1. Q Which management guru with a background in medicine wrote a book called
the "Mechanism of Mind"?
A Edward De Bono
Q Top Gear, launched recently by Worldwide Media Ltd., is a joint venture
between Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd. and which organization / company?
A BBC Worldwide (Since its inception in 1993, Top Gear is one of UK's leading
auto magazines)
Q Which famous publication devised the Big Mac Index?
A The Economist
Q Retail giant Wal-Mart is known for its worldwide strategy of EDLP. Expand
EDLP.
A Every Day Lower Prices
Q Which management guru became known for his pioneering research on
national and organisational cultures?
A Gert Hofstede
Q Which clothing brand was the first to introduce the concept of fashion store by
day and bar by night in India?
A Provogue
Q Which Indian company has a customer relationship programme called Passport
Programme?
A Hero Honda
Q Which company employees hundreds of thousands of American teenagers to
popularise a new launch?

2. A P&G
Q Which company organises a Challenge Bibendum car show?
A Michelin
Q Project Tejasvani is an initiative by which company to empower its women
employees?
A Tata Steel
Q Which tech (net) company organises a Codejam Competiton to find the best
programming talent?
A Google
Q Which billionaire is associated with the Open Society Institute which donates
large sums to various organisations the world?
A George Soros
Q Which new advertising methodology was used by Sony to promote its show
‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin’ at Mumbai in November 2003?
A 'Flash mob' where a few dozen people converged at Apna Bazar and chanted
‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin’.
Q In 2003, which brand had created an advertisement character called Terry Tate?
A Reebok
Q As the net gathered momentum, Jack Welch asserted that there should be a new
G.E. way. He named it dyb.com. What does it stand for?
A ‘destroy your business’ i.e. blow the damn thing up before the competition
does.

3. Q “Nuts – Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success” (by Keven and
Jackie Freiberg) is about which company ?
A Southwest Airlines
1. What psychological methodology does NLP
stand for? Neuro-Linguistic Programming
2. David McLelland's motivational theory
identified three principal motivational needs
which he said each of us possesses to varying
degrees, and which characterise our
motivational behaviour; what are these three
motivational needs? Achievement (n-ach), the
need to achieve things; Authority/Power (n-pow),
the need to have impact, influence and
authority; and Affiliation (n-affil), the need for
relationships, interaction and acceptance
among other people (or words to similar effect
as these definitions)
3. Which organisation produces the UK's
ABC1C2 (etc) Social Grade Classifications
Statistics? NRS Ltd (National Readership
Survey)
4. What does the selling acronym AIDA stand
for? Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
5. Who developed the 'Equity Theory' of job
motivation in the 1960's? J Stacey Adams
6. What does the financial abbreviation P&L
stand for? Profit and Loss (fully, Profit and
Loss Account)
7. Who developed the ten stages of corporate life
cycle, starting with Courtship and Infancy and
ending in Bureaucracy and Death? Dr Ichak
Adizes
8. The Ansoff matrix correlates what two aspects
of business development from the 'new' and
'existing' perspectives? Products and Markets
9. In selling and communications, what do 'open
questions' generally achieve? Open questions
gather information, improve understanding,
and build rapport by encouraging the other
person to talk and explain things, including
how they feel about things
10. Albert Mehrabian researched and published a
now widely referenced set of statistics for the
effectiveness of spoken communications
relating to feelings and attitudes; what three
types of communication did he identify and

4. what percentages for each did he attach to each
type in terms of the percentage of meaning (or
understanding) that each communication type
conveyed from person to person in his study?
Mehrabian's research stated that: in relation to
feelings and attitudes, 7% of meaning
conveyed is in the words that are spoken;
38% of meaning conveyed is in the way that
the words are said (paralinguistic); and
55% of meaning conveyed is in facial
expression - importantly these findings
relate to feelings and attitudes, and not to
communications of more simple and obvious
nature
11. In business accounts and financial reporting,
expenses which change according to scale of
performance or usage or demand are known as
what? Variable Costs
12. What is the name of Ingham and Luft's model
and theory which deals with hidden and open
areas of knowledge about a person? The
Johari Window
13. The '360 degree' appraisal method collects
feedback from whom, about whom? A '360
Degree' feedback appraisal collects the
views from people who work with the
appraisee, about the appraisee, including
subordinates, peers, upline managers;
effectively anyone who comes into contact
with the appraisee and who is happy to
provide constructive feedback about the
appraisee's strengths and areas for
improvement
14. What are the four levels of learning evaluation
defined in Donald Kirkpatrick's original four-stage
model? 1. Enjoyment; 2. Transfer of
learning; 3. Application of learning; 4.
Effect of application (or words to the same
effect as these four definitions)
15. What is the correct ascending order of these
human needs according to Maslow's Hierarchy
of Needs: Esteem, Safety, Belongingness and
Love, Self-Actualisation, Biological and
Physiological? Biological and Physiological
Needs (basic life needs - shelter, food, drink,
sleep, etc); Safety Needs (security,
protection, law, etc); Belongingness and
Love Needs (family, affection, relationships,
etc); Esteem Needs (achievement, status,
responsibility, reputation, etc); Self-

5. Actualisation (personal growth, self-fulfilment,
etc)
16. What part of our brains typically handles
process-type functions, according to brain
theorists such as Katherine Benziger? Left
Basal (left rear)
17. What does the accounting acronym FIFO
mean? First In First Out (a convention for
writing down the balance sheet value of assets
of the same type - oldest are written-off first)
18. One of the most effective and efficient forms
of marketing is abbreviated to the initials
WOM; what is it? Word Of Mouth
19. Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains
divides learning development into three main
aspects: Cognitive, Affective and
Psychomotor; what might these three aspects
of personal development more commonly be
called? Knowledge, Attitude, Skills
20. Who wrote the Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People? Dr Stephen Covey
21. The 'Big Five' personality dimensions, by
which modern day psychologists believe every
person's personality and behaviour tendencies
can be measured are commonly abbreviated to
the OCEAN acronym; what does OCEAN
stand for? Openness to experience,
Conscientiousness,
Extraversion/introversion, Agreeableness,
Neuroticism
22. What are the four metaphorical terms used to
describe products/services in Boston Matrix
model according to market share and market
maturity? Dog, Cash Cow, Problem Child
and Star (or Rising Star)
23. The financial ratio which divides a company's
'liquid assets' by 'current liabilities' is known
by what popular term? Acid Test (or 'Quick
Ratio')
24. What three important things should be
confirmed and understood before conducting a
brainstorming ideas session? The purpose or
aim of the exercise; a time limit; the fact
that all ideas are welcome and to be
respected (ie., sometimes the craziest-sounding
ideas are the best ones).
25. What does the SWOT stand for in SWOT
analysis? Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats

6. 26. What are the 'Four Functional Types' within
Carl Jung's theory? Thinking, Feeling,
Sensation, Intuition
27. With what was the Kyoto Summit concerned?
Global climate change (in other words,
greenhouse gas emissions)
28. What are the four sequential stages of the
'conscious competence' learning model? 1.
Unconscious Incompetence, 2. Conscious
Incompetence, 3. Conscious Competence, 4.
Unconscious Competence
29. What is the '1st Law of Cybernetics' (aka the
'Law of Requisite Variety')? "The unit within
the system with the most behavioural
responses available to it controls the
system." (or words to that effect)
30. What are the four main 'Temperament' types
called within David Keirsey's Temperaments
personality theory? Artisan, Idealist,
Guardian, Rational/Rationalist
31. According to the Tannenbaum and Schmidt
Continuum theory relating to leadership,
delegation and team development, what must
be reduced in order for the team's area of
freedom (and growth) to increase? The
manager's use of authority
32. What does the financial term ROI stand for?
Return On Investment
33. Whose experiential learning theory comprises
the learning styles named: Concrete
Experience (feeling); Abstract
Conceptualization (thinking); Active
Experimentation (doing); and Reflective
Observation (watching)? David Kolb
34. Daniel Goleman was responsible for
popularising and defining what management
and behavioural concept in his eponymously
titled (ie., the title is also the subject) 1995
book? Emotional Intelligence
35. What is psychometrics? The science of
measuring (or testing) human personality
type (or mental abilities)
36. What is the management technique that is
commonly and informally abbreviated to
MBWA? Management By Walking About
(or Wandering Around) - the term is generally
attributed to Tom Peters (In Search Of
Excellence, 1982) although it was probably
part of a new management ideology first

7. pioneered by a few bright American
companies as far back as the 1940's
37. Large size hand-writing generally indicates
what characteristics in the personality of the
writer? Extraverted or out-going nature
38. Since October 2004, UK employers must
follow a minimum process of three-stages for
handling disputes with employees, including
disciplinary and grievance matters; what are
the basic minimum three stages required? 1.
Write a letter to the employee explaining the
issue; 2. Have a meeting with the employee
to discuss the issue; 3. Hold or offer an
appeal meeting with the employee if
required.
39. Douglas McGregor defined two main styles of
management; what did he call them and how
are each of the two styles typified? X-Theory
(or Theory-X - is authoritarian, autocratic and
repressive) and Y-Theory (or Theory-Y -
participative, delegating, and developmental -
or words to similar effect as these two
descriptions)
40. Bruce Tuckman's theory about team
development uses what four sequential
rhyming words to describe the four stages of a
group's progression? Forming, Storming,
Norming, Performing
41. What are Howard Gardner's seven (original)
Multiple Intelligences? Linguistic (words and
language), Logical-Mathematical (logic and
numbers), Musical (music, sound, rhythm),
Bodily-Kinesthetic (body movement control),
Spatial-Visual (images and space),
Interpersonal (other people's feelings),
Intrapersonal (self-awareness)
42. According to Herzberg's motivational theory,
which of these are 'hygiene needs' (also called
'maintenance factors') and which are true
'motivators': work conditions, salary,
achievement, advancement, work itself,
responsibility, company car, status,
recognition, and personal growth? Of the
examples listed, hygiene needs are: work
conditions, salary, company car, status (true
motivators in the list are achievement,
recognition, work itself, responsibility,
advancement, and personal growth)
43. What does VAK stand for in the learning
styles theory? Visual, Auditory,

8. Kinesthetic/Kinaesthetic (three different
learning styles or methods - seeing, listening,
doing)
44. What does the business acronym IPO stand
for? Initial Public Offering (meaning the
initial sale of privately owned equity, i.e.,
stock or shares, in a company, via the issue of
shares to the public and other investing
institutions)
45. What does the PEST stand for in PEST
analysis? Political, Economical, Social,
Technological
46. What do 'open questions' typically begin with?
Open questions typically begin with Who,
What, How, When, Where, and Why, (or for
particularly capable or intelligent respondents,
'Tell me about...')
47. What visionary management thinker wrote The
Age Of Unreason and The Empty Raincoat?
Charles Handy
48. What are the names of the (nine) Belbin 'team
roles'? Coordinator (was called 'Chairman'),
Shaper, Plant, Monitor-Evaluator,
Implementer (was called 'Company
Worker'), Resource Investigator, Team
Worker, Completer-Finisher, Specialist
49. In marketing, what are the The Four P's?
Product, Price, Promotion, Place
50. A lot of the traditional 20th century sales
theory and training was influenced by the 1937
book 'How to Win Friends and Influence
People'; who wrote it? Dale Carnegie
How did you do? (Scores and grading have absolutely no scientific basis whatsoever - it's for
fun.)
0-10 - you've made an excellent start and you have some exciting and fascinating learning
ahead of you
11-20 - pretty good - you could run a small team or department and fair sized general store at
weekends
21-30 - very good - you could run a small company or a biggish department and do a bit of
part-time consultancy
31-40 - seriously impressive - you could run a biggish company or a small country and
perhaps both
41-45 - outstandingly brilliant - you are probably a professor of management at Harvard

9. 46-50 - unbelievable - you should be running the businessballs website
1. Which of these is a 'soft' skill? Analysing,
Monitoring, Budgeting, Counselling?
Counselling. ('Soft' skills typically involve
people and communications).
2. Integrity is essential in all functions, but is
it most crucial in supervision,
management, or leadership? Leadership.
(Leadership which lacks integrity can bring
down an entire corporation).
3. Staff performance appraisals work best if
they are strictly an annual event - true or
false? False. (A person's performance and
progress and project work, etc., benefit
enormously from more frequent appraisal
discussions than once a year. Informal
appraisals can be conducted as frequently
as is helpful. Obviously the more frequent,
the less formal, which is another benefit.)
4. Which tends to produce the highest
percentage gross profit: mature high-volume
products or new low-volume
specialised services? New low-volume
specialised services. (Mature markets tend
to be more competitive which compresses
pricing and margins. Mature products also
have to be priced competitively to enable
volume distribution, and to resist threats
from newer better solutions. High-volume
production requires competitive pricing in
order to the maintain volumes necessary
to support related large scale investment.
Additionally customers and buyers are
more informed and price-sensitive in
mature markets.)
5. For effective time management what's the
best frequency for checking your email
inbox: constantly, every hour, two or three
times a day? Two or three times a day.
(Constant interruptions and distractions
are extremely unhelpful for all proactive
work, especially thinking, communicating,
creating, planning, project managing, etc.
Many organisations have developed the
weird practice of continuous email
checking or alerting, but that doesn't
make it right. It's a question of managing

10. your environment rather than let it
manage you.)
6. It is said that "If you can't measure it then
you can't..." what? Manage it.
7. Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy
of what? Needs.
8. What does MBO or MBO's stand for?
Management By Objectives.
9. A subordinate has raised a personal issue
with you by email which is causing
him/her obvious distress - what's the best
means of communicating from this point:
email, phone, face-to-face, text, letter?
Face-to-face (in private). (It's extremely
difficult to understand people - and to be
understood - without face-to-face spoken
communications. This is because tone of
voice and body language, especially facial
expressions, carry more meaning than
words in all but obvious unemotional
communications.
10. Putting interviewees under a lot of
pressure at job interviews is generally
helpful to the process of finding out about
the person - true or false? False. (The
purpose of interviews is to discover as
much as possible about the person. When
people are under pressure they clam up
and/or mask their true characteristics.
Interviews are artificial and pressurising
enough without deliberately making them
any more so.)
11. Experiential learning is most beneficial to
people who have a visual, auditory, or
kinesthetic learning style preference?
Kinesthetic (Also spelled Kinaesthetic. A
person who prefers this style favours
'hands-on' learning. For effective teaching,
training, development, etc., using an
appropriate style of learning for the
learner is as important as the learning
content itself.)
12. Which is likely to motivate an enthusiastic
capable team member most: doubling
their target, agreeing additional
responsibility, a bonus payment, a new
car? Agreeing additional responsibility.
(None of the others actually changes

11. anything sustainably and purposefully in
terms of what the person does, which
crucially is linked to true achievement and
growth.)
13. What's a simple way to find out the causes
if staff turnover (number of people
leaving) has gone through the roof in the
last two months? Carry out exit interviews
with the people leaving and ask them.
(People are at their most revealing when
the ties have been cut. Added to which
you are not dealing with rumour or
opinions as might surface in staff surveys.
Instead, exit interviews deal in facts, and
enable very useful analysis if conducted
with a reasonable number of leavers.
Incidentally, staff turnover is normally
shown as a percentage arrived at by
dividing total leavers by total workforce.
As a very broad guide, anything over 20%
staff turnover in a year suggests serious
problems. Anything less than 10% per
year suggests stagnation.)
14. A company has a turnover of £11m. Its
'cost of sales' or 'cost of goods sold'
(COGS) is £6.3m. Its overheads including
fixed costs, depreciation (write-down of
capital items) and any interest charges (on
borrowings) are £3.5m. What is the
company's percentage gross profit and
percentage net profit before tax, and is
this profit % for a company very high,
very low or somewhat typical? 42.7% and
10.9%, and it's somewhat typical.
Explanation: Gross profit is Turnover less
COGS (£11m less £6.3m) = £4.7m.
Percentage Gross Profit (or 'gross margin')
is £Gross Profit divided by Turnover
(£4.7m ÷ £11m) = 42.7% . Net Profit
before tax is Gross Profit less Overheads
(£4.7m less £3.5m) = £1.2m. Percentage
Net Profit is £Net Profit divided by
£Turnover (£1.2m ÷ £11m) = 10.9%.
Anything around 10% is a typical sort of
net profit percentage achieved by
businesses and corporations, although this
perspective is just a simple hypothetical
'P&L' (profit and loss account) and takes

12. no account of balance sheet or cash
aspects, which together with the P&L
provide the three main measures of
business performance.
15. What acronym is useful when delegating a
task to someone or agreeing an objective?
SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Agreed/Achievable, Realistic/Relevant,
Timebound) - or extended to SMARTER
(Specific, Measurable, Agreed/Achievable,
Realistic/Relevant, Timebound,
Ethical/Enjoyable, Recorded. It is
important that 'agreed' is part of
delegation process.)
16. If you assume responsibility for a mature,
high-achieving confident team, which of
the following is generally the best
approach to take: stamp your authority on
the group; introduce some new ideas of
your own; give them space and make
yourself available if needed; or look for
ways to cut costs? Give them space and
make yourself available if needed. (A
mature, high-achieving confident team can
virtually run itself - which is every team-manager's
aim. Why go backwards? If you
start micro-managing or interfering you
will waste your time that you could have
otherwise used on strategic creative
developments and opportunities, and you
will upset the team members. Your priority
is to understand the team so as to help
them develop, ideally including the
development of a successor for yourself.
This will enable you to move on to your
next opportunity.)
17. What's the relevance of hobbies on a
person's CV? A person's hobbies often
indicate their strengths, potential and
character, aside from and beyond what
might be suggested by their work
experience and qualifications. A person's
hobbies also give you the chance to get
them talking about things they feel
passionate about, by which you can often
discover more about someone than
discussing their work or qualifications.

13. 18. What can 'closed' questions be used for?
Getting yes/no answers; getting
commitment (or 'closing' in selling);
clarifying, qualifying and filtering. Ask a
closed question if you need a short quick
answer. If you want information and to
listen and learn then ask 'open' questions
(who, how, what, where, etc).
19. When planning the running order for a
meeting is it generally best to put the big
important items first or last or in the
middle between smaller things? Big
important agenda items should always go
last - if you put them first you risk not
having time left for all the small things,
which could otherwise have been polished
off quite quickly and easily, especially
because people will be keen to get to the
juicier items afterwards. Also people tend
to do more posturing early in meetings -
to 'have their say' even if they have
nothing to say - which causes more
problems for the big issues than the small
ones. Later on in meetings, the dynamics
and the emotions will typically have
settled down a bit, which makes it easier
to deal with the bigger issues. If there are
other factors (guests with limited time
availability for example) you'll need to
schedule accordingly, but generally it's
best to cover the small things first. Ensure
you leave adequate time for the big items
later, which means strictly managing the
time used for the early small things.
20. When conducting appraisals or counselling
sessions it's best to sit at your desk with
the other person facing you on the other
side, so as to reinforce your authority -
true or false? False. (Similar to job
interviews - you want the other person to
be relaxed and comfortable, not
threatened. Desks create barriers; so sit
around a low coffee table instead. Sitting
directly opposite facing each other is a
confrontational arrangement; it's best to
sit at an angle of between 90-120
degrees; or think of 12:15 or 12:20 on the
clockface. Using any method to reinforce

14. or impose authority will increase emotions,
which undermines the value of the
communications.)