Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my divis

Question

Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers.
General manager: Why?
Division manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.
General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the general manager's objection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vitechs?

(A) Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.

(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.

(C) Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.

(D) The average productivity of employees in the general manager's company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors.

(E) The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to maintain than Microton computers.

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi CARK,

Let me paste the question here for easy reference:

Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers.
General manager: Why?
Division manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.
General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the general manager's objection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vitechs?

(A) Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.
(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.
(C) Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.
(D) The average productivity of employees in the general managerтАЩs company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors.
(E) The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to maintain than Microton computers.

You are correct till here in your understanding of the argument.

Please remember whenever you read an option statement, you need to read that within the context of the argument. What is the given context? The given context is that currently the company trains its employees for Microton computers. Right?

Now, tell me what is so new thing that you find in option A? If the company currently trains its employees to use Microton computers, then currently employees should be supposed to attend some training programs. Isn't it? We can't say whether GM or DM can change the training process, but using common sense, we can say that if the company starts hiring trained people, then it may not need to have these workshops. Right? So, these workshops might not be fixed costs.

Also, if you read this option clearly, it explicitly says "Currently"; it is something which happens currently and probably may not happen in the future. So, this option statement only tells us about the present when we need to train employees for Microton computers.

Even if you ignore what I said so far and just say that workshop is a cost to the company and hence, option A weakens the claim of GM, in that case too, option A is too mild a weakener as compared to option C. Think about it. Here, we are just considering the cost of a workshop whereas option C talks about "much higher salaries". Definitely, option C much more strongly indicates that the cost of hiring trained people will be higher.

If you say that the argument is only concerned about training costs and no other costs, then you are not looking at it from a real life perspective; probably, you are applying the lens of formal logic, which is too myopic and generally doesn't work well in GMAT argument, where real life logic is tested.

If DM is talking about saving training costs, it does not mean that he is not at all concerned about other costs at all. Common sense wise, he wants to reduce the costs by reducing training costs. Try to apply your real life reasoning here. Would you meet a manager who says that I just want to reduce my hiring costs by 30% even though my operational costs may increase 3 times? Not really. Right?

Therefore, even though the argument only talks about training costs, it is essentially talking about costs to the division. Therefore, option C is relevant and correct as explained previously.

Does it help?

Thanks,
Chiranjeev

giddi77 · Answer

C stands tall and clear. Unless I have missed something in the argument.

General Manager's argument is based on the reasoning that people with expereince can be hired easily. C provides evidence against his reasoning and hence undermines his objection.

cool_jonny009 · Answer

Pls anybody explain why A is wrong .

BTW OA is C

ps_dahiya · Answer

I think A is not talking about the cost. Here Division manager is more concerned about the cost savings as a result of traning activities.

whamberto · Answer

I have chosen the answer C:

A. This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the argument made by the general manager. It may sound like the cost is high to train all employees, but we are concerned only with "training new staff."

B. This answer choice tends to support the argument. The reason is because if new staff were trained on Vitech, it sounds like many of them would change companies. This provides another reason not to switch over.

C. This is the correct answer. The general manager assumes that hiring Microton experts is easy to do and relatively inexpensive. However, if the cost of these experienced users is higher than to train new employees for Vitech, then this argument is weakened.

D. We are not concerned about the average productivity.

E. We are only concerned with the training costs for new staff, not the high costs of replacement parts.

dentobizz · Answer

Bumping for review and further discussion*.

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CARK · Answer

What is the problem in A?

My analysis

Division manager wants to replace the M computers with V computers because V costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.

GM says that there is no need for training if DM hires only people who know how to use M Computer

Option A : Currently all employees in the company are requiredto attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.

This is applicable to all the employees and the DM or GM cannot change this requirement. So even if we hire staff that know M computer the basic workshop is to be attended.

Option C : Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.

The argument is concerned with training cost and appointing experienced employees… Why we need to salary factor for weakening the argument.

Please let me know what is wrong in the above analysis.

BloombergKasia · Answer

The conversation between DM and GM takes places because DM wants to decrease the costs. That's why the argument about salary (C) is relevant - employees' salaries are a cost to the company. If higher salaries are to be paid to new employees just because they are trained to use M computers, then DM's position is strengthened.
 Answer A only tells us that all employees need to attend the training to use Microton computers. However, this choice does not specify who pays for the training. Thus, the fact that all employees are trained to use M computers does not help decrease costs. Only if we knew that it was the employees who covered the cost of training, we could treat this argument as relevant.

EBITDA · Answer

Here is my analysis of each of the options:

Division Manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers.
General Manager: Why?
Division Manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.
General Manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the general manager's objection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vitechs?

(A) Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications. 
 This will represent a (fixed) cost for the Company regardless of whether employees are already trained or not. Note also that the option says that all employees are required to attend workshops that relate to  new applications , so even if the Company hires already trained staff, these employees may also need to receive some training on new applications that may arise as a result of technological change or innovation. Hence, this option neither weakens nor strengthens the GM's objection. 
(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before. 
 This option neither weakens nor strengthens the GM's objection. This may be a disadvantage for the Company if it trains its staff and these employees leave, but the Company may also benefit from this as it is able to hire already trained staff from other companies.  
(C) Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers. 
 The GM proposes to hire skilled staff in order to avoid the training cost of new joiners. However, if skilled workers command much higher salaries, the cost saved due to not having to train new staff is offset by the additional salaries of the new skilled employees. Therefore, it is the correct answer.   
(D) The average productivity of employees in the general manager's company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors. 
 Out of scope. Totally irrelevant.  
(E) The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to maintain than Microton computers. 
 This would strengthen the GM's objection, as the computers proposed by the DM would be more expensive to maintain. However, we are not concerned with the maintenance cost, but with the cost of training new staff.

I would appreciate that you would share your thoughts on my analysis of the question and the answers.

Sneha2021 · Answer

VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja

(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.
Why B is incorrect?
If employee changes the company more readily, there is a need to hire and train new staff frequently. So the low training cost of Vitech makes sense. This statement strengthens the DM's position.

(C) Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.
Why I felt C is incorrect because GM's objection is based on training cost. It seems GM doesn't care about the cost part. Then why we have considered effect of cost to weaken the GM's objection.

Overall I think DM's argument focuses on freshers whereas GM's argument focuses on experienced people. So we need a strong reason to hire freshers and train new people instead of hiring experienced people. I tried to evaluate options basis this thought process.

Please let me know where I went wrong in my analysis.

KarishmaB · Answer

Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers. It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.

The DM wants to replace Microton with Vitech because it is cheaper to train on Vitech.

General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.

GM says that they don't need to switch because training is not req at all (so all cost is saved). Just hire people who already know Microton (the one is use currently).

We need to weaken the GM's objection. He says that we should just hire people who already know Microton. What will weaken his point? What can the DM say now?
That people who already know Microton are very expensive to hire. We will be spending too much money in that case and not really saving cost.
This is our option (C).

(A) Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.

This tells us why DM's point makes sense. It doesn't weaken GM's point.

(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.

Whether they learn Microton or Vitech, once they learn, they change job more readily. So having either Microton or Vitech doesn't impact this. If we hire people who already know computers, they will leave easily. If we hire people and train them on Vitech, they again will leave easily after training. Since our point of discussion is not whether to train people or not, this is irrelevant. In either case, the company needs trained people only and they will all leave readily.

(D) The average productivity of employees in the general manager's company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors.

Irrelevant

(E) The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to maintain than Microton computers.

This is another way in which GM could have countered DM's proposal. It doesn't weaken GM's proposal. It weaken DM's proposal.

Answer (C)

750Barrier · Answer

hello,

In A , it supports DM's reason of bringing the change, as you also said. However, it also weakens GMs point. how? Ans - so, if all of the employees have to be trained, and since GM meant that 'dont train and hire new who are equipped', then would it make sense to change the entire employee base? if GM sees that if his suggestion is followed, entire population of comp has to be changed.
Did i make my point?

would like to hear your thoughts.. !

MohiniSrivastava · Answer

I was initially confused between A and C as well. But this additional detail in Option C made me switch to Option A (same reasoning as yours):

"...prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers"  : This, IMO, went a bit a extreme (no experience in the use of computers, not the specific computer type in question but computers in general).

Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my divis

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Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my divis

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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