Reckitt Benckiser wins BS Quiz for North

Big Synergy Media and IOC come second and third

Name the newspaper that started in March 1975 but did not publish an edition the day after its launch? The question asked by Gaurav Sri Krishna, quizmaster at the BS Quiz, was probably the only question to which more than a hundred quiz buffs had no answer to, including this journalist.

Business Standard, started operations on March, 26, 1975, but did not bring out its edition the next day on account of Holi —an answer none expected.

The quiz, conducted in the national capital on Saturday, witnessed a large turnout from the academia and the corporate alike with 43 B-schools in the region and 11 corporate teams participating. B-schools, including IIT-Delhi, IIM-Kashipur, IIT-Roorkee and FMS, were among the institutes that lined up while Google India, KPMG, Indian Oil and NTPC, too, had sent their participants.

Gautam Rajagopal and Tanmay Prusty, brand manager and market research expert at Reckitt Benckiser, were declared the winners of the Business Standard Quiz (northern region). Kunal Mandal and Bhaskar Jyoti Dey of Big Synergy Media were the first runners-up while K Suresh and Deepak Taneja from Indian Oil Corporation were the second runners-up.

While the winners were awarded a cash prize of Rs 25,000, the first and second runners-up received Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. Candidates for the competition were short-listed after written tests, which threw up 12 teams that participated in two semi-final rounds. Participants were largely tested on their knowledge on business strategy and brand identities, strategies and evolution of brands.

The final round had two teams from NTPC and one team each from ICAI, Reckitt Benckiser, Big Synergy Media and Indian Oil Corporation. Often the questions seemed difficult, but the answers were necessarily not. Sample this: Which multinational company was started by the nephews of Karl Marx? Many did not know that it was Philips.