Quizzing the professionals

Giri Balasubramanium has a hard time controlling the energetic audience, dying to give out the answers, if the six teams of the Tata-track are unable to. The enthusiasm and sharpness of young professionals at the Tata-Crucible, The Business Quiz-2005 is buzzing.

In its second year, the corporate quiz has been made an annual event. With two parallel tracks "" the Tata-track for employees of the Tata Group's various companies pitted against each other, and the non-Tata-track "" competitiveness is at its peak. Giri aka Pickbrain, the quizmaster, feels that "the whole genius of the quiz is that it is broad-based, not skewed to a particular sector".

With most rounds of the quiz being highly interactive with audio/visual teasers, the technology made the usually mundane business quizzing fun. "Successful quizzing is more about how you package it," feels Giri.

The format of each round being a buzzer round also removed grievances of teams when an answer known to one is posed to another. "It made the quiz exciting and totally fair," says a triumphant Chandrmouli from Nokia who won the Delhi finals with partner Rishi Raj.

The questions from an array of sectors made sure that participants with width and depth of knowledge had a better chance than specialists.

Also, along with mere factual answers, "rounds with the application of mind made it more enjoyable", says Rishi Raj who has "absolutely no complaints" about the cash prize of Rs 60,000 and an assortment of gift hampers. The avid quizzers will battle it out with seven other teams for the national finals on July 24, in Mumbai for the cash prize of Rs 2 lakh.

Giri has noticed an innovative trend during the quiz, which kicked off in Chennai and has schedules in Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkota, Jamshedpur, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai. "A lot of teams from the metros are choosing the smaller cities as a destination to participate, to face easier competition," he feels.

The Tata-track was on "general knowledge about the Tata Group". Rounds like Tata World, Business Intelligence and Tata Advertisements had the Tata employees racking their brains as the answers were in the domain of Tata "" but which company?

Anil Chauhan, who won the Delhi finals for the second consecutive year in the Tata-track, says, "This gives a lot of recognition in the company." His quiz partner, Siddarth Mishra from Tata Steel, feels that "loyalty to the company comes as a by-product with such events".

Interestingly, the quiz saw large participationfrom public sector companies apart from the usual IT, services and advertising companies. The rising trend of corporate quizzes has young professionals all hooting for them.

A stimulating break from office routine, it also gives avid school/college quizzers an option to keep quizzing in their professional lives. Rising awareness levels and the gamut of information taken in each day and the variety of topics kept the difficulty and playfulness barometers high.

As for the Tata Crucible, not only the teams but individuals of winning teams are quizzed against each other in each city final to judge the "quizzer of the day". Giri, meanwhile, is a busy man, shooting corporate questions and controlling crowds who answer out of turn.