| Quiz
|
National Champions
School of Communication and Management Studies, Cochin: Deepak
Chandran, Soumit Deb
1st Runner Up
XLRI, Jamshedpur: Naveen Ahmed, Ganesh Raman
2nd Runner Up
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research: Smitha S., Dharmendra
Singh
3rd Runner Up FMS, Delhi: Rohan
Gopal Khanna, Devesh M Das |
The Buzz-Beeps
The quiz contest was no less a cracker, with quiz-master Joy Bhattacharya
(of ESPN Super Selector fame) looking in need of a ringmaster's
whip. In the ring: the West zone's SP Jain Institute of Management
and Research, Mumbai, the East's XLRI-Jamshedpur, the South's School
of Communication & Management (SCM), Cochin, and the local favourites,
Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi.
It was roars, wails and laughter all the way, some credit for which
must surely go to Rajiv Rai and Anustup Datta of Quizician, who
set the questions. The very first one, in fact, on the leveraging
of female assets by Sara Lee's division Bali Co (yes, Wonderbra),
got the hall nice and attentive.
The participants proved themselves remarkably well-informed, though
there were some tough nuts which even they couldn't crack. Thrown
open to the hall's audience, the correct answer was found more often
than not, winning these pop-up trivia-heads such prizes as Ray-Ban
shades and Titan watches. There were some greying crowns in the
audience, though the most vocal group was certainly the local mob
from FMS, which cornered most of the audience prizes.
Q.
Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation,
popularly called EBITDA, is a common measure used by financial
analysts to gauge the underlying health of a business. However,
after the recent spate of accounting scandals, the acronym has
been re-expanded to... what?
A. Earnings Before I Trick the Dumb Accountant |
The quiz rounds had suitably interesting titles.
There was Management in Action, TCS Tech Bytes and Money Talks.
Speaking of which, if EBITDA used to stand for Earnings Before Interest,
Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation, what do you suppose it has changed
to? Answer: Earnings Before I Trick the Dumb Accountant.
As if to provide proof of the contest's competitive intensity, each
quiz round threw up a new leader. The finish, surely, would leave
the participants (and supporters in the audience) with some serious
fingernail indigestion. And so it was. As the last round began,
there was only a gap of a few points between topper XLRI and the
rest. School of Communication and Management's Chandra and Deb,
last on the chart, were to be seen getting off their seats, presumably
to get better buzzer-access, standing. Or else, a plain case of
nerves. Or maybe the determination of underdogs. Whatever it was,
the audience watched agape as the boys from Cochin first closed
the lag and then stole ahead -- right at the very end -- to win
the quiz.
 |
| There's something for one and all: A
member of FMS fraternity accepts a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses
as an audience prize from quizmaster Joy Bhattacharya |
"The best thing about Acumen is that people,
who are more familiar with the IIMS and FMS, get to know about us
in SCM as well," said team-member Deepak Chandran, jubilant in victory.
Celebration plans? "We don't know yet," said his equally overwhelmed
partner Soumit Deb, "but we'll wait for things to sink in first."
It's heady stuff, being declared the sharpest of them all.
COMPILED BY SEEMA SHUKLA, T.R. VIVEK, SUBHAJIT
BANERJEE, AND ANKUR SABHARWAL
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