CAT 2002 — VARC Question 37
Fill the gaps in the passage below with the most appropriate word from the options given for each gap. The right words are the ones used by the author. Be guided by the author's overall style and meaning when you choose the answers.
In a large company, ______1______ people is about as common as using a gun or a switch-blade to ______2_______ an argument. As a result, most managers have little or no experience of firing people, and they find it emotionally automatic, as result, they often delay the act interminably, much as an unhappy spouse will prolong a bad marriage. And when the firing is done, it's often done clumsily, with far worse side effects than are necessary.
Do the world-class software organizations have a different way of firing people? No. But they do the deed swiftly, humanely, and professionally.
The key point here is to view the fired employee as a "failed product" and to ask how the process ______3_______ such a phenomenon in the first place.
The sentences given in each question, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentences is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the four given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.
- Having a strategy is a matter of discipline.
- It involves the configuration of a tailored value chain that enables a company to offer unique value.
- It requires a strong focus on profitability and a willingness to make tough trade-offs in choosing what not to do.
- Strategy goes far beyond the pursuit of best practices.
- A company must stay the course even during times of upheaval, while constantly improving and extending its distinctive positioning.
- When a company's activities fit together as a self-reinforcing system, any competitor wishing to imitate a strategy must replicate the whole system.
Answer & solution
ACEDBF
- B
ACBDEF
- C
DCBEFA
- D
ABCEDF
AC is a pair. Sentence A mentions discipline and C elaborates it by telling what kind of discipline. E furthers the idea of discipline given in A and C. Hence, ACE. That itself helps us to eliminate options 2, 3 and 4.
Similarly, DB is a pair. Sentence D says that strategy goes far beyond best practices and B explains sentence D as in what sentence D wants to say.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.