Biz Bytes

Part 2

1

• The Breguet No. 160 grand complication, is a case watch designed by Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet. Work on the watch was begun in 1782 and completed in 1827.

• The watch was commissioned in 1783 for an extravagant and aptly, a complicated customer from a neighboring country. The watch was to contain every watch function known at that time, including the following: Clock ,Perpetual calendar ,Minute repeater ,Thermometer ,Chronograph ,Power reserve and Pare-Chute.

• The customer never lived to see the watch, as she was caught up with bigger issues in 1793. Who was this distinguished patron, after whom the watch itself was named?

Answer

• Marie Antoinette

2

• A renowned Czech architect by the name of Jan Letzel won the contract for building the administrative building of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1915. It also acted as space for industrial and product exhibits by 1933.

• It gained further notoriety a few years later, even gaining a UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1996 and thus remains his best known work till date.

• By what name do we know it today?

Answer

• Hiroshima Peace Memorial/ Atomic Bomb Dome

3• What are these?

Answer

• Various hand signals used in Bombay stock Exchanging during trading hours amidst the noise. (1946)

• They are no longer in use now.

4

• Why did this group’s joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation attract media attention and cause controversy with The Economist labeling it as "a refreshing ignorance of politically incorrect language“?

Answer

• The JV was called Nigaz, a portmanteau of "Nigeria" and "Gazprom", attracted media attention because of its similarity to the potentially offensive word "nigga" and slang derivative "niggaz" in African American Vernacular English

5

• At the end of its regime, the Vijayanagara Empire was disintegrated into small parts administered by local governors.

• One such governor, Damarla Venkatadri Nayakudu was in charge of a region called Chandragiri, which is still in existence today at a distance of 12 kms from the temple town of Tirupati. He is known to have lent a helping hand that was to signal the doom of the Mughal empire subsequently.

• What did he do and how is this significant in the historical context of Indian business?

Answer

• On August 22, 1639, Francis Day and Andrew Cogan secured a grant from the Nayak thus obtaining the East India Company, a three-mile long strip of land, a fishing village for a period of 2 years, which empowered them to build a fort and castle on an approximate 5 sq. km sand strip.

• Around this were laid the modern day foundations of Madras, the commercial point of trade for the English to commence business operations with the east.

6

• April 5 marks the National Maritime Day of India. On this day in 1919 navigation history was made when SS Loyalty, the first ship of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., journeyed to the United Kingdom.

• This was a crucial step for Indian shipping history as sea routes were controlled by the British.

• Who jointly founded it with Narottam Morarjee and what did it eventually turn out to become?

Answer

• Walchand Hirachand and Hindustan Shipyard Limited

7

• These concept designs were released on the internet in 2007 purely as collectibles inspired by a case study published by a professor of economics in Vancouver a few years before.

• The idea generated by this paper has garnered support and criticism alike from various sides. Certain positive points show that it would save up to $3 billion in currency transactions while promoting greater integration between the USA, Canada and Mexico. The flipside includes decrease of dominance by the US, differing economies and political mandates.

• What economic proposal is being described here?

Answer

• The introduction of “The Amero”, a theoretical economic and monetary union of three North American countries: Canada, the United States and Mexico.

• The concept is modeled on the common European Union currency (the euro), and it is argued to be a natural extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

8

• In 1876, Samuel Thrall Cooper founded S.T. Cooper & Sons. Samuel Cooper started his hosiery business in St. Joseph, Michigan to help lumberjacks who were suffering from their poor quality socks thus laying the foundation for “Satisfying the Human Need for Comfort.”

• Cooper’s most sought after item was invented in 1930 and called the Y-Front, which can still be seen in their product lines today. How do we better know this company?

Answer

9

• During the 1960s Boeing 707 aircrafts were acquired by Air India as they saw the tourism potential of the country from Europe and America.

• What key change was made during those years by the management to give a more “Indian” feel to their services?

Answer

• The official dress code of the Air Hostesses switched over from the classic European style to the quintessential Indian sari.

10

• Connect

Answer

• Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Salmon P. Chase and John Marshall - persons who were not presidents but managed to get their faces on US dollar bills.

11

• This company’s journal from 1942 narrates a certain story from its WW I origins.– “…an engineer was testing the company’s first 320 bhp engine. He

admired the reflection of the shining disc of the rotating propeller that radiated like an aura of two silver cones. In between the two cones, the blue from the sky shined that made the ‘rotating propeller into four areas of color – silver and blue.”

• This was accompanied by some advertisements made by the company to just to give a logical explanation to the public about something that was actually inspired from a regional state flag. What are we talking about?

Answer

• How the BMW logo was created.

12

• She will be making a come back to her native country during the inaugural Indian F1 Grand Prix. Who is she and what’s her claim to fame?

Answer

• Dehra Dun-born Monisha Narang (now Monisha Kaltenborn) became the first woman boss of an F1 team when she took charge of the Swiss-based Sauber.