essay - GMAT: Argument5

Question:
The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper.

"Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury's circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper."

Discuss how well reasoned ... etc.

Answer:
According to a theory advocated by a famous business scholar, Micheal Porter, a corporation needs to focus on either cost leadership strategy or differentiate strategy. The former one is to build superiority against competitors through lower-price products. The latter one is to create a strong entry barrier through valued products coming from technological excellence or brand image.

The Mercury is trying to adapt cost leadership strategy, which was also being adapted by the rival newspaper, The Bugle. In general, this strategy will cause disastrous low profitability through intensive competitiveness with competitors. To avoid that, a corporation should come up with a clear solution giving the corporation unique sources of low costs, like a considerable market share, which strengths economies of scale, or preferential access to raw materials.

The argument says that The Mercury just intends to lower its price, which results in merely lower profitability. More terribly, if The Bugle has an advantage of low prices, it will reduce its prices in proportion to The Mercury's ones. This might make The Mercury very weak, which might lead to bankruptcy. Therefore, The Mercury needs to first research the rival's strategy and cost structure, and then if The Bugle doesn't have any particular strengths in a cost aspect, The Mercury will first be able to move forward to challenge The Bugle with cost reduction.

In summary, the strategy that The Mercury is taking is not appropriate in this circumstance because of the reasons I mentioned above. If The Mercury can come up with a reasonable competitive strategy, then first The Mercury will be able to proceed with either cost leadership strategy or differentiation strategy, while it remains its profitability.

story - The Man Was Born 5

The man was born because he wanted to see what the world was. As was mentioned before, he spent his time in the country where he was born until he became a young man. His belief was simple; Just wanted to be what he should have been. His dream was simple; Just wanted to be as great as possible. He had nothing but the ambitions and dreams.

He fought against enemies, who were mainly mosquitoes, frogs, and devils. Particularly, one of the devils as his enemy was strong enough to beat the young man and depress him deeply into the place like a hell. But, the man never lost his dignity. The man never lost his integrity, pride, and love to his country.

He was keen to make his body strong. In addition of that, he liked to read books. The wiser he was, the more likely it is that the life was exciting. He especially was fond of literature. He was caught up by the stories on dreams, struggles, and loves. He was a dreamer. He was a fighter. And he understood that the world should have been what it should have been.


To be continued ...

news - Stabbing Spree in Akihabara

I report a stabbing spree incident occurred in Japan from Japan.

On June 8, in Akihabara, one of the most famous city in Japan, a stabbing spree caused 7 dead by a man named Kato. The assailant barreled into the street first, which was crowed with many pedestrians, killing 3 people with the truck he rented in his living place, and then after getting off the truck, he killed 4 people with tagger knives he bought at shops.

This is a shocking rampage for all Japanese, since Japan is expected to be the safest place in the world. On the date, Sunday, many foreigners walked in the street to go around shopping electronic devices. What an incident it was!


This is a report from Japan, Tokyo.

essay - GMAT: Issue5

Question:
"All groups and organizations should function as teams in which everyone makes decisions and shares responsibilities and duties. Giving one person central authority and responsibility for a project or task is not an effective way to get work done."

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this definition of success? Support your position by using reasons and examples from your reading, your own work or school experiences, your observations, or your reading.

Answer:
The statement says that it's better to lower the supervisory level for all groups and organizations. I partly agree with this statement, since empowered employees, which means employees who have been given authorities, make their performance the best. This, however, depends on the circumstance where the organization stands. I mean that if the organization is in a certain circumstance, the approach the sentence proposes will bring a serious problem to the organization.

The first case is the case the organization is not mature. If the employees are incompetent at making decision and leading the organization, or if the employees are not disciplined and are prone to be negligent, the approach of delegating authority and power to the employees at all levels will cause a serious disaster.

The second case is the case the external environment is harsh in competitive and fast in change. For responding to such an environment, the organization has to have a clear chain of command in order to attain quickness of the strategies. If all employees can freely make decisions and moves ahead in directions that they like, the organization will not be able to survive in the harsh environment.

In sum, I agree that empowerment or delegation might be a good choice for a certain type of organizations, which should be mature and the employees can make a wise judgement. I, however, disagree with the statement saying all groups and organizations can adapt this organizational approach. This will result in a catastrophe because of the reasons I mentioned above.

story - The Man Was Born 4

The man knew this fact: he had to leave the city. Time went fast. The earth revolved at a certain speed. The ocean in front of him was too vast to jump over. And the forest where he lived was too deep to get out. He muttered, "This is fierce urgency of the moment."


To be continued ...

news - Obama clinches Democratic nomination

I report the news that Obama clinches Democratic nomination along with my personal feeling.

At last, Barack Obama who tries to be the first black President of the United States of America clinched Democratic nomination on the day when the last primaries were held in South Dakota and Montana. The Illinois Senate has reached the critical delegate points which had been a bit raised after the decision regarding Florida and Minnesota vote recounting.

After a few days of the declaration, New York Senator Hillary Clinton stated to concede and endorse her ex-rival Barack Obama with full support. With these two events, the presidential election is now going into a neck-and-neck match between Barack Obama and one-time Vietnam hero John McCain. Intensive debates on Iraq war and other political differences are expected to be held in the near future.


I'm looking forward to it. This is from me writing this now.

essay - GMAT: Argument4

Question:
The following appeared in a report presented for discussion at a meeting of the directors of a company that manufactures parts for heavy machinery.

"The falling revenues that the company is experiencing coincide with delays in manufacturing. These delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing metals. Consider further that the manager of the department that handles purchasing of raw materials has an excellent background in general business, psychology, and sociology, but knows little about the properties of metals. The company should, therefore, move the purchasing manager to the sales department and bring in a scientist from the research division to be manager of purchasing department."

Discuss how well reasoned ... etc.

Answer:
The part of the argument regarding the relation between the falling revenues and the cause is understandable, only if other symptoms corresponding the sales decline don't exist. Also, the part of the argument regarding the root cause of delays in manufacturing, which is poor planning in purchasing metals, is reasonable, since if purchase of material delays, production also delays. The latter part of the argument, however, is irrational and unconvincing.

The argument identifies the purchasing manager as the cause of poor planning, but the validation is insufficient to connect them. Particularly, although the argument says that the problem is the purchasing manager's lack of knowledge on properties of metals, it's not sure how important the knowledge is in terms of planning purchase. A clearer evidence should be in place, because if the analysis of cause is wrong, the proposed solution, which is to bring in a scientist, will cause a serious negative impact on the purchase department. It can be deduced that the scientist has only knowledge of properties of metals, not other administrative skills that the predecessor had.

In summary, the argument might have a wrong deduction. If the argument had a clear explanation about the relation between delays in purchasing and the purchasing manager, the argument could be much more reasonable.

essay - GMAT: Issue4

Question:
"Of all the manifestations of power, restraint in the use of that power impresses people most."

*manifestations: apparent signs or indicators

Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading.


Answer:
A manifestation of power takes various forms ranging from exerting authority to showing respect. Although this depends on the maturity of the targets like subordinates or friends, delegating power or trusting the targets is the best to motivate the targets. This means that I agree with the quotation, "Of all the manifestations of power, restraint in the use of that power impresses people most".

The primary reason why I agree with the statement is that I believe that the time people can achieve the highest goals is the time people have their own power, not are forced by other person's power. This is clear with the following analogy: "There are two men; The one has his own house, and another has a house rent. Which person treats the houses better?" The answer is easy to mention, "The more power people have, the better the performance is."

The condition is apparently there. For instance, if the people delegated are immature, the delegate doesn't go well. It's because they cannot wield the power well. Therefore, if people with power can see the target mature, they should try to delegate the power to the target. It's worth it.

essay - GMAT: Argument3

Question:
The following appeared in a memorandum issued by a large city's council on the arts.

"In a recent citywide poll, fifteen percent more residents said that they watch television programs about the visual arts than was the case in a poll conducted five years ago. During these past five years, the number of people visiting our city's art museums has increased by a similar percentage. Since the corporate funding that supports public television, where most of the visual arts programs appear, is now being threatened with severe cuts, we can expect that attendance at our city's art museums will also start to decrease. Thus some of the city's funds for supporting the arts should be reallocated to public television."

Discuss how well reasoned ... etc.

Answer:
Since there's not necessarily a connection between an increase of people watching television programs about the visual arts and an increase of people visiting the city's art museums, the argument is flawed.

The argument just regards the same percentage as an evidence of the correlation between them, so there are other possibilities of the causes of the increase of people visiting the art museums. It's not necessarily the case that people who like to enjoy visual arts necessarily like to visit art museums. The people might like watching TV, because they don't like going out to a museum.

Therefore, what the city council is thinking might a wrong decision, resulting in the fact that the argument cannot convince people with authorities to go about the decision.