company signed his companywide memos "Dad". However, his company was taken over after a long and harsh 18-month battle. The new owner is worlds apart in culture, bragging about a policy of firing the least-effective ten percent of employees every year. Which company?

*20. The original assets of which company were a hundred acres of garden along the Allegheny River - 30 acres of horseradish – along with 24 horses, a dozen wagons and a vinegar factory in St. Louis?

*21. "Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What's left? ___ ___.” Fill in the blanks.

22. This brand of jewellery sponsored The Jodhpur Polo Season of the year 2004. The brand has now planned to host a grand party in Delhi in Feb in presence of the Yuvraj of Jodhpur to honour the champion teams with diamond studded trophies. The brand is named after a Greek mythological princess who was known for her passion for exquisite jewellery. Name the brand.

*23. With which celebrity couple would one connect Vivid Mercantile Pvt. Ltd, Lira Tradecom Pvt. Ltd, Imperial Mercantile Pvt. Ltd and Stallion Commercials Pvt. Ltd which were in the news a while ago?

24. In 1992, Kaplan and Norton introduced this as a method intended to give managers a fast, comprehensive view of the performance of a business. What method??

25. This office building has its own zip code, 60606. It towers at a height of 442 meters and more than 25,000 people walk through the doors of this fully automated building every day. Name it.

Answers
tata steel
2. TGI FRIDAY’S (THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY)
3. tetley
4. royal lochnagar
5. the beat (abctcl is the company behind coffee day)
6. aurobindo phaRma
7. titan
8. halle berry (after halle’s departmental store in cleveland, ohio)
9. shahnaz hussain
10. yahoo china
11. the penny (one cent)
12. king norodom sihanouk (cambodia)
13. biodiesel (or jatropha)
14. harvard
15. baazee.com
16. hallmark greeting cards
17. frugging
18. mcdonalds
19. peoplesoft (taken over by oracle)
20. heinz
21. seth godin
22. arisia
23. mukesh and nita ambani (holding companies of reliance infocomm)
24. balanced scorecard
25. sears tower

ACUMEN 2006 - National B-School Challenge
Written Preliminary Round – For B-School Alumni

1. The apex conveys the desire of the people to excel and the need for progress while at the same time maintaining the leader’s initials. The red stands for energy while the blue stands for peace and the universal confidence associated with the brand name. In order to retain the brand’s stature and reduce institutionalism there is a mixed use of upper and lower case in the lettering. Which company’s new logo?

2. The Economic Times newspaper edition dated the July 7, 2006 had a special guest editorial team. Who was the editor-in-chief?

3. Name the first single malt whiskey made in Japan. It featured in the movie “Lost in Translation.”

4. Which company introduced flavours like "Astronut" and "Lunar Cheesecake" that were named for the NASA space missions in the late ‘60s but were only introduced after the astronauts returned home safely?

*5. The founder of which popular chain, known as much for the tight T-shirts of its waitresses as for its chicken wings, had a simple explanation for its success -“Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style?”

*6. Which is the only company to be on the Fortune 500 list, every year since its inception?

7. What connects the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trailblazers of the NBA?

8. What connects East Timor, Ecuador, Marshall Islands, Federal states of Micronesia, Republic of Palau and El Salvador (HINT: something financial)?
*9. It is owned by the Dutch conglomerate VNU and it uses the Nielson Soundscan to track sales. What am I talking about?

10. When the brothers Anton and Gerard set up shop in 1891 at Eindhoven, the first thing they made was light bulbs. What was their surname?

11. Which fresh-from-his debut director shot ads starring Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Fardeen Khan and Saif Ali Khan for Pepsi over the last year?
*12. The company founded by Bob Swanson and Herb Boyer in 1976 uses the motto In Business For Life. In 1982, they made human insulin, which became the first biotech drug to go on the market. Which company?

*13. Since 1964, its gas stations have sold a toy truck around Christmastime. Each year, the model changes to a new design. Older models are considered collectibles and the 1964 truck sells for about $1,400-2,000, depending on condition. It periodically has a rare truck such as the 1995 and 2002 chrome which were given away at a stockholder meeting. Which company?

14. A history teacher, an English teacher and a writer discovered that all of them loved fine coffees and exotic teas. So they opened a store across from the Pike Market place, a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront. For some unknown reason, they named it a character in Moby-Dick. What?

*15. The universal symbol of three chasing arrows arranged in a triangle, used to depict recycling or recycled material is a modified version of what mathematically important artifact?

16. On July 1, 1941, the world's first television commercial aired on NBC, at that time known as WNBT-TV. The 10-second advertisement occurred at 2:29:10 superimposed over a test pattern. Which brand?

17. The date is 21st Jan 1976. The announcement was 'Passengers of Air France flight 085 are kindly requested to go to embarking gate' for the flight leaving Paris for Rio via Dakar. Why is this announcement significant?

*18. Christopher Scholes and Carlos Glidon invented a machine to number the pages in books. They attempted to extend the machine’s functions beyond numbers and took their idea to a firearms company that had fallen on hard times after the American Civil War. The company bought up the idea. Name the invention and the company?

19. What connects the transistor, the modular phone, and display on digital watches, Vitamin B1 and faint background radiation confirming the Big Bang?

*20. Which car manufacturing firm had the "Star of David" as its logo or emblem?

21. In 1895 he drove in the Paris-Bordeaux race. He had to change the tyres twenty two times over the 1200 km long route. Who was this person?

*22. Which Indian brand has its head offices at 3E, Park Plaza, 71 Park Street, Calcutta-700016, West Bengal, India?

23. The first of its kind was performed by Mona at the Four Artsball at the Moulin Range on Feb 9 1893. What?

24. These are weblog sites which the author uses only for promoting affiliated websites. The purpose is to increase the PageRank of the affiliated sites, get ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. What are they called?

25. Nobody is sure of her age. She is an ever smiling dollish woman social worker giving advices to women on AIDS. O&M created this animated icon for the West Bengal State, but now her success is taking her past state boundaries. Name this popular ad icon.

Acumen 2006 North (Delhi) Alumni Quiz Prelims - Answers

1Reliance-adag (just reliance will not do)
2 n r narayanmurthy
3 suntory
4 baskin-robbins
5 hooters
6 hershey foods
7 both owned by paul allen
8 us dollar is the national currency
9. billboard magazine
10. philips
11. shaad ali
12 genentech
13. hess corporation (or amerada hess corporation)
14starbucks
15 mobius strip
16 bulova (watches and clocks)
17 first concorde flight
18 typewriter and remington
19 all discoveries at AT&T bell labs
20 dodge
21 edouard michelin (founded michelin tyres)
22 rupa banian and underwear
23 the first strip tease 24. splogs (spam+blogs) 2 5. BULA-DI