Gaurav Srikrishna - The Business Standard Quiz Book

The
Business Standard
Quiz Book

The
Business Standard
Quiz Book

AN IMPRIN OF BUSINESS STANDARD LIMITED

Copyright 2013 Gaurav Sri Krishna

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN: 978-93-82951-11-7

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The content of this book is the sole expression and opinion of its author, and not of the publishers. The publishers in no manner are liable for any opinion or views expressed by the author. While best efforts have been made in preparing this book, the publishers make no representations or warranties of any kind and assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the content and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose.

The publishers believe that the content of this book does not violate any existing copyright/intellectual property of others in any manner whatsoever. However, in case any source has not been duly attributed, the Publishers may be notified in writing for necessary action.

To all knowledge seekers who are my inspiration and
my wife and daughters for their patience and support.

Gaurav Sri Krishna is an avid quizzer. He has been associated with Business StandardsThe Strategist Quiz for the last 7 years and has compiled more than 300 editions of the quiz and continues to do so. Apart from being a passionate quizzer, Gaurav holds a regular day job with one of the countrys leading business groups and has also spent many years working with multinationals and start-up enterprises. He loves reading, trivia hunting, travelling, photography, listening to all genres of music and drinks as many cups of tea as he can in a day. A Hyderabadi during his formative years and a Mumbaite when he started his career, Gaurav is now a happy Chennaite where he lives with his family.

contents

preface

T his book owes its existence to The Strategist, a weekly supplement on management and marketing, which appears along with the Business Standard and in which I have a quiz corner. The Business Standard Strategist quiz has always maintained a standard of quizzing that is extremely challenging. Week after week, a medley of well gleaned questions from the world of business makes it to the pages of the paper, testing the intellectual capabilities of both reader and author to the limits. The questions that I tie into a neat bundle and mail out to my editors is the fruition of a lifetime of collecting stray pieces of information that would seem useless and even frivolous to many. But for me these are akin to hidden treasure and I add each nugget, anecdote and factoid to the mound of information that now occupies every inch of space in my home, my phone and every other digital gadget I own.

Quizzing is a passion that has consumed my life for several decades. For me the pleasure of seeing my questions in print is immeasurable, but it is still no match for the thrill that I get from the barrage of responses that the quiz elicits. Putting together a compelling and interesting quiz week after week is quite a task. And it has only become tougher as we live in an age where information is traded more freely than most other commodities in the world. Despite being cryptic or having a twist in their tale, questions are no longer as easy to set as they are to answer. Therefore, one is always on an info-seeking prowl, so to say, to gather facts and relevant information that are not easily found online. If Archie was the first and Backrub became Google, the advent of search engines and the internet has meant that answers to a quiz are just a click away. Thus when someone finds a question tricky, or interesting, or hard nut to crack, it feels like a job well done.

My years as quizzer and quizmaster have taught me that the joy of quizzing lies not merely in cracking the tough questions but also in acquiring and assimilating knowledge while trying to do so. It is with this spirit that The Business Standard Strategist Quiz has completed more than 320 editions so far.

I have been asked several times by various people about where I get my questions from. Though the obvious answer is newspapers, journals, books, the online media and such other sources; strange and untoward experiences have also contributed to the questions. Curiosity about the name of the manufacturer of the seat belt I was fastening during one of my flights, spotting an old collectors issue of an international magazine on the pavements of Mumbai, pulling out a hand bill with interesting facts on an ice cream brand from a trash can at the corner of 26th Street on Lexington Avenue, New York Cityall of these instances have led me to questions that were a pleasure to create. And I have found that trivia can also reveal some of the most profound aspects of the world of business.

Quizzers know that a quiz is more than just a collection of questions in search of answers. It is a reflection of the times we live and have lived in. It takes the spotlight to details about people, places and events that usually slip in between the cracks of time. Thus, whether it is the plethora of big brands being born on the back of a napkin or necessity becoming the mother of invention or innovation, as one would say in this era, every question has a larger story behind it. There are stories of strategies, about the quirky habits of eccentric people and their successes, strange turn of events, happenstances etc., which have and continue to shape the world of business.

The idea behind publishing this book which has 50 questions (original as well as a selection of the best from my past quizzes) under six categories, was mooted by none other than the ardent followers of the quiz. Many of them said that they had encountered questions from this quiz in popular national competitions, either verbatim or in a derived form. Copies of the published quizzes were also used as preparatory material or a kind of a quizzing guide. Apart from the overall feel-good factor that this generated, I was pleasantly surprised by the popularity of quizzing even today. Age has neither withered, nor dimmed its attraction!

I would like to express my thanks to the editorial team in charge of Business Standard Strategist and the editors of Business Standard Books, but for whom this book would not have been possible. But most of all I thank my readers for reading and participating in huge numbers and breathing life into the questions with their comments and feedbackboth encouraging and critical. Being a part of the world of quizzing and the book has been a fascinating journey and I will continue researching and compiling the quiz with the hope that it keeps you informed and inspired.