Business Logic & Strategy
Your company sells 100 products at $10 each. A manager proposes cutting the price to $8, claiming revenue will increase. How many products must you sell to match your original revenue?
125 products. $1,000 ÷ $8 = 125.
Which entrepreneur is widely associated with founding Microsoft alongside Paul Allen?
Bill Gates.
What does IPO stand for—the three letters that can make a startup founder very excited?
Initial Public Offering.
If you throw a blue stone into the Red Sea, what does the stone become?
Wet. The color of the sea doesn't change the stone's fate.
What is the name of the wizarding school Harry Potter attends?
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Your competitor cuts prices by 20%. Your boss immediately wants to do the same. What is the most important question to ask before following them?
Would matching the price cut make business sense? Compare costs, margins, customer demand, positioning, and the competitor's strategy.
Which famous scientist developed the theory of relativity and is associated with E = mc²?
Albert Einstein.
A shop buys a mug for $8 and sells it for $12. Ignoring other costs, what is its gross profit per mug?
$4.
A rooster lays an egg on the roof of a house. Which side does the egg roll down?
Neither. Roosters don't lay eggs!
What is a sentence containing every letter of the alphabet at least once called?
A pangram. 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is a famous example.
A marketing campaign generates 1,000 leads. Ten percent become customers, and each customer generates $200 in revenue. What is the total revenue generated?
$20,000. 1,000 × 10% = 100 customers; 100 × $200 = $20,000.
Which businesswoman founded Spanx and became known for building the company without initially relying on traditional outside investment?
Sara Blakely.
A company doubles its sales but makes less profit than before. Name one possible reason why.
Costs may have risen faster than revenue, such as discounts, advertising, shipping, or production costs.
You have 10 fish in a tank. Two drown, three swim away, and four disappear. How many fish are left in the tank?
10 fish, assuming the tank contains them all. Fish don't drown in water, and the question doesn't establish that any actually left the tank.
What collective noun is famously used for a group of crows?
A murder of crows.
A product's revenue rises 30%, but its gross profit falls. Name two possible explanations that could make this happen.
The company may have cut prices or discounted too heavily, or its unit costs may have increased.
Which inventor and entrepreneur is associated with more than 1,000 patents and helped develop practical electric lighting systems?
Thomas Edison.
A product costs $60 to make and sells for $100. What is its gross margin percentage, assuming no other costs?
40%. ($100 − $60) ÷ $100 × 100%.
A plane crashes exactly on the border between Taiwan and Japan. Where do they bury the survivors?
Nowhere! You don't bury survivors.
In which Shakespeare play does the line 'To be, or not to be' appear?
Hamlet.
Product A generates $100,000 in revenue at a 20% gross margin. Product B generates $70,000 at a 40% gross margin. Which generates more gross profit, and by how much?
Product B. A generates $20,000; B generates $28,000. B generates $8,000 more gross profit.
Which economist wrote The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, and is often called the father of modern economics?
Adam Smith.
A CEO wants revenue to grow 20% from $500,000. Actual revenue is $560,000. How far short of the target is the company?
$40,000 short. The target was $600,000.
You enter a dark room with a candle, an oil lamp, and a fireplace. You have only one match. What do you light first?
The match! You need to light it before you can light anything else.
Which letter does not appear in the name of any of the 50 U.S. states?
Q.