As part of its growth strategy, the company is looking to apply...

Question

As part of its growth strategy,  the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding their geographical reach.

(A) the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding their geographical reach 
(B) the company’s plan is to apply global strategies using local insights and to expand its geographical reach 
(C) the company, in addition to expanding its geographical reach, is also looking to apply global strategies using local insights 
(D) the company is looking at applying global strategies and expanding its geographical reach, using local insights 
(E) the company’s plans are for applying global strategies, using local insights, and expanding its geographical reach

firas92 · Accepted Answer

Splits:

1. the company / the company’s plan(s)
2. their geographical reach / its geographical reach
3. looking at / looking to

Breakdown:

With regard to the non underlined part (As part of its growth strategy), we can deduce that it is illogical for a company's plan to have a growth strategy and it is indeed the company that could have a growth strategy.

Go with " the company " in the first split

"The company" is a singular noun and therefore " its geographical reach " agrees in number

" Looking to " is the right idiomatic phrase

Answer Choices:

(A) is eliminated because of the use of " their geographical reach "

(B) & (E) are eliminated because of the use of " the company’s plan "

(D) is eliminated because of the use of " looking at "

Answer is  (C)

SSM700plus · Answer

I was stuck between C & A.

For obvious reason, A is incorrect because of -  along with expanding their geographical reach  .

Isn't that -  in addition to & is also looking   redundant in Choice C??

Can someone help me to figure out the best way to believe why Choice C is right??

TarunTilokani · Answer

As part of its growth strategy, the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding their geographical reach.

(A) the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding  their  geographical reach

(B)  the company’s plan  is to apply global strategies using local insights and to expand its geographical reach

(C) the company, in addition to expanding its geographical reach, is also looking to apply global strategies using local insights

(D) the company is  looking at  applying global strategies and expanding its geographical reach,  using local insights

(E)  the company’s plans  are for applying global strategies, using local insights, and expanding its geographical reach

As part of its growth strategy can't modify company's plan it has to modify company hence eliminate E and B

The company is singular hence their can't be used for company. eliminate A

The phrase looking at applying is awkward and unidiomatic. Also, the placement of using local insights after the comma incorrectly implies that it applies to both— applying and expanding. Eliminate D

Answer (C)

goaltop30mba · Answer

How can using refer to growth strategies?

*Growth strategies using local insights* seems illogical as using local insights cannot modify growth strategies..

Growth strategies, using local insights.. the comma before using local insights makes the meaning okay as using local insights, due to comma, is referring to the company..

AjiteshArun  am I right? If not then kindly explain...

Look forward to hearing from you...

Regard, 
Adit

Posted from my mobile device

gvij2017 · Answer

I am also curious about this redundancy.

AjiteshArun · Answer

I agree with you. The way  using  has been used in option C is not particularly good.

harshbhushan · Answer

I feel option "B" can also be the answer. As per my understanding, a possessive pronoun can refer to a possessive noun. Here "its" can refer to "company's" making the "Plan" to be the subject and "is" to be the verb. Please correct me if I am wrong and if there is anything that I am not understanding properly.

abhik1502 · Answer

Option C would have been better if,

1. there would have been comma before using
2. "in addition to expanding its geographical reach" would have acted as verb modifier rather than noun modifier modifying noun "company".

David nguyen · Answer

I eliminated (C) right off the bat just cause the that as well.

Had the answer choice been this way: "(C) the company, in addition to expanding its geographical reach, is also looking to apply global strategies, using local insights", I would have been considered (C).

Could experts please throw some light on this question? Thanks.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

Answer: C

(A) The use of  their  is ambiguous because it can refer to  strategies  or  insights .

(B) Since the sentence starts with a modifying phrase, what follows the comma should be the  company  and not its  plan .

(C) The correct answer.

(D) The phrase  looking at applying  is awkward and unidiomatic. Also, the placement of  using local insights  after the comma incorrectly implies that it applies to both— applying and expanding .

(E) Same as B.

Fdambro294 · Answer

I had originally went with C because I saw the same redundancy issue. 
So I switched to D.

Now, I believe a much bigger issue is present in D. The company is only “using local insights” for 1 part of the plan. However, the “comma, present participle” adverbial modifier in D applies to the entire prior sentence. The meaning becomes distorted.

Even though there is a slight redundancy error in C, it has to be the “best” answer out of all 5.

Edit: the official explanation above my post says it better.

Posted from my mobile device

Fdambro294 · Answer

I’m not an expert, but when you have a present participle (“verb -ing”) immediately following a noun phrase, as we have in this sentence, then it is describing that noun.

The growth strategies being employed are what kind of growth strategies? “Strategies using local insight”

I agree that the phrase does seem a little funny. It seems more correct to say that the company while looking at employing the strategies is the entity “using” the local insights. In that case, an adverbial modifier with a comma at the end of the sentence does seem to make more sense.

The problem with D, however, is that the meaning is changed. The “using local insights” applies to both parts of the plan, when the author intended that only 1 part of the plan utilized local insights.

An even bigger problem is the “looking at” incorrect Idiom.

I’m not a fan of this sentence either......

Posted from my mobile device

dragonz91 · Answer

Main sentence: the company is  also  ..... . "also" is clearly redundant in C.

SSM700plus · Answer

Yes, even I thought the same before. But C is the most appropriate choice that conveys proper meaning.

Meaning is the key to solve any SC. Please check the official answer above.

arya251294 · Answer

Aren't   in addition to   and  also   redundant?

Vatsal7794 · Answer

As part of its growth strategy, the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding their geographical reach.

(A) the company is looking to apply global strategies using local insights along with expanding their geographical reach
(B) the company’s plan is to apply global strategies using local insights and to expand its geographical reach
(C) the company, in addition to expanding its geographical reach, is also looking to apply global strategies using local insights
(D) the company is looking at applying global strategies and expanding its geographical reach, using local insights
(E) the company’s plans are for applying global strategies, using local insights, and expanding its geographical reach

Hi Experts

GMATNinja  @VeritasKarishma  EducationAisle   ChrisLele   mikemcgarry   AjiteshArun   egmat   sayantanc2k   RonPurewal   DmitryFarber   MagooshExpert   avigutman   EMPOWERgmatVerbal   MartyTargetTestPrep   ExpertsGlobal5   IanStewart 
other experts  AnthonyRitz

I marked ans as D because how can we put inportant information between Comma?
Initially I was confused between C and D but ultimately marked ans as D

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Vatsal7794 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, this rule applies when the information between commas is presented in the form of a modifying phrase; if the information takes the form of the main clause of the sentence (as is the case in Option D), the information is not presented incorrectly; rather, we say that the important information is modified by extra information on both sides.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

IanStewart · Answer

This is not a good question. It's a prep company question, and like most prep company Verbal questions, it isn't worth studying. Several posts above have pointed out issues with the "OA" (redundancy and an unclear modifier), but there are others. All of the issues the "official explanation" finds in answer D are worse in the "OA" of C. Answer C is a lot more awkward than D, with the two consecutive interrupting comma phrases. And answer C is not idiomatic English -- you "extend your reach", not "expand" it, and you "implement a strategy"; you don't "apply a strategy".

The bigger problem is that the sentence is meaningless. It's just a lot of jargon words strung together. If I read answer C and ask myself "what is this company's strategy?" I have no idea. The company's "growth strategy" seems to involve growing or expanding (of course it does) and "looking to" (which means "thinking about") doing something else. A strategy is a plan of action; thinking about doing something can't be part of a strategy. I also don't know what "applying global strategies" could even mean.

I don't see a good reason to rule out answer D here -- it has some of the same meaning problems as C, but it seems like a better-written sentence to me. It's not, as the OE claims, unidiomatic. "Looking to" is an English idiom, but "looking at" is also an idiom, with a different meaning. There's no way to tell which meaning is intended here. There's also no way to tell whether the company is "using local insights" to both "expand its global reach" and "apply global strategies", or if it will only use local insights to do one of those two things. We'd need to be psychic to guess the meaning the author intends, and you don't need to be psychic to pick the right answer on real GMAT SC questions.

As always, I'd suggest studying exclusively from official Verbal questions -- prep company Verbal questions are almost always problematic for one reason or another.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Vatsal7794

This is indeed a poor question, but one thing I'd recommend taking away from this discussion is that "between commas" is not really a useful idea. Consider this set of sentences:

Ignoring my need for sleep, I left home early.
I left home early, hoping to get good seats. 
Ignoring my need for sleep, I left home early, hoping to get good seats.

In the first two cases, the comma separates an adverbial modifier from the main clause ("I left home early.") The third case is simply a combination of the first two. We have a main clause in the middle, with the commas serving to separate out the two adverbial modifiers. So is the main clause "between commas"? I mean, sure, there's a comma on either side. But that doesn't change the nature of the clause. Similarly, in C of this question, we have an initial modifier, then the subject, then another modifier, then the verb. But that doesn't mean that the subject itself is a modifier set off by commas.

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