Skip to main content


Quiz
 


Could you be chairman of the board?

Sir Iain Vallance has stepped down at BT and will be replaced by Sir Christopher Bland of the BBC. It is musical chairs at the top, but how far could you go?

Question 1 You are on the threshold of a new technological dawn. How do you respond?
 
  Panic. Then call in a firm of consultants to find out how best to make rivals think you are ahead of the game
  Invest 95% of your annual revenue in a five year plan to make your company the biggest in the world
  Ignore it. And when the pressure grows for you to do something, fire some advisers for not warning you about it sooner
  Ignore it. If people need your product enough they will always pay good money for it
 
Question 2 What is your preferred mode of transport?
 
  Anything but the trains. You know too much to trust them
  A private jet
  One of your fleet of classic cars
  A chrome scooter
 
Question 3 Gerald Ratner said his jewellery was "crap" and Anita Roddick dismissed the worth of her cosmetics. Would you be seen dead with your products?
 
  There would be no need. My company manufacturers the finest weapons known to man. I will always get the killer shot in first
  We make a brilliant product but I am on a good salary and I like to think I have earned the right to surround myself with luxury goods
  I give them as Christmas presents to people I don't like
  I am a company man through and through. We manufacture baked beans and I eat nothing else
 
Question 4 Your company has made a record loss this past financial year. What do you do?
 
  Award yourself, and all members of the board, a pay rise
  Find some money in the bank for a bonus, for you
  Sit tight and hope it gets better
  Close down a third of your sites
 
Question 5 The numbers get worse. What happens when you tender your resignation?
 
  No one is surprised
  It is refused until you get the company out of the mess it is currently in
  The world breathes a sigh of relief
  Intense speculation follows about who could be your successor
 
Question 6 What is the first thing that comes into your head when someone says "Ford"?
 
  Henry Ford made the leap to mass production? I need his level of vision to succeed
  Great - oil drilling in Norway
  A new takeover target
  I don't want to follow Ernest Saunders into that dump. I hope I get sent to a decent prison
 
Question 7 You sack most of your workforce to remedy a temporary dip in the company's stock market value. What do you plan to do after the announcement?
 
  Subcontract to whoever promises to do the work most cheaply
  Rebuild your business from the bottom up in a depressed industrial area
  Visit your remaining plant and muck in on the shop floor for a television film crew
  Outsource production to sweatshops in Asia
 
Question 8 The end of your career beckons and you need to plan your retirement. Will you?
 
  Form a marginal political party and pursue your rivals until the day you die
  Improve your golf
  Write a book and take up work as a consultant
  Call in some favours and claim a place in the Lords
 
 


UP


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008