Anup Karath Nair, a PhD student in the Department of Strategy and Organisation, and Igor Pyrko, a PhD student from the Management Science department, emerged as champions for the fourth year running at the 6th annual Tata Crucible Campus Quiz UK, a knowledge initiative from the Tata group in the form of a business quiz, designed to encourage lateral thinking and test business awareness for the country’s future business leaders.
The Strathclyde team won their title on November 24, winning £4000 after fighting off close competition from other university teams including London Business School, Imperial College, London School of Economics, University of Warwick, University of Bath and ESCP Europe. The winning pair impressed the audience and the Quiz Master Giri 'Pickbrain' Balasubramaniam who described the winning Strathclyde team as the "Roger Federer of the Tata Crucible", with their consistent wins over the past four years. The first runner-up team was the University of Bath, who won £2000, and the second runner-up team was the London School of Economics, who won £1500.
Showing the diversity of the competition, 160 students (80 teams) representing 25 universities took part in this year's Tata Crucible Campus Quiz including Imperial College, London Business School, London School of Economics, Warwick, Coventry, Bath, Aston, Swansea, Oxford, Cambridge and many others, with several doing so for the first time.
A packed audience turned out at Imperial College's South Kensington Campus to witness this exciting battle of brains. Dr David Landsman OBE, Executive Director of Tata Limited, and Chief Guest, Lord Mawson OBE, a noted social entrepreneur, handed over prizes to the winning teams.
Congratulating the winners, Lord Mawson said, "Business requires a generation of people who are quick on the buzzers. We now live in a global economy, and the future lies with entrepreneurs and innovators who can apply ideas and innovation to practical solutions, as you have done this evening."
David Landsman, Executive Director of Tata Limited, said, "Tata has a long and cherished association with UK academia, and we are really proud to present the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz. Thinking out of the box is the key to success to being a business brain. The Tata Crucible offers a fun, interactive way for students to test their lateral thinking and business knowledge, whilst learning and connecting with one of the most diverse businesses in the world."
Anup Nair and Igor Pyrko commented, "We are immensely pleased to end up on top at the UK's biggest business quiz, edging out teams from business schools such as London Business School, London School of Economics and Oxford and Cambridge.
"It's a wonderful feeling to be a national champion and we look forward to competing in the international finals and hopefully with luck, we'll keep the Strathclyde flag flying high."
The top two winning teams from UK edition will be invited to India to participate in the 3‐nation international finals along with the top two teams of the Singapore edition and India edition sometime in April 2014.
For more details about Tata Crucible, please visit www.tatacrucible.com/uk