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FORMAT

Round 1 – 8 questions Written
Round 2 – 32 questions on Infinite Pounce
Round 3 – 8 questions on Infinite Pounce + Theme

BUSINESS BUILDING
Written round
Differential scoring
+15 if 1or 2 teams get it right
+10 if 3-5 teams get it right
+5 if 6-8 teams get it right

In this episode of The Simpsons , the denizens of Springfield write to
renowned architect Frank Gehry asking him to design a new concert
hall in their city. Which real-life building does this parody?

1

This iconic building, one that appears frequently in popular culture,
served as the headquarters of which global corporation from 1930
to the 1950s?

2

This 23-storey landmark on Mumbai’s Marine Drive was built in
1974 as the corporate headquarters of the entity after which it was
named. It was the first building in India to have an escalator, and
was one of the targets of the 1993 Bombay bombings. In February
2013 its main occupant completed a phased withdrawal from the
building after it had been decided to move their headquarters to
New Delhi, although its Chairman’s office and its iconic logo haven’t
been removed yet. Which building?

3

Completed in 2011 and called the ‘Laces’ building, this structure
was based on the concept of connecting bridges at various levels
acting like laces and tying the different work-spaces together. This is
the global R&D centre of which company?

4

The Fox Plaza in Los Angeles is the official headquarters of Twentieth
Century Fox and has featured in several movies including Speed,
Airheads & Fight Club. Its most well-known role, however, was as the
headquarters of which fictional company in a1988 film?

5

In the news nowadays in India because TCS is now its title sponsor,
the Amsterdam Marathon was earlier called the ING Amsterdam
Marathon. To commemorate the event in 2011, what did the
company do to their headquarters, in a nod to a nickname that its
building is known by?

6

ING House in Amsterdam is also known by another nickname
because of its supposed resemblance to the classic design of a
household device first produced in 1979 by Black & Decker that has
now become a genericized trademark. Which one?

7

If & when this project is realized, this tower will become the highest
building in Europe. It is slated to be the headquarters of which
company, and takes design inspiration from a prominent feature of
its logo?

8

The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles

1

Shoelaces. The building is called ‘the shoe’.

6

Infinite Pounce
+10 for a correct answer
+10/-5 for a wrong answer
20 questions clockwise, 12 questions anti-clockwise

Cheap
Chinese
Imports

Origins

Fast
Food

Games
People
Play

Off-beat
Professions

Travel

Urban
Legends

Newspapers

Agriculture

Crime &
Punishment

Marketing

Food

Book
Profits

Connect
-ing
People

Newsmakers

Places

Inspiration

Snake
Oil
Salesmen

Blast
From
The Past

Music

Jargonaut

Fashion

Luxury

Brand
Names

History

Board
Mamata Room To
-land
Court
Room

Investing

Brand
Names
II

Sweet
Teeth

Sweet
Teeth II

Pharma

The company identified by this logo started in 1931 as the Huafu Y
Factory, before renaming itself to the Shanghai X Y Company in
1966. It’s products are ubiquitous in China, as they once were in
India, and for many of us our first introduction to a certain type of
product was a X Y. Give X Y.

Cheap Chinese Imports

In 1986, realizing that customers looked at McDonald’s as more of
a daytime restaurant, the chain launched a campaign to woo more
customers to their restaurants in the night. The campaign, which
lasted until the late 1990s, consisted of a series of ads featuring a
mascot singing words set to a popular song. What was the name of
the mascot, which was a play on the original title of the song?

Fast Food

Mac Tonight. The song was, of course, Mack the Knife.

Fast Food

This Japanese video game company, in the news recently for its
acquisition of the Finnish gaming company Supercell, gets its name
from the Anglicized pronunciation of a shortening of “gongye
hezuoshe”, the slogan of the Chinese Industrial Corporations that
means “work together”. Name it.

Games People Play

He has been publishing books since 1992, but he broke out of the
mold in 2001 with God’s Debris , a novella that conjectured that
God blew himself up in the Big Bang and all matter is in fact God’s
debris. His 2004 sequel to this book was called The Religion War .
This is his latest book. Name the author.

Book Profits

The man on the left is an American author. The woman on the right
is an Indian author. Who and what connects them?

Connecting People

Steve Jobs, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Connecting People

Carmen Miranda’s character in the film served as inspiration for Miss
Chiquita, who was created by Dik Browne, better know as the
creator of Hagar the Horrible.

Inspiration

Deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen, is expected to play a key
role in the generation of clean energy as and when cold nuclear
fusion becomes a reality. The waters at the bottom of the Philippine
Trench in the Philippine Sea are said to contain abnormally high
levels of deuterium. Having acquired the exclusive right to extract
water from the trench, who is currently seeking billions of dollars of
investment into a venture to extract deuterium from the sea, a
venture that is claimed could eventually yield 829 billion dollars’
worth of deuterium?

Snake Oil Salesmen

Imelda Marcos

Snake Oil Salesmen

This river in Milan gets its name from a Greek word that means
“light, quick and nimble”. A steel-tubing business that stood on its
banks was bombed in the Second World War, and after the war its
founder decided to change his line of business. He launched a
brand that he named after the river, since he wanted his new product
to have the same attributes as the name stood for. Which nowdefunct brand once hugely popular in India and whose trademarks
are in fact still owned by an Indian company?

Blast From The Past

Lambretta

Blast From The Past

This piece from Puck magazine in 1881 is the first known instance of
the use of what?

Origins

Based on the principle of the Colour Wheel, this tool was created in
1974 by Ann C. Noble, then a professor at the University of
California. What kind of professional would use it?

Off-beat Professions

A sommelier, or wine-taster.

Off-beat Professions

Last Sunday, the second-longest non-stop commercial flight took off
for the last time from Los Angeles. The longest non-stop commercial
flight, operated by the same airline, will take off for the last time on
November 23 rd from Newark, flying for 18-20 hours (depending on
weather conditions) and traversing 9,500 miles via the North Pole.
Both these flights connect with which city?

Travel

This illustration parodies which recent event?

Newsmakers

Micromax signing Hugh Jackman as their brand ambassador.

Newsmakers

The hamlet of ____________ in the town of Harrison in New York
gets its name from a popular legend that says that in 1695, an
Indian chief named Pathungo sold John Harrison, after whom the
town is named, as much land as he could cover in a day on
horseback. Rather fittingly, the global headquarters of MasterCard
are located here. Fill in the blank.

Places

Although he recorded his last studio album in 2001 and last
produced an album in 2011, for Slim the Mobster, he topped Forbes
Magazines 2012 list for the highest-earning musicians with an
income of $110 million, owing primarily to the $100 million he
picked from the sale of a 51% stake in his company Beats Electronics
to Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC. Who?

Music

This term originated in the early 19 th century, and referred to a
method of crossing a fence that was impossible and hence came to
mean an absurdly impossible action. Douglas Engelbart, better
known as the inventor of the computer mouse, used the term in the
name of a research institute he founded in 1970, but his usage of
the term was in reference to the process used by lumberjacks to hoist
themselves up trees, and this is the context in which it is widely used
today, that is, to refer to a process that is self-sustaining and doesn’t
need external help. What term?

Jargonaut

This is a recent picture of a famous fashion designer, taken on the
occasion of her receiving an OBE. What was her favourite car?

Fashion

1. It is silver, just like the two planes used in the event.
2. Its disc wheels look similar to that of the two planes.
3. Seven gold rings are to be found on it, the same markings that
were allegedly on X and Y.
4. Its name is a combination of X and Y.
These are the primary reasons behind what persistent urban legend?

Urban Legends

That Harley-Davidson’s Fat Boy is a dedication to the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Urban Legends

Produced in the tabloid format and having a circulation of about
27,000, this Japanese weekly usually contains inspirational pieces,
puzzles, accounts of fishing trips by its bosses, satirical haikus and
tips on how to play traditional board games such as Go and Shogi.
It is perhaps the only one of its kind in the world. Who are its
readers?

Newspapers

The yakuza. This is the in-house newsletter of the Yamaguchi-gumi,
Japan’s biggest crime syndicate.

Newspapers

Before kicking off the week-long deal, for which a Delhi X wholesaler
was brought on board to supply the company 22,500 kg X, “we
packed the X in air-tight Y packaging and kept them in a very damp
room for five days to ensure quality was maintained,” says Chief
Marketing Officer Sachin Kapur. Nine courier companies were roped
in to deliver the X across 78 cities within three days of the bid. Thirty
per cent of the X were devoured by Delhi!
This is the Business Line described a recent innovative marketing
ploy. What are X and Y?

Marketing

It’s recent sale, for an estimated $200 million, to Swedish private
equity group EQT VI was completely overshadowed by the sale of its
larger sister company. It has already released its first model after the
change of ownership, the Constellation, which will soon be available
in India at the modest price of 6.5 lakh rupees. Its products have in
the past been dismissed as “tasteless trash” and “technologically
modest”. Which luxury brand?

Luxury

Its founders were both Polish Jews who wanted to pay tribute to
Denmark’s exemplary treatment of its Jews during the Second World
War. The name however, is not Danish, but a nonsensical name that
the founders, who had no knowledge of Danish, came up with that
“sounded Danish”. Early packaging for the brand carried a label
with the outline map of Denmark on it. Which brand?

Brand Names

Inaugurated in March 2013, this is the Indian Business Museum, the
first of its kind in India. Where specifically would you find it?

History

This small town in Hooghly district gets its name from a factory that
was set up there in 1948 to manufacture products under a joint
venture between an Indian and an American company. Name the
town.

Mamataland

This is the website of the leading audience measurement
organization in Canada, started in 1944 as a division of the
Canadian Association of Broadcasters. It has since then owned the
rights to a name that led it to file a trademark violation suit against a
larger, more well-known company to cease using the name or to
finance the cost of their rebranding. The suit was dismissed in 2012.
Name it.

Board Room To Court Room

It is a saline-tolerant variety of rice unique to Kerala, and earlier this
year formally received a GI tag. Once covering more than 5000
hectares in Alappuzha, Thissur and Ernakulam, its usage has
dwindled of late, which has led to the recently-formed ________
Samrakshana Samara Samiti coming up with an innovative way to
finance its revival. The organization has floated __________ Bonds
at a 1000 rupees each – investors can opt to either receive a return
in kind or cash. Fill in the blanks.

Agriculture

In January 1989, Kenneth Lamar X, a mentally ill customer, held up
a pizza outlet in Atlanta for over 5 hours. An ad campaign being run
by the pizza chain at that time featured an annoying character called
the X, and he thought they were a personal attack against him. After
forcing the employees to make a pizza for him, and unsuccessfully
demanding $100,000, a getaway car and a copy of The Widow’s
Son, he surrendered to the police. After the incident ended, Police
Chief Reed Miller offered a memorable assessment to reporters:
"He's ______X.“ What is X?

Crime & Punishment

Established in 2010, this take-out restaurant in Pittsburgh has a
Unique Selling Proposition. It only serves food from one nation at a
time, changing every six months; the changeover is celebrated with a
small festival and music from the new nation. Since its opening, the
cuisine of Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Cuba have been
featured. Name it, or what is its USP?

Food

It is an investment strategy used in a bear market, when prices of
stocks decline, and is said to derive its name from a 1953 Marilyn
Monroe film. However, since the term is sometimes attributed to
Andrew Mellon, who used it while he was the Secretary of the
Treasury from 1921 to 1932, it is more likely derived from the 1925
novel of the same name on which the movie was based. What term?

Investing

Gentlemen Prefer Bonds

Investing

Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, two students at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 1988 were about to launch their new venture
and were wondering what to call it. They were near broke, and their
food rations were down to white bread & X. Nels Johnson,
Christopher’s uncle, dropped by to see them one day saw them
eating an X sandwich, and said. “That’s what you should call it – The
X”. Which much-loved brand?

Brand Names II

Ice Breakers is a brand of candy first made by Nabisco and currently
owned by Hershey. Usually packaged in a metal tin, in 2007
Hershey introduced a variant called Ice Breakers Pacs which was
packaged in individual plastic sachets in a plastic container, but had
to withdraw it less than a year later following a public outrage
against the brand. Why?

Sweet Teeth

The individuals sachets in the box were remarkably similar to the
packaging many street drugs were sold in.

Sweet Teeth

___________ Organic Chocolate is a brand of premium organic
chocolate founded in 2001 by Frederick Schilling. Often listed
among the world’s best chocolate, it gets its name from the
Sinhalese corruption of dhatu-garbha, the Sanskrit word for stupa.
The brand enjoys much popularity among Star Wars fans, since it
shares its name with a fictional planet in that movie series, albeit
spelt slightly differently. Name the brand.

Sweet Teeth II – The Empire Strikes Back

Sweet Teeth II – The Empire Strikes Back

Ever since its introduction in 1931, Alka-Seltzer has dominated the
US market for effervescent antacid pick-me-ups. In the 50’s and
60’s, although they enjoyed a virtual monopoly, sales were flat, since
they had already saturated the market. What did they do, that
resulted in a sudden, sustained spurt in sales?

Pharma

They introduced their Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz campaign, which subtly
suggested to people that the normal dosage was two tablets. Until
then everybody took one, which was all that was needed.

Pharma

THEME PARK
8 questions anti-clockwise on Infinite Pounce
+10 for every correct answer
+10/-5 on the pounce
Non-ordered, non-exhaustive theme
+30 to the first team that gets the theme correct
+25, +20, +15 and +10 to the 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th & 5 th
team to get the theme. +5 after that.
-5 for every wrong attempt. Only 1 attempt per team
per question.

Recently, the uniform worn by the employees of this company has
come in for criticism after a Member of Parliament Ikmal Hisham
Abdul Aziz made a parliamentary request stating that the uniforms
"did not reflect the national identity“, following which the country’s
transport ministry has asked it to "reassess the uniforms to better
reflect the our culture“. Perhaps the most famous wearer of this
uniform, however, wore it for a single day in May 2013 as a result of
a lost bet. Which company?

1

This is the first issue of a publication that is now owned by CBS. In
an episode of Friends , it is revealed that Chandler and Joey ’s copy
of this magazine is addressed to “Miss Chanandler Bong”. Which
publication?

2

Which well-known entity is missing here?

3

X was founded in 1982 by Sun Myung Moon, who also founded the
Unification Church, and intended to replace another daily, which
had served as the “second newspaper” of the city for over a 100
years. Moon was a political conservative, and considered it his duty
to counter his city rivals Y, whose supposed left-liberal bias had led it
to being nicknamed “Pravda on the Potomac” during the height of
the Cold War . Although it today does function as the city ’s second
newspaper, X’s circulation has always been a fraction of that of its
more famous rival. Identify X.

4

The man standing third from left was the son of the founder of this
eponymous motorcycle manufacturer, although his name is more
well-known for its association with aviation. Best known for the
Brutale series of Café Racers, it dominated motorcycle racing right
through the 50’s to the 80’s, before falling away as its parent
company went through financial difficulties. Name it.

5

This building, which is today the Oxford County Court, was built in
1932 and served as the premises of a dealership run by William
__________, the 1 st Viscount of Nuffield. The name of this
establishment went on to become the name of the company
established by the Viscount, which in turn is well-known as the first
part of which company that lasted from 2000-2005, and will go
down in history as the last company of fully British ownership to
manufacture a certain kind of product?

6

This 1999 film depicts the goings-on at which business
establishment?

7

First and last issues of which magazine?

8

All have at one point been sold through “peppercorn transactions”,
i.e., for a token payment of 1dollar, 1 pound etc.

Theme

THAT’S IT!
Thank you!
Feedback welcome:
Email: rajivdsilva@gmail.com
Twitter: @rajivdsilva

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