essay - GMAT: Issue 26

The best strategy for managing a business, or any enterprise, is to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I agree that finding the best people and giving them the environment where they freely work is the best practice for any type of organization. However, a few considerations should be taken place. That is, the effectiveness varies with the industry, and the extend to which authority should be given depends on the maturity level of the organization. I'll first show my thought about the effectiveness of the policy and then reveal two aspects that should be taken into consideration.

First, I believe that finding the best people and giving them an appropriate environment is the best strategy that any corporation could take. All activities that corporations perform come from the people. All success factors depend on the people. And all machinery is invented by the people. Therefore, hiring the best people is the first strategy that any corporation should take. Besides, empowerment is a key practice in the case, especially for the best people. Various studies show that the best people need to be empowered (i.e. delegated) in order to exert their performance fully. Therefore, I totally agree with the statement that these practices are essential for any organization

What I'd like to insist is, however, that the effect is strengthened or limited by the circumstance where the organization stands. I mean, the effect is in proportion to the room that the organization has for human resources. For instance, in case the organization is a manufacturer of iron sheets, the performance of the company most depends on the physical assets such as the factory and the machinery, not on human resources. In this case, the effect is limited to the extent that the people can exert their influence. On the other hand, in case the organization is in the service industry like the hotel or the food service industry, the degree is heightened. Therefore, at the time thinking of the effectiveness of the strategy, this point should be highlighted.

In addition, the degree of given authority should be taken into consideration when thinking of this strategy. That is, giving people authority sometimes causes trouble in case the people are not ready to be given or in case the environment of the company is not appropriate for it. For instance, if the employee's maturity level is low (maturity level means the constituent's skills or proactivity, say, the professionalism), delegating power to the employees will cause unexpected catastrophe such as sabotage. Or, if the company faces serious or extremely fast-changing situation like a crisis of bankruptcy, giving the employees authority is not a good option (since the clear chain of command and the fast decision making is necessary in this case). Therefore, this aspect should be considered, when empowerment takes place.

To sum up, as a whole I support the idea that getting the best people in place and giving them authority is the best strategy for any organization, although some considerations should be taken as I mentioned above.

essay - GMAT: Argument 25

The following appeared in a memo from the customer service division to the manager of Mammon Savings and Loan:

We believe that improved customer service is the best way for us to differentiate ourselves from competitors and attract new customers. We can offer our customers better service by reducing waiting time in teller lines from an average of six minutes to an average of three. By opening for business at 8:30 instead of 9:00, and by remaining open for an additional hour beyond our current closing time, we will be better able to accommodate the busy schedules of our customers. These changes will enhance our bank fs image as the most customer-friendly bank in town and give us the edge over our competition.

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
In service industries, the quality of customer service has a critical role in enhancing the competitive advantage. The author of the memo tries to convince the managers that Mammon Savings and Loan can have a competitively strong position over the competitors through improving its customer services. His plan is to shorten customer's waiting time in the lines of teller and broaden its service window one and a half hour. His argument is generally reasonable, but for several reasons it fails to convince the readers to go about the plan.

First, and most important, the argument ignores the side effect of its improvements. That is, the service improvement plan comes with huge costs, and the author by no means mentions the aspect. Apparently, if the argument is not equipped with necessary information, the argument fails to function. In terms of this, the argument is so weak that the manager of customer service department fails to obtain agreement from his colleagues. Then, what types of cost can be considered? Above all, payroll costs would rise up much higher than expected. One of his plans is to increase open hours for customer's convenience one and a half hour, but the increase of the payroll costs is not the proportion of the increased time. In order to enhance the time window, generally, more resource than increased timeframe is required. Also, regarding one of his proposals, improving the customer's waiting time, the company needs to put much effort to cut it in half. The company, for instance, needs to set up new service desks and hire new service personnel, as well as restructure its business process maybe by using a consultancy agent. In sum, if the company implement the improvement plans, then its customer satisfaction might show the improvement. But don't forget that it would come with huge costs.

Second, he fails to show a specific approach to improve the customer's waiting time. Although he easily says that the time can be half of current one, it's easier said than done. As I mentioned earlier, it needs much effort to realize. Therefore, the manager should have mentioned his approach for the improvement.

In conclusion, it's right that improvement of customer satisfaction in service sectors considerably contributes to the increased brand image and differentiation from the competitors, but as I mentioned above, due to the lack of necessary information, the argument fails to be convincing.

essay - GMAT: Issue 25

A powerful business leader has far more opportunity to influence the course of a community or a nation than does any government official.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I don't agree with the opinion that business leaders can exert more influence on the course of a community or a nation than government officials. I think that government officials have advantages in terms of its power, its way, and its intention.

First, I believe that government officials have more power over the course of the community or the nation than do business leaders. The typical example is the president of the United States of America. Who can have more influence than President Bush does? He decided to start the Iraqi Invasion, not to sign Kyoto protocol, and to try to introduce 700 billion dollars bail out for Wall Street meltdown. On the other hand, Bill Gates, a founder of Microsoft, admittedly influenced the way of the world by producing a revolutionary product, Windows, but, in terms of the course of the nation, he did a little, I bet.

Second, it's clear that government officials have much more ways to exert influence on the community or the nation than business leaders do. That is, government officials have a lot of direct ways to affect the community or the nation such as constituting a new law, attending a congress, or making a speech for public. On the other hand, business leaders do not have. They can just exert indirect influence such as producing better products or advancing an opinion to government. Or, they are just privately able to attend various events such as casting a ballot or engaging in volunteer work. Therefore, as for the ways, business leaders have much less options than government officials do.

Third, I can say that if somebody wants to make the world better or change the course of the government, he would definitely choose to be a politician rather than a CEO of a corporation. I can take an example of Barack Obama, a candidate for the next president of the United States of America, my favorite politician at present. He had a choice when I graduated from university. The choice was that he would be a business person in Manhattan or would be a community organizer in Chicago. If he had chosen the way of being in the business world, he would have made big money, since he was pretty competent even at doing business. He, however, chose the way of a local community officer, although the payment was much less than one of the other job. Why did he do such a folly? The answer is simple. He just wanted to influence on the community, just wanted to improve people's quality of live, and just had an intention of changing the world. He did and will do in the United States of America.

To sum up, I disagree with the statement saying that business leaders have more influence on the community or the government than government officials do. It's because government officials have more power, because they have more ways, and because they have clearer intentions to change the course of the community or the government than business leaders do.

essay - GMAT: Argument 24

The following appeared in a speech delivered by a member of the city council:

Twenty years ago, only half of the students who graduated from Einstein High School went on to attend a college or university. Today, two?thirds of the students who graduate from Einstein do so. Clearly, Einstein has improved its educational effectiveness over the past two decades. This improvement has occurred despite the fact that the school fs funding, when adjusted for inflation, is about the same as it was 20 years ago. Therefore, we do not need to make any substantial increase in the school fs funding at this time.

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The speaker, a member of the city council, asserts that no additional funding toward Einstein High School is required because the school has not needed an increase of the funding for 20 years to date and still has been improving its service. And he cites statistical data showing what percentage of the students advance to a college or university in order to support his conclusion. His conclusion, however, completely unreasonable because his reasoning contains several serious fallacies.

First, he assumes that the increase of proportion of students going on to attend a college or university is owing to the efforts of the school in improving its educational effectiveness. This assumption, however, is unwarranted because there is no clear evidence showing a direct link between the effort and the increase. That is, the increase might have been just due to a nationwide trend of increased sense toward higher education. To make it improve, the speaker should show the nationwide average of the rate at least, and should show a clear causal relationship between the effort and the increase.

Then, although the speaker reasons that there has been no increase of funding for 20 years at the school, this reasoning has big room to be criticized. That is, no increase of funding to the school doesn't necessarily mean no increase of investment in improving the service. For instance, maybe the number of the students had decreased, say, two-thirds for two decades. In the case, the school had been able to utilize its remained funding to improve its service. Therefore, his assumption that there was no fund increased is unwarranted. And this weakens the conclusion seriously.

Finally, he ignores the fact that the past trend does not necessarily ascertain the future trend. That is, his reasoning stands on the logic that something wasn't needed in the past so it must be the same in the future. This reasoning, however, may result in a serious situation. For instance, nowadays the development of information technology hikes up all around the world, so more schools have started investing in such kind of equipment such as computers or broad band Internet connection. In such case, unless the school invests a certain amount of money in the technology, the school cannot follow the trend, thereby making the students less competitive. Therefore, the speaker should have considered other factors that need to be considered when talking of the future.

In conclusion, since the speaker's reasoning has serious flaws, his conclusion that there fs no need to increase the amount of funding to Einstein High School is completely problematic.

essay - GMAT: Issue 24

Schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills and not for teaching ethical and social values.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
The statement that schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills is clearly oversimplified. The extent to which the school emphasizes academic skills depends on the type of school and the grade of the students. Besides, I personally support schools that teach ethical and social values to the students.

The statement is oversimplified. For instance, I believe that at elementary schools teaching ethical and social values should be more emphasized than at universities. Or, at law schools ethical and social values should be taught much more than at specialized technology schools. Above all, I believe that all schools should teach ethical and social values to some extent.

Nowadays, ethical or compliance matter is more and more focused. Enron gave a lot of damage on a lot of stakeholders because the management lacked ethical value. A corruption of Kenyan government was due to the lack of social value of the president. Therefore, in this contemporary era, all people should be equipped with ethical and social value. In other words, all schools should teach ethical and social value to all the students.

To sum up, I believe that the extent to which the school focuses on ethical and social value depends on the kind of the school or the age of the students, and that all schools should teach ethical and social value to the students to some extent.

essay - GMAT: Argument 23

The following appeared in the editorial section of a newspaper:

As public concern over drug abuse has increased, authorities have become more vigilant in their efforts to prevent illegal drugs from entering the country. Many drug traffickers have consequently switched from marijuana, which is bulky, or heroin, which has a market too small to justify the risk of severe punishment, to cocaine. Thus enforcement efforts have ironically resulted in an observed increase in the illegal use of cocaine.

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author concludes that enforced vigilance have resulted in an observed increase in the illegal use of cocaine. The argument depends on two assumptions. First, cocaine is easier to smuggle from overseas than marijuana and heroin. Then, the increase is due to the increase from overseas. Since these assumptions are unwarranted, the argument fails to be convincing.

The first assumption is that drug traffickers have chosen cocaine rather than marijuana and heroin under the strengthened government vigilance because of the easiness. The author cites the characteristics of the other two drugs as the support to the assumption: marijuana is too bulky to smuggle, and the market of heroin too small. However, since the argument doesn't show any casual relationship between the enforcement and the increase of cocaine itself, the argument is substantially weak. For instance, the main reason why previously the amount of cocaine is relatively smaller than the others is that cocaine just may be difficult to produce.

The second assumption that the author implicitly depends on is that the observed increase is connected only with smuggling from foreign countries. That is, the author assumes that since the vigilance at the boundaries has been enforced, the amount of cocaine has been increased based on the first assumption I mentioned earlier. This assumption, however, is unwarranted. Most of the observed increase in the illegal use of cocaine may come from production in the country. If so, the assumption is not justified, and the conclusion fails. Therefore, the author needs to examine whether cocaine is produced in the country or not, and show the proportion.

In conclusion, the argument seems convincing enough, but because of two flaws that I mentioned above the argument is weak. The author should have showed or went over the following factors: the direct causal relationship between the vigilance and the increase of cocaine itself, and the amount of cocaine that is produced internally.

essay - GMAT: Issue 23

Clearly, government has a responsibility to support the arts. However, if that support is going to produce anything of value, government must place no restrictions on the art that is produced.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above? Develop your position by giving specific reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
The statement says that government should not restrict any arts that are supported by the government and have certain value. Although it is understandable to some extent, the statement is apparently exaggerated and ignores several important aspects that the government needs to consider.

First of all, if the art that is produced by government is contradicting public order and standards of decency, the government should not support it or should place some restriction on it. For instance, there's an art that has value from an artistic point of view but at the same time has a disastrous aspect for public, such as a war film containing atrocious scenes or a paint showing woman's nude. Therefore, if the art has some negative impact, the government needs to take any action on it.

Then, government also needs to take a close look at who is the stakeholder of the art. That is, suppose a painting is produced under a support from government, and then a member of some mafia obtains the art. In the case, the government must be blamed for the overlook of the affair. The same thing can be applied for the creator. That is, if government supports an artist, and the artist has an intention to harm somebody else, I must say that the support of the government failed to produce value. For instance, several years ago, satires depicting Mohammed were hugely criticized from Middle East countries in terms of the insult. It should not happen at least in arts supported by government.

To sum up, I believe the value of government support and the art itself, but the government needs to focus on the contents and the stakeholders in order to prevent malice of the stakeholders and misuse of taxpayer's money.

essay - GMAT: Argument 22

The following appeared as part of an editorial in an industry newsletter:

While trucking companies that deliver goods pay only a portion of highway maintenance costs and no property tax on the highways they use, railways spend billions per year maintaining and upgrading their facilities. The government should lower the railroad companies f property taxes, since sending goods by rail is clearly a more appropriate mode of ground transportation than highway shipping. For one thing, trains consume only a third of the fuel a truck would use to carry the same load, making them a more cost-effective and environmentally sound mode of transport. Furthermore, since rail lines already exist, increases in rail traffic would not require building new lines at the expense of taxpaying citizens.

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author demands that the government should lower railroad companies' property taxes. He cites that trucking companies don't pay any property tax and railroad companies do pay as the background. He also uses two advantages that railway transportation has, fuel-efficiency and rail lines currently existing, in order to support his conclusion. However, since his argument fails to be reasonable, he fails to make the conclusion convincing.

First, although he cites railway's fuel-efficiency as an advantage that railway transportation has over trucking transportation, this citation ignores the other factors needed to be considered. First, only railway cannot complete transportation. That is, railway can convey goods from a station to another station, but conveying the goods to the final destination such as customer's home or factory requires truck or other automobile transportation. Therefore, virtually the cited figure, a third, should be diminished to some extent. Second, this argument completely ignores customer's convenience. That is, railway transportation generally requires more time to deliver than does truck transportation, thereby it costs the customer in other forms of costs such as low customer satisfaction or more inventories. Therefore, the argument should contain this information to make it reliable.

The second reason why I consider the argument unconvincing is that although the author says that increases in rail traffic would not require building new lines, this assumption is unwarranted. Admittedly, rail lines are unlikely to be required to build in comparison with roads, but it needs to be required in case the traffic exceeds its capacity. For instance, if railway transportation between town A and town B doubles, the railway company will need to build rail lines double between town A and town B.

In conclusion, although the author concludes that the government lowers the property taxes that railway companies need to pay, since the argument is unconvincing, the attempt fails.

essay - GMAT: Issue 22

Job security and salary should be based on employee performance, not on years of service. Rewarding employees primarily for years of service discourages people from maintaining consistently high levels of productivity.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
In my country, Japan, lifetime employment, which is a system that employers hire employees until they retire even if the performance necessarily doesn't match the company's expectation, has prevailed for a long time. In the system, many companies and many employees have enjoyed long-term prosperity from the time of the defeat in the World War II. The advantages of the system are first to foster united atmosphere and then to maintain human resources in the company even at the time to be difficult to hire new people. Growing up in Japan, however, I agree with the opinion that a merit based evaluation system is superior to the lifetime employment.

The first reason why I think so is that the lifetime employment faces difficulty when the nation's economical state is entering into the phase of ressession. Since employers cannot easily dismiss or lay off the employees in the system by the nature, the profittability goes down owning to the high payroll costs. On the other hand, the other system such as a merit based system can quickly respond to such situation. In this sense, I strongly insists that companies should adopt other than the lifetime employment system.

What I think the most important in the performance based system is that the system can highten employees' motivation much more than the other systems such as a lifetime employment. As human nature, people do their best when the efforts are rewarded. Nobody can work alone; Everybody wants reward. Therefore, companies need to pay attention to the employees' performance as closely as possible, and give them reward if the performance matches or exceeds the company's expectation.

From my personal experience, working in a fast-changing industry, information technology industry, I feel that a merit based system is especially suitable for such kind of industry. I can observe that my motivation becomes extremly high when my achievements are rewarded and then my annual salary goes up.

To sum up, I believe that a system where employees are evaluated by their performance not by their age or the duration to work is much better than the other systems in terms of the agility that the company can acquire and the fitness for human nature. Although growing up in a country which is the most famous for the lifetime employment, I bet that a merit based evaluation system will survive as the best choice for every corporation.

essay - GMAT: Argument 21

The following appeared in a memorandum from the head of a human resources department at a major automobile manufacturing company to the company's managers:

Studies have found that employees of not-for-profit organizations and charities are often more highly motivated than employees of for-profit corporations to perform well at work when their performance is not being monitored or evaluated. Interviews with employees of not-for-profit organizations suggest that the reason for their greater motivation is the belief that their work helps to improve society. Because they believe in the importance of their work, they have personal reasons to perform well, even when no financial reward is present. Thus, if our corporation began donating a significant portion of its profits to humanitarian causes, our employees f motivation and productivity would increase substantially and our overall profits would increase as well.

Discuss how well reasoned . . .etc.

Answer:
The head of a human resources department is going to donate a part of the company's profit to humanitarian uses. The assumption that he supposes is that working for a company which does so has an equal meaning to working for a non-profit organization. Since this assumption is unwarranted, his argument is completely weak.

First of all, the fundamental difference between work at a non-profit organization and work at a normal corporation is the wrok itself. And the source of motivation is generally with the work itself. That is, even if a company donates a part of the profit, the work in which the employees engage remains same. For instance, The sales person at the automobile manufacturing company invariably sells the cars or bikes to generate profit. Therefore, his motivation is supposed to be the same.

In conclusion, since the author misunderstands the source of motivation of employees, the argument is unconvincing.

essay - GMAT: Issue 21

In this age of automation, many people complain that humans are becoming subservient to machines. But, in fact, machines are continually improving our lives.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
Are machines our enemies, or our friends? As the speaker mentions, there are people complaining the dark side of machines, such as machines are replacing people's jobs or depriving humanity from our lives, but I strongly believe that machines, or industrialization, improve our lives.

First of all, I believe that human beings are more flexible than thought. During the era of industrial revolution, many jobs in factories were certainly replaced by machines. I suppose, they thought that machines were their enemies and they felt that they were a kind of subservient to machines. Yet, looking back at the period following the era, we can see significant changes in the social structure and we can perceive good aspects that automation brought to us. Jobs in the primary and secondary sectors, that is, agricultural and industrial sectors, have been migrated to the third sectors, service industries, leading to current prosperity of our lives. Before the start of industrial change, most of people couldn't have comfortable dinner outside their homes as we do today. This is thanks to uprising service sectors, a.k.a. flexibility of human beings; We can invent and produce new types of jobs.

In addition, I'd like to mention the functional limitation of machines and human ability of controlling machines. As most of people know, it could be happened that machines, or robots, might have intelligence, and be in a position to control human beings contrarily. A lot of novels and movies, like "Journey to Space in 2001" and "Matrix", have been depicting this phenomenon. I, however, admitting possibility that that could be happened, strongly believe that implementing intelligence superior to ones of human beings in robots is substantially impossible and that human beings are capable of completely controlling robots. Not does a robot use a man, a man uses a robot.

To sum up, I agree with the statement that machines are continually improving our lives. It's because we are quite flexible about new environments, and because I believe that we can make "attacks" of robots impossible.

essay - GMAT: Argument 20

The following appeared in an article in a health?and?fitness magazine:

Laboratory studies show that Saluda Natural Spring Water contains several of the minerals necessary for good health and that it is completely free of bacteria. Residents of Saluda, the small town where the water is bottled, are hospitalized less frequently than the national average. Even though Saluda Natural Spring Water may seem expensive, drinking it instead of tap water is a wise investment in good health. h

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author tries to convince the readers to think that the Saluda Natural Spring Water is good for health and that drinking the water is a wise choice. To support the conclusion, he or she cites scientific data saying the water contains minerals good for health and it is free of bacteria, and statistical data showing that the residents living around the source of the water are less frequently hospitalized, that is, are healthier. While the two data seems reasonable to judge the effectiveness, the respective citations have serious errors.

The first citation is that laboratory studies show the advantages that the water has: containing beneficial minerals and being free of bacteria. Although it seems to give the consumers exquisite benefits, since the data has no relative data by which the readers can valid it, the argument is significantly weak. That is, although the author claims that the water is superior to the others, no data about the other water brands is shown. Therefore, the readers can not make out whether the water is better than the others or not. For instance, if the other famous water brand, X, has the same amount of the beneficial minerals and it is also free of bacteria, the Saluda Natural Spring Water has no advantage over X.

The second citation is that the residents who live around the source of the water are healthier than ones in the other cities. This citation is intended to make the readers believe the superiority that the water has, but, in terms of the lack of information about causal relationship between the data and the water's effectiveness, the citation fails to function. That is, the health of the residents can be considered the result from the other factors such as the style of life or food, not from the water. It is well happened that people in rural areas live longer than people in urban areas because of cleanness of the air and the land. In my country, residents in the capital city Tokyo are less healthy than ones in the southernmost city Okinawa. Therefore, to make the citation meaningful, the author should have shown the direct relationship between the cited data and the water.

In conclusion, although the author tries to show the superiority of Saluda Natural Spring Water, he or she fails is for the reasons that I mentioned above.

essay - GMAT: Issue 20

"Some employers who recruit recent college graduates for entry-level jobs evaluate applicants only on their performance in business courses such as accounting, marketing, and economics. However, other employers also expect applicants to have a broad background in such courses as history, literature, and philosophy."

Do you think that, in the application process, employers should emphasize one type of background?either specialization in business courses or a more varied academic preparation?over the other? Why or why not? Develop your position by using reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
Which is the better for employers, choosing students with specialized capabilities or students with a broad range of capabilities? Although the choice should not be oversimplified, I support the idea that employers should emphasize specialized capabilities in relevant areas that the company has.

To begin with, I believe that there is significant relation between working capability and the corresponding academic areas especially in entry-level jobs. For instance, it is apparent that a student who learned information technology and gained a good evaluation on the course is better at utilizing office applications than one who did not. Taking a look at accounting, it is for sure that a student who took the course and gained a fine grade would be eligible for booking with a high possibility. Therefore, if the company wants a student who can contribute to it immediately, it should choose a student who has specialized skills.

Furthermore, although evaluating other areas than specialized ones is a good practice in terms of the benefit that the company might find a smart student, I strongly believe that there is a strong connection between grades in specialized courses and grades in other courses. In other words, a smart student, who is a person that companies pursue sincerely, should have obtained good results not only in other areas, but in specialized areas. Looking at this from the other side of fence, a student who gains excellent grades in other areas but gains poor grades in specialized areas is not one whom companies yearn for, because he is not so smart that he cannot gain good ones in specialized areas. Smart students all do well in both areas.

In conclusion, I strongly support the opinion that employers should evaluate the performance in relevant courses to the area where the company stands. It's because students with such kind of performance will show good contribution to the company, and focusing on other areas is somehow nonsense for the reason that I mentioned above.

essay - GMAT: Argument 19

The following appeared as part of an article in the travel section of a newspaper:

"Over the past decade, the restaurant industry in the country of Spiessa has experienced unprecedented growth. This surge can be expected to continue in the coming years, fueled by recent social changes: personal incomes are rising, more leisure time is available, single-person households are more common, and people have a greater interest in gourmet food, as evidenced by a proliferation of publications on the subject."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author concludes that the trend of restaurant industry's surge continues to the coming year. To support the conclusion, four social changes are articulated: increase of personal incomes, increase of leisure time, characteristic of household, and gourmet preference. The argument, however, has the following two serious flaws, so that it fails to convince the readers.

To begin with, the four factors cited to strengthen the conclusion are not necessarily connected with the future trend. That is, the four trends are what happened in recent years as the author wrote, and not guaranteed for the next year. For instance, if the current economic boost will abruptly end in January, the forecast would completely fail. Therefore, the author takes into consideration the future factor. At the very least, the author should alert the readers to the uncertainty of the future.

The next flaw is that the four trends are not necessarily related to the surge of restaurant industry. Of course, they are a certain level of relations to the industry's success. But there are still possibilities of becoming bad effects on the future. For instance, should people earn more money, the people would use their money for building their homes with kitchens, not for dining at restaurants. Or, should people spend more time in leisure, the people would use the time to spend at home making dinners by themselves. Furthermore, should more people live alone, the people would buy box meals at convenient stores. Finally, should people be more interested in gourmet food, they would go out of the city and have dinner at a fancy restaurant in the neighboring city. Therefore, the author should establish direct and firm causal relation between the four trends and the success of restaurant industry.

To sum up, although the author tries to make the readers believe that the future of restaurant industry is bright, the argument is so weak that it can't convince them. To strengthen the argument, the author should mention at least the future economic trend and causal relations between statistical data mentioned above and the result in the industry.

essay - GMAT: Issue 19

"If the primary duty and concern of a corporation is to make money, then conflict is inevitable when the corporation must also acknowledge a duty to serve society."

From your perspective, how accurate is the above statement? Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
The speaker states that a pursuit of money and contribution to society are contradicting each other for corporations. I don't agree with the opinion. I believe that not only is it possible, but also the aspect of coexistence of earning money and serving society is in a sense the essence of human beings.

First, from practical point of view, it is possible for corporations to maximize its profit and at the same time contribute to the society. In my country, Japan, the most profitable company is Toyota, a manufacturer of auto mobiles, and the most admired company in terms of contribution to society is Toyota too. Toyota produced the famous hybrid car, Prius, serveral years ago, and then has earned huge profit from the product because the sales figure is astonishing in the background of high gas prices. And at the same time, the car is designed for high fuel-efficiency and, I believe that this can be said, for the earth because it minimizes damege toward the earth in terms of its fuel-efficiency and the volume of gas emission. If a company has a mind of serving the society, in most cases, the company can earn money from its attitude.

Second, from philosofical point of view, earning money is the other side of the coin of serving society. Contributing society has value. Then the value represents itself in the form of money. I suppose that the first person to begin business in the history of human beings began his business in order to solve something needed to be improved, such as irrigating dry land or cultivating barren land. It was valuable for society, so he earned money in return for it. Therefore, it's nonsense to discuss whether earning money contradicts serving society or not. They are two sides of the same coin.

To sum up, I insists that it is possible that coprporations can maximize the profits and at the same time can maximize the magnitude of the contribution to the society. It's because earning money and serving society have the same meaning in our society, and it is just possible to have both simultaneously.

essay - GMAT: Argument 18

The following is an excerpt from a memo written by the head of a governmental department:

"Neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with this department. We already have a code of ethics that companies doing business with this department are urged to abide by, and virtually all of these companies have agreed to follow it. We also know that the code is relevant to the current business environment because it was approved within the last year, and in direct response to specific violations committed by companies with which we were then working?not in abstract anticipation of potential violations, as so many such codes are."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author, a head of a government department, concludes that the department doesn't need stronger ethics regulations and stronger enforcement mechanisms by stating that it has already had a code of ethics and that it is new and reliable. The argument, however, contains at least two major flaws.

First, the author insists that the ethnic code is relevant to the current business environment because of its newness, since it was approved within last year, but this is unconvincing in today's fast-changing business world. Any organization, especially governmental organizations, should keep its codes or procedures updated, since new types of violation come next to next not only with unintentional affairs but also with intentional malice. For instance, in my country, Japan, recently an affair was closed up. The incident was that government agents had been regularly bribed by taxi drivers that they use. Beer or snacks were served in the taxi they rode by using taxes. Surprising. Therefore, any organization needs to keep a close eye on any new violations possibly affecting the organization.

Second, the author says that the code was created in the form of responding to specific violations committed by companies and then the code is reliable in comparison with to other codes which are abstract. This is the same as the code is only for incidents that happened actually in the past and cannot respond to the others. That is, although being specific and realistic is a good thing, finite past experience has by nature a limitation. Therefore, the code should be created not only specifically but also comprehensively by taking examples from the past and by enforcing it from theories and lessons learned from other organizations.

To sum up, although the author tries to convince the readers that the origination the author belongs to, which is a government organization, already has an effective code for any violations, the argument fails to make it convincing owing to the flaws I mentioned above.

blog - Let's get started

I recently have been writing GMAT essays and only uploaded them on my this blog, but I think that now is the time to start writing this English blog. As you may know, my utmost aim is to be like a native speaker in speaking and writing English. Of course, I found every day it very difficult, rather, impossible for me. But, yet, my journey seems to be going on.

I have figured out that writing various topics ranging for instance from about news to one's original story, and just blog, is very useful to hone the English ability, so that I immerse myself in the kind of work.

I bought "Ally McBeal" on Amazon lately. And I see it with English subtitles for my studying English. As people who have seen this know well, there are a lot of "difficult" words such as snappish, impugn, chagrin, for non-native. I check with my dictionary every word, and register it to my word list.


I believe that the dawn come after the dusk.

essay - GMAT: Issue 18

"Some people believe that the best approach to effective time management is to make detailed daily and long-term plans and then to adhere to them. However, this highly structured approach to work is counterproductive. Time management needs to be flexible so that employees can respond to unexpected problems as they arise."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
Why has it been said that time management is useful or essential for doing better jobs not only in business but also in private for a long time. I believe that it is because time management has been simply for helping people do better jobs. Although I agree with the opinion that there's a side effect or a disadvantage in time management, I generally stand for time management for the following two reasons.

First of all, time management is to help people discipline themselves. Although people are created with good will or spontaneous manner, it is also true that people have inclination to evade to "comfortable zone". If there's no time management in place, people may postpone necessary tasks for a selfish reason. To prevent such a situation, time management can provide various benefits to people, such as
schedule or predefined targets. Therefore, I believe that time management is essential for people to do better jobs.

Second, time management also helps people achieve a higher goal. In other words, time management can be objective management for people. That is, when starting to achieve something big, time management will be an indispensable tool for it. For instance, in case a company sets a highly ambitious target like five-time sales figure or double corporate value, the company needs to set not only the target but also detailed milestones toward the supreme goal, such as year-by-year sales figure or monthly customer satisfaction criteria. Time management contains the kind of information and makes it possible to achieve the higher purpose.

As I mentioned, however, there's not only a good thing but also a bad thing. As an example, time management should have room to tackle unexpected affairs or incidents. Generally, to respond to them, time management contains buffers (free timeframe) to take an action for the unexpected matter.

In conclusion, as a whole, I strongly support benefits of time management. Time management can bring us discipline and a tool for higher targets.

essay - GMAT: Argument 17

The following appeared in an article in a consumer-products magazine:

"Two of today's best-selling brands of full-strength prescription medication for the relief of excess stomach acid, Acid-Ease and Pepticaid, are now available in milder nonprescription forms. Doctors have written 76 million more prescriptions for full-strength Acid-Ease than for full-strength Pepticaid. So people who need an effective but milder nonprescription medication for the relief of excess stomach acid should choose Acid-Ease."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The article announces that two nonprescription medications for excess stomach acid are now released, and then the author concludes that one of them, Acid-Ease, is superior to the other, Pepticaid, by citing a statistic data, how many doctors have written the prescription more than the other. This conclusion, however, has two serious flaws, so that it fails to convince the readers.

First, the most important, the author doesn't show the correlation between the prescription and nonprescription version. That is, without explanation of the difference or relationship, even though Acid-Ease has gained more doctor's supports for the prescription version, the readers can't judge whether Acid-Ease for the nonprescription version remain its strengths of the prescription version or not. For instance, if the ingredient of the nonprescription version is much different
from one of the prescription version, it can be inferred that the strength of prescription version is not available in the nonprescription version. Therefore, to strength the argument, the author should have explained characteristics of nonprescription medication and made the readers to be able to understand the
difference.

Second, although the author cites one statistical data, 76 million more prescriptions, which is a number that doctors have written for Acid-Ease compared to Pepticaid, this figure makes no sense without the following necessary information. First, the author should clearly articulate the timeframe of the survey, say, the figure is for one year, or for all time. Then, the author should show a percentage
rather than a number so that the readers can judge how much Acid-Ease is supported by doctors. That is, if the market size of prescription for excess stomach acid is over 1 billion, the difference between Acid-Ease and Pepticaid can be considered quite small.

To sum up, although the author tries to convince the readers that Acid-Ease is a better choice even for nonprescription medication of excess stomach acid, since the argument has two serious flaws that I mentioned above, the author fails to make the conclusion reasonable.

essay - GMAT: Issue 17

"Public buildings reveal much about the attitudes and values of the society that builds them. Today's new schools, courthouses, airports, and libraries, for example, reflect the attitudes and values of today's society."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I agree with the idea that buildings represent the society's attitudes and values to the extent that buildings represent the society's level of modernization. In other words, beyond the extend, I don't agree with the idea, because buildings are more influenced by architectural methods or movement than by people's attitudes and values.

I can take an example of how buildings represent the level of modernization or industrialization: the early Roman era and the late Roman era. To our surprise, the difference between the early Roman's buildings and the late Roman's ones is astonishingly clear in terms of quality. In the early Roman era, the buildings, ranging from resident's houses to bridges to the Colosseums, were brilliant. On the other hand, in the late Roman era, the quality level apparently went down as well as the arts did in accordance with Roman Empire's decline. In the sense, buildings show the society's development level.

At the same time, I believe that buildings are just buildings, and that human beings' attitudes and values cannot be limited to the buildings. It's not happed that buildings perfectly represent our ideas and believes. I also think that buildings are more affected by architectural aspects. That is, for instance, airports around the world are getting similar with each other at time goes. We can infer that they got that from security or design point view. Airports, which are especially function-oriented composures, are similar in United States of America, one of the most advanced country, to in Congo, one of the poorest countries.

In conclusion, I agree with the idea that building shows our ideas or values, but it is limited. We cannot inject our ideas or philosophies into buildings that we construct, and most important our construction methods or the trends much more influence the appearances of buildings.

essay - GMAT: Argument 16

The following appeared as part of an article in the education section of a Waymarsh city newspaper:

"Throughout the last two decades, those who earned graduate degrees found it very difficult to get jobs teaching their academic specialties at the college level. Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh. Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age over the next 10 years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college-level teaching positions in their fields."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author concludes that a labor market for academic job seekers will dramatically improve because the demand will increase in the next 10 years. As an evidence of the upcoming demand, the author cites that more people will be reaching college age in the next 10 years. This argument, however, has several serous flaws.

First, the most important, the author has not clearly mentioned the root cause of difficulty of job seekers for finding academic jobs. Although it seems that the author merely relates the difficulty to low demand, and the author indicates that increasing demand will resolve the current issue, the true reason of the severe situation may be in another place. That is, for instance, the reason why people with graduate degrees have trouble finding their jobs in an academic field is just that the rate of people enrolling universities has been decreasing owning to a nationwide depression, or that the competitive structure for academic jobs has changed for instance to the situation where those who have business experiences are highly competitive. Therefore, since the conclusion is based on the wrong assumption, it is unconvincing.

Second, the author mentions an increasing number of people who reach college age as a source of the demand of academic jobs, but this reasoning is wrong. Admittedly, there's a trend that the demand increases in proportion to the increase of population. However, it is also true that all people who have reached the age don't go to college. Therefore, the author should have shown evidence that clearly shows the increase of demand such as an expected number of college students in the 10 years.

Finally, the author states that Waymarsh University faces more difficult situation than the other universities, and he tacitly makes the readers infer that the situation will also be improved. However, there's no evidence that the increased demand will increase the number of applicants for the university, because the situation of the university may be quite different from the ones of the other universities. For instance, the increased difficulty that those who have degrees of Waymarsh University find the jobs in an academic field may be related to the poor quality of the faculty.

In sum, since the argument have serious flaws that I mentioned above, the author fails to convince the readers that in the next decade the current situation will be mitigated because of the increased demand. To strengthen the argument, the author at least provides the information of causal relationship between the current difficulty and the decreased demand and clear evidence which proves the increased demand in his argument.

essay - GMAT: Issue 16

"Nations should cooperate to develop regulations that limit children's access to adult material on the Internet."*

*The Internet is a worldwide computer network.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I strongly support the idea that nations should cooperate to develop regulations that limit children's access to adult material on the Internet. This belief comes from the necessity of preventing children from inappropriate materials on the Internet and the importance of worldwide collaboration.

I believe that we need to protect our children from violent or sexual materials on the Internet. As the Internet evolves, more and more such kind of sites is increasing in this world. And the development of search engines enables us to find out such kind of sites astonishingly easily. Furthermore, besides such kind of directly deleterious sites, there are a lot of Internet sites that badly affect children's behavior and mental and physical health, ranging for instance from free game sites to men and women's encounter sites. Therefore, I strongly agree with regulations or laws that limit access rights of children, as we do outside the Internet world. For instance, we prohibit children from purchasing some prone magazines and movies in the real world. Why must we not do the same thing in the virtual, Internet world? This is extremely clear for me.

I also agree with the opinion in terms of worldwide cooperation. As is widely known, the Internet makes it possible to grab any information from all around the world. For example, I, living in Japan, can enjoy the presidential election in US or regularly read someone's blog in Israel, and vice versa. Therefore, without tight international cooperation, it's almost impossible to introduce effective policies to improve the situation. For instance, even though Japanese government enacts a certain law to force the Internet service providers to limit its materials to children, some children might come to know there are similar kinds of site in the other countries.

I, however, would like to emphasize a dangerous aspect of such kind of laws. That is, bad policies are likely to hinge the development of good parts of the Internet, and excessive censorship breaches freedom of expression of human beings. Therefore, implementing effective laws and policies, we must be fully careful of excessive, irrational applications of the idea.

To sum up, I'm clearly on the side of supporting limited Internet access for children. I believe, however, it should be to an appropriate extent. With appropriate attitudes and thoughts, we can realize an ideal world even on the Internet.

essay - GMAT: Argument 15

The following appeared as a part of an advertisement for Adams, who is seeking reelection as governor:

"Reelect Adams, and you will be voting for proven leadership in improving the state's economy. Over the past year alone, 70 percent of the state's workers have had increases in their wages, 5,000 new jobs have been created, and six corporations have located their headquarters here. Most of the respondents in a recent poll said they believed that the economy is likely to continue to improve if Adams is reelected. Adams's opponent, Zebulon, would lead our state in the wrong direction, because Zebulon disagrees with many of Adams's economic policies."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The writer of the advertisement concludes that Adams is the best choice for the residents in terms of the leadership in the status's economy. He cites previous year's three numerical data: increased wages, created new jobs, and newly located headquarters. He also mentions that most of the respondents in a recent poll show strong supports to Adams, and states that Adams's opponent would be a bad choice since he opposes Adams's economic policies. Since the argument lacks several important information, the writer fails to convince the readers to vote for Adams.

First, the argument fails to show a causal relationship between Adams's capability in economic policy and three statistical data that the writer regards as Adams's achievements. Certainly, salary increases or a high employment rate is a good symptom for the economy. However, since the writer fails to show the causal relationship, the readers cannot judge whether the economic outcomes come from Adams's policies or not. For instance, if his tenure overlapped with a nationwide economic boom, regardless of his executed economic policies, the status of the state's economy showed good results. Therefore, in terms of the lack of the information, the argument is unconvincing.

Second, although the writer cites a recent poll to support his argument, he should have mentioned more information about the poll: who conducted the poll?, what kind of people most answered the question?, how were they asked in the poll?, and so forth. That is, generally the result of a poll varies with its methods, respondents, and intention of the conductor. For instance, if the survey was conducted by Adams's campaign and it asked only supporters of Adams, it's apparent that the result shows preference to Adams. Therefore, the writer needs to show such kind of data, and if he fails to do that, the argument becomes very weak.

In conclusion, since the writer fails to make the advertisement persuasive owing to the flaws I mentioned above, his conclusion, which is that Adams is the best candidate for the next governor and that his opponent, Zebulon, leads the state in the wrong direction, looks too weak to convince the readers to vote for Adams.

essay - GMAT: Issue 15

"Organizations should be structured in a clear hierarchy in which the people at each level, from top to bottom, are held accountable for completing a particular component of the work. Any other organizational structure goes against human nature and will ultimately prove fruitless."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
Although I perceive the benefits of hierarchy structure, I believe that the structure of any organization depends on the situation where the company stands.

First of all, an optimal organizational structure depends on the company's business, the company's mature level, or other situations. That is, there's no supreme structure in the world. For instance, more and more companies in a fast-changing industry begin adapting more flexible structure like project organization, which is an organization that has a lot of small groups and minimal hierarchies, in order to respond to customer's business needs. Therefore, we can't say, "This is the best organizational structure for all companies at this moment."

I personally believe that, as time goes, more flexible structure is suitable for companies than hierarchy structure. I have no argument with the benefits of a hierarchical structure because the clear chain of command might give the organization better results especially when the organization faces emergent situations (The typical example is an army). At the same time, however, the structure has drawbacks. For instance, it has a tendency to be bureaucratic; People begin to focus only on their own tasks and interests, and not to pay 6attention on others; The departments are irritated by each other because a conflict of interests occurs. In this 21 century, I believe that people should be more empowered and freely exert their imagination and creativity to achieve a higher target and a higher purpose, because by their nature they have free minds and desire to achieve a higher goal.

In conclusion, I agree that there is a benefit to adapt a hierarchical structure in the organization, but we can't say that the structure is all the best for all kinds of organization. It's because the optimal structure varies with the situations. In addition of this, I believe that more and more companies will begin to adapt more flexible structure to harness people's possibilities.