Brand Quest      (February 12, 2004)

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I.

1. This airliner, which now employs 1,800 people, said the following about its debut in 1985: "We started with a 15-seater turbo prop going from the South-East of Ireland (Waterford) to London-Gatwick. Today, the plane wouldn't be big enough to carry the management team around." The very next year, "inspired by the story of David and Goliath, we got after the big guys for a slice of the action." Can you name the company?
   
   
   

2. Shares in companies that are highly regarded for their financial performance are termed as 'blue chips.' But what are red-chip shares?
   
   
   

3. Bofors, the Swedish defence systems company that has been very much in the news, belongs to the Washington- based United Defense. Now, which privately owned investment company owns United Defense?
   
   
   

4. He worked at the Indian Space Research Organisation for over 20 years. Later he worked as the Managing Director of Discovery Networks in India for six years, during which he helped launch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in South Asia. Can you name this person, who is now the face of a high-profile industry?
   
   
   

5. Some trivia now. In 1773, four ships of the British East India Company carried its tea to Boston. In what is now famous as the Boston Tea Party, some Bostonians, angered at British attempts to extend its monopoly on tea, dumped the tea from three ships — Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver — into the harbour. What about the fourth ship? It didn't make it to Boston, having got wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod. What was the name of the fourth ship?
   
   
   

6. "If the 1980s were about quality and the 1990s were about re-engineering, then the 2000s will be about velocity. About how quickly the nature of business will change." Extract from which book?
   
   
   

7. Included among this company's critics, who say it's destroying small-town America, is Playboy. In one of its recent issues, the magazine referred to the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, as "the epicentre of retailing's evil empir e." Which organisation was it referring to?