GMAT question - Companies often re-organize in order to adapt to cha... - Review

Companies often re-organize in order to adapt to changes in the world around them but the market place changes much faster than organizations can re-organize. If you choose a simple organization you can then spend your effort on teaching the people in the organization to be flexible and adapt to changes in the market place.

Which of the following conclusions can be most properly inferred from the premises above.

1. Companies should invest in staff training to increase their adaptability.
2. Companies should invest in research to keep abreast of changes in the market place.
3. Companies should choose a simple organizational structure and keep it that way.
4. Companies should continuously re-organize to keep up with changes in the market place.
5. Companies should choose a matrix structure which can be re-organized more rapidly than other organizational structures.

Explanation

Identify the question type

The question says 'Which of the following conclusions can be most properly inferred from the premises above.', so you are clearly being asked to a supply the conclusion to the argument.

Identify the premises

There are two premises to this argument

1. The market place changes faster than companies can re-organize.
2. By not re-organizing you can focus on making your company flexible in other ways.

Try to draw a conclusion

Remember a conclusion must tie together all the premises.

If you can predict a conclusion check whether it appears in the answers, if you cannot we move on to...

Process of elimination

Answer A

Investing in staff is implied by the second premise and so is very tempting to select but remember a conclusion has to tie all the premises together and this answer does does not relate to the first premise at all. This means it should be eliminated.

Answer B

Investing in research may be advantageous for the company but it does not follow from either of the premises and can be eliminated.

Answer C

Stick to on organizational structure. This fits with both premises the first says that companies cannot reorganize fast enough and the second which says effort that would have been spent re-organizing can be reinvested in more effective strategies. This looks like a good candidate.

Answer D

This contradicts the first premise and so should be eliminated as a possible conclusion.

Answer E

Again we have to assume that the premises are true and since the first premise says that companies cannot re-organize at a fast enough rate, this answer should be eliminated.

We have eliminated all the answers except C so this must be correct.