Quiz

Get All Five Correct and Move on to the Next Round

TV ad prices, workers who don’t offer productivity suggestions and startups that end up being acquired

1 of 5
T-Mobile pays about 12% more than AT&T does for TV ads bought during annual “upfront” sales. Why?
Networks dislike T-Mobile’s use of the color pink in branding.
AT&T owns all three television networks.
Advertisers receive a small discount for every year they’ve bought upfront time. AT&T began in 1960; T-Mobile in 2001.

Read on: A company that began buying prime-time broadcast ads in 1960 will enjoy a 16% cost advantage over one that entered in 2013.

2 of 5
Crickets! A Fortune 500 manufacturer, seeking bright ideas from 3,800 technicians, got only 55 suggestions. Trying again, which approach was more successful?
Connecting suggestions to the presence of a supportive manager.
Stressing how workers’ personal skill set compelled them to make a suggestion.

Read on: Why unloved workers don’t share productivity tips with the boss.

3 of 5
Some startups aim to disrupt the world of business, others to get acquired by companies already dominating industries. How to tell the difference, according to recent research?
Overlapping patents between startup and industry giant.
The presence at the startup of nephews and nieces of an industry giant’s CEO.
Startup business plans that concludes with: purchased by Google.

Read on: Startups in industries already dominated by a handful of big players are more likely to cater to them with compatible technology.

4 of 5
Los Angeles and the state of California are in differing stages of pushing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2022. Who pays for the increased compensation?
Customers in the form of higher prices.
Business owners who may earn lesser profits.
Landlords who, to help keep businesses going, reduce the rent.
All three — and possibly workers, too, who see their hours cut or eliminated.

Read on: Higher legislated wages were a bold move when passed, but $15 is spreading earlier than expected due to the market impact of a labor shortage.

5 of 5
Functioning financial markets rely on many private intermediaries to facilitate trades and make markets orderly. When an intermediary is ailing, which market would likely become more dysfunctional:
Stocks.
Mortgage-backed securities.

Read on: Markets, like stocks, with significant individual investor activity are less sensitive to the collapse of a middleman (think Lehman, 2008) than markets more dependent on institutions, like mortgage-backed securities.