1. Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?A. The growth/share matrix was a failure as an acquisition research tool, and hurt many corporations.
B. The growth/share matrix, though eagerly embraced at first, could not completely solve the problems it sought to address.
C. Corporations that acquire holdings that are both overly diversified and unrelated will not succeed in the business world.
D. Management style should be of primary concern when a corporation is deciding which divisions to retain and which to divest.
E. No one corporate tool can ever compensate for a lack of management skills and well-thought-out acquisition planning.
2. According to the passage, all of the following were problems associated with corporations’ reliance on the growth/share matrix EXCEPTA. the overestimation by the matrix of the negative effect that debt might have on a corporation.
B. not considering divisions’ relation to one another within each corporation’s holdings.
C. the failure of the matrix to compensate for the lack of knowledge the corporations had about their own holdings.
D. the matrix’s inability to correctly order divisions within their overall industries.
E. the matrix’s lack of focus on a corporation’s ability to manage its acquisitions.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author suggests which of the following concerning some corporations during the energy crisis of 1973?A. The troubles of these corporations were related to problems of conforming their management styles to their new holdings.
B. Lack of fuel led many companies to have trouble powering their acquisitions.
C. Corporations’ reliance on the growth/share matrix led them to mismanage their holdings.
D. Overenthusiastic buying of smaller companies left many corporations unwieldy and difficult to manage.
E. Too little diversification forced companies to find a tool to estimate the relative success of companies with whose fields they were unfamiliar.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the original intention of the growth/share matrix was toA. indicate which smaller companies were successes and thus good buys for corporations
B. counter the chaos of the heyday of acquisition and diversification of the 1960s and 1970s
C. inform parent companies which of their holdings were doing well in relation to their own fields
D. present companies with a way to counter the faltering of their successes during the energy crisis of 1973
E. alleviate the problems associated with corporations’ underestimation of the amount of debt they could acquire