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.

story - The Man Was Born 3

The young woman the man met at the time when the man was young was likely to live in a house near his. The woman had a very impressive, lively, high-spirited character. The man thought to himself, "There were a man and a woman in this world."

The man seemed like to be sure about the way he should have followed. The body of the man was built, the soul of the man established, and the brain of the man steeply sharped. The man said to himself, "The time has nearly come."

The time to leave the city seemed to come to the man, because the man spent a certain amount of time in the city. The man felt that was good or bad, but he was still studious and ambitious enough to travel around all the world. The man shouted silently, "The world is waiting for me!"

This meant also the man needed to force himself to say something to the woman he met in the city at a thunderous situation, which would always make him reticent afterward. Since the man was still young, the man happened to have trouble keeping himself disciplined. "But, I need to go." he muttered.


To be continued...

news - Great Sichuan Earthquake

On 12 May 2008, an earthquake with 8.0 magnitude hit sichuan province in China. As of May 31, 68,977 people were killed, 367,854 injured, and 17,974 missed. This is the biggest earthquake in China since 1976.


I feel deeply sorry to the people who passed away in this earthquake and the people who lost their families and friends in this very sad earthquake.

essay - GMAT Analysis of Issue3

Question:
"Corporations and other businesses should try to eliminate the many ranks and salary grades that classify employees according to their experience and expertise. A 'flat' organizational structure is more likely to encourage collegiality and cooperation among employees."

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:
These days, many companies pursuit organizational excellence in order to achieve high profitability and everlasting growth, resulting in a wide variety of organizational structures being adopted. In terms of classification of employees, it's also said that there's a wide variety of structure model at present.

In the early stage of history of corporation, highly structured organization model was adopted at many companies. There were apparent benefits including a simple chain of command and clear roles and responsibilities. As development of corporate strategies and rapid environmental changes like globalism proceed, however, many companies started adopting flat organizational structure or other advanced structure models like a matrix or project organizational structure.

I agree that flat organizational structure can quickly cope with the changes of business environment or new competitive situations, but I insist that there should be clear classification represented by ranks and salary grades.

Flat organizational structure is good for communication among employees. For instance, one of my client companies got rid of classified grade and promoted flat communication among its employees. They interact each other as equivalent colleagues, and this seemed superficially good at a normal situation.

I mean, however, if something unusual happens, such as a compliant violation or an incident causing its consumers hurt, a clear chain of command and clear roles and responsibilities are required to respond such situations, which is also tantamount to classification of ranks and grades.

Who can take a responsibility of a serious incident that possibly cause the person fired if nobody is at a higher position than others? Who can make a final decision amid great controversy if nobody has power to force others to follow his decision? Therefore, I insist that companies need to have clear grades and ranks to the extent of the level I mentioned above.

In summary, corporations move forward to the era of flat organizational structure, but to some extent corporations need to keep clear ranks and grades in order to respond to various events.

essay - GMAT Analysis of Argument2

Question:
The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company.

"When the Apogee Company had all its operations in one location, it was more profitable than it is today. Therefore, the Apogee Company should close down its field offices and conduct all its operations from a single location. Such centralization would improve profitability by cutting costs and helping the company maintain better supervision of all employees."

Discuss how well reasoned ... etc.

Answer:
Since there are several jumps of logic, the argument doesn't reach the level of convincing people that the proposition will be a good choice for the company.

First, the argument states the correlation between the time when the company had only one location and the fact that the company made good profits at the time, but the correlation cannot be proved in a logical manner. It means that the argument doesn't prove that the profits came from the fact that the company had only one location. Therefore, one can also say that the company generated the profits only because external environment like economic boom contributed to the profitability at the time.

Second, more importantly, although the argument reaches a conclusion that the company will consolidate its branch offices into one location in order to achieve higher profitability and better management carried off by concentrated supervision, but this causal correlation, which is between the action and the result, is not logical enough to make the argument persuasive. It means that even if the company gained high profitability through having only one location, the situation surrounding the company now would be different from one at the time, resulting in the situation that the action will bring a wrong effect like a decrease of its sales.

If the argument has the logical explanations to solve the jumps of logic mentioned above, it will be persuasive enough to convince all stakeholders to agree on and follow the decision. However, if the jumps of logic cannot be wiped out, the conclusion that the argument proposes has a serious flaw that might aggravate the company's condition.

essay - GMAT Analysis of Issue2

Questions:
"It is unrealistic to expect individual nations to make, independently, the sacrifices necessary to conserve energy. International leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential if we expect to protect the world's energy resources for future generations."

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 fully agree on the statement that international leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential for the world's energy resources, but I believe that individual nations can contribute to conserve natural energy without other countries' support.

It's dangerous to state that only if all countries must keep in step altogether, a nation cannot take any action proceeding with natural resource conservation. As a typical example, although this is in terms of greenhouse gas emission, United States of America has been rejecting to ratify the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 on the grounds of the inequality in its participants. United States insists that it's unfair that China and India have no obligation of reducing greenhouse gas emission. However, how sad the result from this attitude will be!

I believe that a nation and its people willingly step forward to save the earth even if other countries hesitate to do that. It's getting clearer as time goes that natural resources have been diminishing and eventually will vanish! Especially fossil fuel is in the line of exhaustion, resulting in record high gas oil prices recently observed. We face literally the fierce urgency of now.

International leadership and worldwide cooperation are vitally important, but they come to realize only if the respective nations commit themselves and take concrete actions. Therefore, I'd like to emphasize that an individual action comes first and world cooperation comes second. We need to bear in mind that every single step can change the world.

essay - GMAT Analysis of an Argument1

Question:
The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods.

"Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrates twenty-fifth birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits."

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underline the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.


Answer:
This argument contains two clearly illogical elements: ignorance of difference between color firm processing and frozen food processing, and leap of logic in relationship between performance and experience.

First, although the argument cites an improvement in color firm processing as an example of a result of continuous improvement, this example is not enough to prove the effect. Since the improvement might have been brought by a technological invention, not by the experience that the industry had gained, this example can't strengthen the argument.

Second, the argument simply connects age of the company with performance, which is reduced costs in this context, that the company achieves. If this logic were true, all companies in the world would decrease their costs and make profits. However, the fact is different. For instance, as time goes, unexpected issues rise in front of companies and they deteriorate their success in spite of the fact that the companies have been gaining experience. Since experience is merely a part of its performance, the argument is illogical.

The argument needs a better example and a more logical explanation as mentioned above. By exemplifying continuous improvement citing a clear example and strengthening the statement adding some explanations of the profit the company will gain, the argument becomes clearer and more convincing.

essay - GMAT Analysis of an Issue1

Question:
In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In other countries, there is little or no censorship.

In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs? Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.

Answer:
I know both types of the country; the United States of America is a typical example for a country whose government has almost no censorship; China, conversely, is a typical example for a country whose government has strict censorship on its media. After explaining and demonstrating both types of censorship using these two countries as the examples, I'll state my conclusion on this issue, which is that government should minimize its censorship to a reasonable extent.

The United States of America found on democracy and liberty. Its people have been enjoying freedom and equality, although there were clear exceptions such as slavery and racial discrimination. I often watch their television program ranging from political news to sitcom. When watching the TV, I always feel in this country there's no taboo or prohibition. For example, at a TV drama named "Friends", people talk about gay or surrogate pregnancy in a light-hearted way. There's a fundamental environment in the country to express anything even considered taboo in other countries.

On the other hand, the United States of America has a problem stemming from its censorship policy. It's too free. For instance, sex and violence are everywhere in the country, and this fact surely affects its people's behaviour. As a tragic example, school shooting at Columbine High School happened years ago in the country can be considered the result of this no censorship policy. We can easily imagine the criminals spent their lives watching violent movies and TV programs, which affected their mental attitude. This is a negative aspect of the country's censorship policy.

I traveled to China two years ago. Although I knew there was censorship in the country even before traveling there, I found a lot of clear evidences that the government exacted censorship and the effects of the censorship through the trip. First of all, I was surprised at the fact that there are nearly no sex and violent materials, as I visited one of bookstores in Beijing. There was no pornography in the shelf at all; on the contrary, in Japan, my country, there are many porno magazines at almost all convenience stores that exist more than 10,000 nationwide. I saw the fact a good aspect of censorship generally thought as a bad system.

I believe, however, that censorship by government clearly has a dangerous aspect that might suppress its people's freedom of expression. Furthermore, there's a possibility of educating its people in a wrong direction. For example, a string of turmoil relating Tibet happened before China Olympic clearly showed us the serious effects of censorship. I couldn't believe why Chinese people strongly believed their justice on Tibet affairs, before I realized that the attitude came from their education the government imposed to them with limited and skew information about its incursion to Tibet after the World War II. This is a serious damage of censorship for its nation.

As a conclusion, except for some areas where censorship are clearly required such as child porn and racial discrimination, I think that government should not censor on its media and should think freedom of expression a vital right of people in this contemporary era, in which people can live for their happiness through knowing the truth of the world.

story - The Man Was Born 2

The young man enrolled a school named School of School, after getting into a land called Land of Land. He seemed satisfied with the school, mainly because he ran into modest, diligent people and quickly immersed himself in the learning environment.

Time passed rapidly. The young man rapidly gained great wisdom that human beings had gained. He tried to learn what he wanted to learn the way the wise learned what they had learned. The way was neither more nor less than a clear way for him. He mused, "The time has come."

At a night, when trees rung, and breeze blew, he finally realized the truth of the world. He at lease could say this, "There are what there is and what there is not." This thunderous idea caught him and consigned him to the world of everlasting contemplation.

But he should have admitted a fact that he encountered another philosophy. The philosophy forced him to be silent than ever before. The young man was a man. And the man met a young woman.


To be continued.

news - Political Mess on Provisional Gas Tax

I'll report a turmoil that happened in Japan.

From March to late April, political disorder caused Japanese people to be furious against their government. Its provisional gas tax expired at the end of March, and then gas prices in Japan went down around 30 yen a liter. Although the nationals enjoyed this windfall profits, it wouldn't last so long.

At the end of April, a new gas tax was introduced, and the gas prices went up steeply around the original prices. People got furious, and their trusts to government collapsed to the ever-worst extent.

The root cause of this matter was a lack of leadership of the ruling party, LDP, and the prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, as well as namely twisted power structure, which is that LDP dominates in the lower house while the opposition party, DPJ, dominates in the upper house.

I, who always see Barack Obama, who has a new kind of leadership, and dynamic American politics, feel deep disappointment in this situation, and hope that new politics will emerge in the near future even in this country presumably considered a developing country in terms of politics.


This is a report from a person who struggles to attain a certain level of language skills.

essay - TOEFL11

Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should give the same amount of money to their students' sports activities as they give to their university libraries. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Answer:
If we can say that school should be a place where students learn, there's no reason that we use the same amount of money into sports activities as libraries at universities. It's because library is a place where students learn, whereas sports activity is just supplement for their studies.

Fist of all, library provides a perfect place where the students can learn. They can read and research a wide variety of books and materials, which they can't take advantage of anywhere other than library. Therefore, universities should invest their funds in their libraries.

Needless to say, sports activities are also important for students learning at universities. A maxim says, "A health mind fits a health body." Agreeing on this, I also agree that universities should invest their money in sports activities. However, it should be to some extent. It means sports activities should not be a major part of school lives compared to studying or other learning activities.

As a conclusion, I'd like to say again that universities should not invest their funds in sports activities at the same amount of investment in their libraries, if they think the places are primarily for studying, not for playing.

story - The Man Was Born

A man was born in a country. The man started walking awhile after his legs touched the ground. The man had no name at the time, since nobody gave him his name. There was nothing surprising.

As years passed, the man became a boy. The boy had two arms and two legs. He was almost a monkey. Because he looked like a monkey. But one day he realized that he was human. He shouted, "I am a man! The time has come!" That was his first remark toward the world where he was born.

Years passed further. The boy became a young man. He started learning new things with unbelievable speed. Then he thought of the situation in which he was, "What's happening on me? What's hope we can have?" Then he started reasoning with astonishing speed. "Yes. There's hope. That is what hope is." He felt he got satisfied gradually.


To be continued...