XAT 2014 — Decision Making Question 21
Read the following case-let and choose the best alternative for the questions that follow.
Ajay was thinking deeply about a problem that his organization, a business consulting company, faced. Globalization had affected his company like many other companies. Despite the downturn, the current revenues remained healthy. However, Ajay knew it was inevitable that the company could not do business the same way. The complexity of managing the business had increased with time. Consultants were under pressure to deliver good and innovative solutions. The organization had consultants from different age groups having a good mix of domain and industry expertise. It was a flat organization with three levels. The biggest challenge for Ajay was to have consultants with latest knowledge who would also earn revenues. Getting additional business was a challenge as all the consultants were busy and it was very difficult to hire new consultants.
Ajay was to retire in five years and he wanted to leave behind a legacy. Order the following activities, from the most important to the least important, that Ajay should undertake in next five year:
- Do nothing.
- Set a future direction for the organization in these challenging times.
- Benchmark performance with respect to the best consulting company in industry.
- Empower senior consultants and at the same time seek opinion of all others for handling future challenges.
- Infuse fresh thinking by hiring outsiders.
Choose the best option from the following sequences
Answer & solution
- A
1, 2, 3, 4
2, 3, 4, 5
- C
3, 4, 2, 1
- D
2, 5, 3, 1
- E
2, 5, 4, 3
Statement 1 as a course of action is out of question, given that Ajay has been mentioned as being concerned about the well-being of his company. Eliminate options 1, 3 and 4.
The only difference between options 2 and 5 is that option 2 gives benchmarking the performance of the company with the best in the industry priority, while option 5 does not. Given that Ajay wants to set the situation straight within the next five years, statement 3 should be one of his first priorities.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.