A pop-culture heavy business quiz conducted by me during COMPOSIT 2014 at IIT Kgp

1. COMPOSIT 2014
BIZ QUIZ
PRESENTED BY
AJAY VISWANATHAN
QUIZ CLUB IIT KHARAGPUR

2. EXPECT...
● Brand etymologies, origin stories
● (Tech || sports || entertainment) && business
● Advertisements and general funda
● Every answer would be known to most of
you. How to arrive at the answer is a
different story altogether

3. THE OPENING BELL
PRELIMS

4. ● 20 questions
● Q 5,10,15,20 are starred, ie. to resolve ties
● Sudden death rule followed in case of further
ties
● Resolve all disputes in an amicable manner.
No black-ink throwing business, please
● Oh btw, the QMs decision is final
RULES

5. 1. A Plain Vanilla question
X is a popular trivia app developed by Plain
Vanilla Games, an Icelandic gaming company.
It has been touted as the ‘world’s biggest trivia
game’. It was launched in November ‘13 and
already has 11 million members.

6. QuizUp

7. 2. Name the notorious founder
Stratton Oakmont Inc was a long Island New York,
‘over-the-counter’ brokerage house co-founded by
Kenny Greene and X, and later bought by Danny
Porush.
It was the largest OTC firm in the country during the
late 1980s and 1990s.
Eventually X was persecuted after his office was
inundated with complaints regarding the brokerage.

8. Jordan Belfort
Wolf of Wall Street

9. 3. Connect
An NGO aimed at helping the cause of the underprivileged.
They also sell merchandise to increase their reach and
corpus for their initiatives.
A British Supernatural drama TV series created by Toby
Whithouse, currently in its 5th season after 37 episodes.
A 1994 drama film starring Robin Williams portraying the
experience of a single human soul through various
incarnations.

10. Being Human

11. 4. If you thought Whatsapp was the only major deal to
go through recently...
Japanese e-commerce major Rakuten recently
acquired X, a free instant messaging and VoIP
smartphone application, for $900 million to
expand its platform of Internet-based services.
ID this competitor of the $19 billion - valued
Whatsapp.

12. Viber

13. 5*. Its a ‘sweet deal’
King Digital Entertainment Plc, maker of popular
smartphone games, is beginning an adventure of
its own on a path to becoming a public company.
King, owned by Apax Partners LLP and Index
Ventures, filed to raise $500 million in an IPO in
the US.
Name their most famous offering.

14. Candy Crush Saga
Also, Pet Rescue Saga

15. 6. Non-exhaustive connect
Tesla Motors
LinkedIn
Palantir Tech.
SpaceX
YouTube
Yelp Inc.
Yammer

16. PayPal Mafia companies

17. 7. Answer quickly
Tracks and Records is the first of its kind in
the Caribbean region and has already started
to break the barriers of a casual eatery and
sports bar & lounge.
Who is the star sportsperson backing this
enterprise?

18. Usain Bolt

19. 8. Don’t be angry at me
Company X was founded in 2003 and was named after
the local word for bonfire
In the beginning of 2009, they were close to
bankruptcy, when they launched Y and things turned
around for them
What is Y and name X where you would find a ‘Mighty
Eagle’, ‘Bird Whisperer’, ‘Marketing Wingman’,
‘Twitcher’ and other characters in the office?

20. X - Rovio, Y - Angry Birds

21. 9. Who wrote the copy for this ad?

22. Salman Rushdie

23. *10.
Two of the most celebrated creative minds of India,
X and Y launched their social media platform,
Qyuki Digital Media Pvt. Ltd.
Qyuki is a social media platform that aims to
engage Indian youth by showcasing new media
content
Hint: X is an Oscar nominee, Y is an Oscar winner

24. X - Shekhar Kapoor, Y - A.R.Rahman

25. 11. Who is the advertiser?

26. Canon

27. 12. Choppered down
X is a British-Italian multinational helicopter
design and manufacturing company, and a
wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica.
In 2013, one of their clients cancelled a
contract after allegations surfaced that $50
million was paid as a bride.
ID this controversial company.

28. Augusta Westland

29. 13. ID X
X worked with Hot Wheels Design to create the
‘Spin King’, a limited edition car. The toy car
was part of their new ‘Designed by’ series and
is the first car designed by an Australian.
In 2009 he ventured into the men’s underwear
category with the successful launch of
Spinners in Australia.

30. Shane Warne

31. 14. ID X
Famously known for keeping their product ad-
free for a long time, X struck a deal with
Omnicom worth upto $100 million to show
advertisements under its umbrella.
An ads could come in the form of static images
or videos, and are meant to be consistent with
the quality of content on X.

32. Instagram

33. *15.
X is a fast-food restaurant chain that specializes in fried
chicken operating across the southwestern United States at
14 locations.
The name is ungrammatical Spanish for ‘The Chicken
Brothers’. Founded by Gustavo Fring and Max Arciniega.
It is a subsidiary of Madrigal Electromotive, a German
conglomerate with an ownership stake in the company.

34. Los Pollos Hermanos
From Breaking Bad
A meth cook was recently busted wearing a
Los Pollos Hermanos shirt from the TV series

35. 16.
In his early thirties Melvin Weinberg was in on a scam
selling only the front-portion of jackets, footless socks,
inferior quality glass with fake stickers that read ‘Made in
Italy’.
He soon moved to advance-fee scams. He would offer
loans to people with bad credit through a company he set
up called London Investors.
Why is this man back in the news?

36. American Hustle
Known for the Abscam controversy

37. 17. What resulted?
Industrial designers from across the country
had their work judged by experts from Japan in
order to decide on an insignia to indicate a
product that had certain qualities.
The product should have been made within the
past two years, should have been made in
India and marketed in India.

38. I-Mark

39. 18. Tastes addictive
Admir and Ibi Adili, the brothers behind Valentino
Ice Cream Shop on Croatia’s Murter Island put
some blue syrup in a vanilla base and called it X
ice cream. It apparently tastes like gum and candy.
Pic follows...

41. Facebook

42. 19. ID this ‘villain’
Sri Dato' Seri X Chee Yioun is a Malaysian
businessman and investor. He is the Chairman and
Chief Executive of Berjaya Corporation Berhad.
In 2010, he entered the Forbes billionaire list with an
estimated worth of US$1.3 billion.
In 2010 he bought a controlling share in Welsh club,
Cardiff City and Bosnian FK Sarajevo in 2013.

43. Vincent Tan

44. *20. What service do they provide?
Zostel is the first chain of its kind in India.
Started by IIT, IIM graduates, currently
operating from Jodhpur and Jaipur.

45. Backpacker hostels
Offer secure, hygienic, centrally-located and
pocket-friendly accommodation for young
travellers.

46. FINALS

47. WRITTEN
ROUND 1
BANK NOTES ROUND

48. 1.

49. 2.

50. 3.

51. 4.

52. 5.

53. 6.

54. ANSWERS

55. 1. Sigmund Freud, Austria

56. 2. Edvard Munch, Norway

57. 3. Nikola Tesla, Serbia

58. 4. Albert Einstein, Israel

59. 5. King Ramses II, Egypt

60. 6. Emiliano Zapata, Mexico

61. CLOCKWISE

62. 1. Ads for which famous family pastime?

64. Monopoly

65. 2. Where would you find this flourishing
business in India?
4900 production units, bringing in an annual income of $1 billion dollars
Division of units:
1039 textiles
932 porters
567 leather
722 recycling
111 restaurants
thousands of boutiques

66. The slums of Dharavi, Mumbai

67. 3.
The Winklevii (The Winklevoss Twins), recently
announced that they have signed up to travel to
suborbital space on Virgin Galactic, the space
tourism company founded by Richard Branson,
each ticket costing $250,000
What was unique about their mode of
payment?

68. Paid through Bitcoin
They are big-time cyber-currency investors

69. 4. ID the brand
Launched in 1989, X was the first handheld ice cream
targeted as a premium ice cream for adults. Today, it is
one of the world's leading ice cream brands, selling
one billion units annually worldwide, and it is the
biggest brand of Unilever ice creams.
Kareena Kapoor Khan has been chosen as the brand
ambassador in India. It is priced at Rs.85 per bar.

70. Magnum Ice Cream

71. 5. What is unique about this bottled water
product?

72. Made from water contaminated by Bhopal
tragedy
Campaign protesting against Dow Chemicals

73. 6. What every
employee likes to hear
X was a merchant, who later
became the patron saint of
business people, tailors,
shoemakers and
clothworkers, as well as of
Cremona, Italy.
His name is latin for ‘good
man’

74. Saint Homobonus

75. 7. What is X?
The X effect is based on the commonly accepted
perception that you get what you pay for.
X was once an obscure brand of Scotch whiskey. By
raising its prices, it not only increased sales but also taught
marketers that people associate price with quality.
In the 1950s, Coca Cola was twice as expensive as Pepsi.
Yet, Pepsi sales increased after they raised the price of the
soda.

76. Chivas Regal

77. 8. Who is behind this initiative?
The just keep livin Foundation was started by X and his
wife, Camilla and is dedicated to empowering high school
students to lead active lives and make healthy choices to
become great men and women.
While filming Dazed and Confused, X was struggling with
the passing of his father. It was during this time that he was
overtaken by a saying that would soon change his life: “just
keep livin” or “j.k. livin” as it’s called.

78. Matthew McConaughey

79. WRITTEN
ROUND 2
MINIMALIST AD POSTERS

80. 1.

81. 2.

82. 3.

83. 4.

84. 5.

85. 6.

86. ANSWERS

87. 1. Durex

88. 2. Fedex

89. 3. M&M’s

90. 4. Olay

91. 5. Red Bull

92. 6. SanDisk

93. ANTI
CLOCKWISE

94. 1. Name the two cities
The current rivalry between the two cities can
be considered a manifestation of one which
had already existed since industrial times.
Both were competing with each other for
supremacy of the North West, with one famous
for its manufacturing prowess while the other
for its port.

95. Manchester and Liverpool

96. 2. The real pioneer of the fizzy drink
In 1783, a young Swiss watchmaker and keen amateur
scientist, Jacob X, became the first person to perfect an
economical process for making carbonated mineral water.
He founded X in Geneva the same year. They launched
fizzy lemonade in 1831, which led to other flavoured fizzy
drinks.
In 1969, it merged with Cadbury. It also owns the Dr.
Pepper Brand and Snapple.

97. Schweppes

98. 3. Name both
Pictured here, is the
founder of X industries.
The name X is an
anagram of Y industries
founded by Howard Y.

99. X - Trask, Y - Stark
From the upcoming X-Men, Days of the Future
Past

100. 4 .Similar to the dividends that Tuvalu gets
from its name for .tv...
Micronesia’s Top Level Domain is getting
popular for audio streaming websites like Ping,
FastMail, Smart, Tastebuds, Turntable, Ask
and Last
What is their TLD?

101. .fm, from Federated States of
Micronesia

102. 5. ID her.
X is an Indian fashion designer who sells
designer merchandise using her own name as
the label. She has been the youngest designer
to unveil at the India Fashion Week.
She is the love-child of Vivian Richards and tv-
actress, Neena Gupta.

103. Masaba

104. 6. Which famous family?
The Ittefaq Group of Industries, is a multimillion dollar
integrated steel producer with major operations in Punjab
Province of Pakistan.
Muhammad X along with his six brothers, established a
foundry in 1939. In 1972, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
nationalized the steel industry, including the Ittefaq family
business empire — Ittefaq Group.
In 1980, General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq returned the
business after developing political links with the X.

105. Sharif
Father of Nawaz Sharif

106. 7. What ceremony am I talking about?
During the interim budget this year, the Finance
ministry organized the ritual ‘X’ ceremony.
It has been a tradition which has continued for
long. X is prepared in a big khadai and served
to support the people involved in making the
budget, who are away from their families for a
long time

107. Halwa Ceremony

108. 8. ID all three
X is an index made up of a selection of stocks from companies associated with
actress X. Seen as one of the world's most influential celebrities, some analysts
believe that companies connected with her will outperform their competition.
Y is a slang technical analysis term referring to a rounding bottom in a stock's
price pattern. This term got its name from Y’s curvy figure; she is often criticized
(or praised) for her round bottom.
Z is a stock index comprised of companies associated with the socialite Z.
Some investors conceive her influence on the consumer spending habits of her
fans is material enough to give these companies a competitive advantage.

109. X - Angeline Jolie, Y - Jennifer Lopez, Z -
Paris Hilton