PT109.S4.Q8 > Analytics

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Early in the development of a new product line, the critical resource is talent. ███ █████████ ████████ ███████ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████████████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████████

Argument Summary

The author points out that when a new product is being developed, the level of managerial skill needed to launch it successfully is higher than would be justified only looking at the short-term revenue prospects of the product. In other words, the product likely won't make much money in the short term, but companies still need to assign a very talented manager to that product.

What normally happens, however, is that talented managers are only assigned to established product lines that bring in a lot of revenue, and so most new marketing ventures don't succeed. The author concludes that companies should change their approach and assign their best managers to development projects.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ █████████

Question Type

Strengthen

Notice that there’s a jump in the author’s argument between the premises, which say that talented managers are necessary for a new product line to succeed, and the conclusion, which argues that companies should assign their best managers to development projects. But it’s unclear whether companies actually need to assign their very best managers to such projects, especially if (for example) such managers might be in charge of overseeing important product lines that are more established. So an answer choice that justifies assigning the best managers to these development projects would strengthen the argument.

On average, new ████████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████████

Incorrect. The argument doesn’t talk about managers’ rank, it talks about their degree of talent. Even if a higher rank implies a greater degree of talent, if there’s no difference, on average, between the survival of a project directed by higher-ranking managers versus lower-ranking managers, it seems unnecessary for a company to assign its best (in this scenario, highest-ranking) managers to such projects. So (A) doesn’t strengthen the argument.

For most established ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ████████████

Incorrect. The fact that development projects are a relatively small part of a company’s expenditure doesn’t tell us anything about whether it’s necessary to assign the best managers to a development project for it to succeed. (B) neither strengthens nor weakens the argument.

The more talented █ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██ █ ███ ███████ █████

Incorrect. The level of interest a manager has in a new product line isn’t relevant to whether companies should assign their best managers to development projects.

The current revenue ███ █████████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████

Correct. (D) answers a potential objection: what if assigning the best managers to a development project takes them away from a more profitable product line that is already established? By telling us that assigning the best managers to development projects won't harm the company's revenue elsewhere, (D) gets rid of that objection and strengthens the argument.

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Early short-term revenue █████████ ██ █ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ █ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███

Incorrect. (E) gives us information about predicting the success of each individual line of new products. It doesn’t tell us whether it is a good idea to assign a company’s best managers to development projects in general.

If you picked (E), maybe you thought that if there is a way to predict how successful a new product line will be, that will help companies assign managers to development projects more strategically. That may be true, but it doesn’t strengthen the claim that it is a good idea for companies to reassign their best managers to development projects, when those managers might be seeing other important projects that are more established.

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