Here is another set of questions on global business compiled by our Guest Quizmaster G.Sreekanth

Q 1. Which company’s 1998 business blunder of not having advertising on its search engine Infoseek (then one of the largest behind Yahoo!) is what is now considered a whopping $200 billion mistake?

Ans. Disney. Google came around and did AdWords and Infoseek missed the plot. The story goes that Michael Eisner was convinced by a McKinsey consultant in a men’s bathroom that Infoseek shouldn’t do advertised search.

Q2. Who is this Pakistan born entrepreneur who started a company Flex-N-Gate (manufactures products and systems for the automotive industry) in 1968?

Ans.  Shahid Khan

Q3. In the movies Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, Morgan Freeman playsthe role of a detective named Alex Cross.Both movies were adapted from Alex Cross novels by James Patterson who later launched his own publishing imprint, JIMMY. James Patterson is the former CEO of which advertising giant?

Ans.  J Walter Thomson (JWT)

Q4. Which businessman, philanthropist, and politician was fired from Salomon Brothers in 1981 in part because no one at the firm thought much of his idea for computerising financial data and presenting it in real time?

Ans. Michael Bloomberg

Q5. Which entrepreneur hails from a small mining town in Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan and practices Shin Zen Bi, which translates to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty?

Ans. Tadashi Yanai, founder of Uniqlo

Q6. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once met the man next to him in the visual and told him, “What I’m trying to do politically and intellectually, you’re doing with your music.” Who is this genre creator and entrepreneur?

Ans. Berry Gordy, founder, Motown Records. The name Motown, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned record label that achieved significant crossover success.

Q7. Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard (world’s largest mutual fund company) and index funds pioneer did some work on the subject in his senior thesis at Princeton University in 1951. But which Nobel Laureate’s article that in essence said, “Somebody, somewhere, please start an index fund”, inspire him to start Vanguard?

Ans.  Paul Samuelson

Q8. Paul McCartney of The Beatles was once talking to a famous person when the latter asked Paul for some career advice. Paul gave him three suggestions: to get a really good manager, getting into making videos, and finally owning one’s work and getting into song publishing. The famous person immediately told Paul McCartney, “Oh, I’m going to get yours!”. Paul kind of laughed; he didn’t think he was serious. But he was. Who was McCartney speaking to and what resulted?

Ans. Michael Jackson, who through ATV Music owned the publishing rights to most of The Beatles’ songs.

Q9. The company’s logo was created in 1984, by Josée Bélanger, and is based on a tarot card representing the sun. The sun as a symbol is important because it embodies youth, energy and dynamism. The logo has evolved slightly, since 1984, while retaining its symbolism and image from the tarot cards. Which company, that was named by its founder while he was watching a sunset in Hawaii?

Ans. Cirque du Soleil

Q10. What two words would connect the following: Nike, Pabst beer, the world’s largest hospitality education institution, a dish of meat wrapped around cheese (or with cheese filling), and a brand of chocolate biscuits made by Nestlé?

Ans.  Blue Ribbon. Nike was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. Blue Ribbon Intermediate Holdings is the owner of Pabst Brewing Company. Le Cordon Bleu is an international group of hospitality management and cooking schools teaching French cuisine and Cordon Bleu translates to Blue Ribbon. Cordon bleu is also the name of a dish of meat wrapped around cheese. Blue Riband is a brand of chocolate biscuits made by Nestlé whose name means Blue Ribbon. The word ribbon comes from Middle English ribban or riban from Old French ruban, which is probably of Germanic origin.

Q11. Shown here is a visual from the 2013 music video for Beyonce’s song Haunted. Identify the Canadian model and dietitian on the left who was also a finalist in the 1969 Miss South Africa beauty pageant?

Ans. Maye Musk, mother of Elon Musk.

Q 12. How do we know this company today?

Ans. Target. Founded by George Dayton, the company was originally named Goodfellow Dry Goods in June 1902 before being renamed the Dayton’s Dry Goods Company in 1903 and later the Dayton Company in 1910.

Q 13. In the 1870s, Imperial Russia abolished the state monopoly on oil and opened the oil-rich Caucasus to private enterprise. Several companies established rival refineries, the most prominent of which was run by Ludwig and Robert _______. What was their famous surname?

Ans. Nobel. They were Alfred Nobel’s brothers and dominated the Russian oil industry.

Q 14. The Five Frankfurters is a 1922 German silent historical film directed by Erich Schönfelder. It was based on a play of the same title about the rise of which now famous business family that started out living in poverty in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1700s?

Ans.  Rothschild

Q 15. Identify this luxury brand from its original logo?

Ans. Swarovski – the original logo was an edelweiss flower

• Compiled by Guest Quiz Master G.Sreekanth – G.Sreekanth is a National level Business Quiz Champion. He works and lives in Singapore