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| Quiz time at Chennai |
| The Sanmar group has become a household name in
quizzing circles in recent times by reaching the final of all the
business quizzes held in Chennai in the past few months. This comes
on top of the group’s consistent performance over the years,
emerging a finalist in the regional round of the Brand Equity Quiz
in all the years except one since 1994. |
| The four months since November 1999 have seen a
flurry of corporate/business quizzes in Chennai – the Brand
Equity Quiz, the MMA quiz, the Ad-Club quiz and a quiz organised by
ITM (Institute for Technology and Management). The first National
Management Quiz (NMQ) under the AIMA-ITM banner in Chennai on 25th
February 2000 at Hotel Ambassador Pallava was the fifth and had Chennai
bizquizzers rubbing their hands in glee. |
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Business Quiz
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| Sunday, January 23, 2000 – 10 a.m. There was
a buzz in the air at Taj Connemara where Ad-Club was holding the first
Business Quiz of the new millennium. |
| Quiz Master Suresh Kumar’s questions in the
prelims – which saw over 30 teams vying for the 6 spots in the
final – ranged from the simple to the sublime. A keen contest
saw a high cut-off of about 21 points for an entry into the final
which featured two freelance teams – Parijata (of which Yashwant
Saran of Asco India was a part) and Corn Flakes. Sanmar (represented
by S M Sundaram, Ramkumar Shankar and V R Venkataraman), Henkel-SPIC
and Mudra from the corporate sector and a team from REC, Trichy, were
the other contestants. |
| The lively final had a mixture
of dry questions and visuals. To sample a few: |
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Which was the first paints company to be set
up in India? (Shalimar Paints in 1902) |
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Who was voted the advertising icon of the
century? (Marlboro Man) |
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What was unique about the first issue of the
Playboy magazine? (It did not contain any date since Hugh Hefner,
the founder was not confident whether there would be a second
issue at all!) |
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“Experience a new high” is the
baseline of ----- (Sahara Airlines) |
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Why did the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
change its Post Box number to 9994 in 1949? (It was ABC’s
tribute to Sir Don Bradman in the year in which he was knighted
– to commemorate his Test batting average of 99.94!) |
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| Team Parijata shot into an early lead and maintained
it right through to win the quiz hands down. In a keen tussle for
the next three places, Corn Flakes rallied ahead in the last round
to finish second while Mudra and Sanmar tied for the third place.
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| In the tie-breaker to decide the third team, the
first question was: Which new company’s logo has been designed
by a spastic child? Both teams answered it correctly: Mindtree Consulting
(a start-up venture of Ashok Soota, ex-Wipro). The second question
was: Which was the first commercial icon to be displayed at Madame
Tussaud’s wax museum? While Mudra answered Marlboro man, Sanmar
gave the right answer (Singapore Girl) to clinch the 3rd spot. |
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National Management Quiz
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| Two Sanmar teams figured amongst
the 33 teams which vied with one another to be among the six
finalists in NMQ. The evening saw quizmaster Derek O’Brien
at his best as a showman. Distinctly different in content from
the Brand Equity quiz, the prelims opened with Derek’s
standard ‘local’ question: Which Chennai-based company
started as Madras Motor Company and entered into a collaboration
with a UK-based cycle manufacturer? (Answer: Enfield). Some
more sample questions from the prelims: |
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In the bottling business, define the measure
0.568 of a litre. (Answer: Pint) |
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Which company advertises its product as ‘the
original sports watch since 1860’? (Answer: Tag Heuer) |
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www.beeb.com is the website of which organisation?
(Answer: BBC) |
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| The participating teams in rapt attention. |
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| One Sanmar team – comprising Yashwant
Saran and S M Sundaram – topped the prelims with 22 points
(out of a possible 29) and qualified for the final which featured
Blue Star, IDFC and three companies from the new sunrise sector
– Future Software, Tata Liebert and Visual Software. |
| In the final, questions were framed to test
the quizzers’ knowledge of industry, management jargon
and general business trivia and their ability to think laterally.
For instance, a visual of Michael Eisner was shown with the
music of Alladin accompanying it, the teams being asked to connect
the two. (Answer: Disney. Mike Eisner is the CEO of Disney and
the music was that of a Disney production). |
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| Other questions included: |
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Which company pioneered the concept
of horsebreeding in India on a professional level? (Poonawalla
Farm Houses) |
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Which ad agency in
India recently completed its 25th year of existence? (Rediffusion). |
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In retailing, what is OLS? (Original
Levis’ Store) |
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Which airline employs the line:
“You take care of your business; we take care of your
flying? (Lufthansa) |
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Why was Burger King controversially
in the news in the context of Pokemon? (Burger King had tied
up with Pokemon for promotion in the USA. Plastic toys of Pokemon
characters were distributed along with burgers. The toys had
to be withdrawn when it was found that some children had choked
on these toys) |
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| The Sanmar team which finished second at NMQ
seen with the trophy. Quizmaster Derek O’Brien is at extreme
right. |
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| The last round was on the buzzer and featured business
jargon, at the end of which Blue Star, building on an early lead,
won comfortably. By answering the question: “What do you call
books which top the charts of the leading newspapers? It is a two-word
answer, the second word of which is a funny actor’s surname.”
(Answer: Bestsellers – Peter Sellers) in a tense last round,
Sanmar finished second, pushing Visual Software to the third spot. |
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