V39-05

Question

Strategy Consultant: Company X has a lower percentage of employees working remotely than any other company of comparable size in the industry. Generally, companies with more remote employees have lower overall productivity than companies with fewer remote employees. Therefore, the primary reason Company X has higher productivity than any other company of comparable size in the industry must be its low percentage of employees working remotely.
 
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the strategy consultant’s argument?

A. Company X’s remote employees are more productive than the remote employees of any other company of comparable size in the industry.
B. The percentage of employees working on-site is higher in Company X than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.
C. Nationwide, companies without remote employees typically are less profitable than companies with a high percentage of remote employees.
D. In Company X, a lower proportion of employees work remotely than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.
E. Company X’s on-site employees have productivity rates no higher than the productivity rates of on-site employees at other companies of comparable size in the industry.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

Strategy Consultant: Company X has a lower percentage of employees working remotely than any other company of comparable size in the industry. Generally, companies with more remote employees have lower overall productivity than companies with fewer remote employees. Therefore, the primary reason Company X has higher productivity than any other company of comparable size in the industry must be its low percentage of employees working remotely.
 
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the strategy consultant’s argument?

A. Company X’s remote employees are more productive than the remote employees of any other company of comparable size in the industry.
B. The percentage of employees working on-site is higher in Company X than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.
C. Nationwide, companies without remote employees typically are less profitable than companies with a high percentage of remote employees.
D. In Company X, a lower proportion of employees work remotely than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.
E. Company X’s on-site employees have productivity rates no higher than the productivity rates of on-site employees at other companies of comparable size in the industry.

A. Incorrect. This statement does not really help us to strengthen our argument, perhaps the opposite, it weakens the argument, though largely irrelevant.
 
B. Incorrect. This statement tells us what we already know - that company X has more people working in the office vs. remotely. Thus, we can eliminate it as not helpful.
 
C. Incorrect. The statement of profitability is not relevant to the argument. We are talking about productivity, which may or may not be correlated to profitability. Thus we can safely rule this choice out.
 
D. Incorrect. This option simply restates a part of the premise and does not offer any new information that strengthens the strategy consultant’s argument regarding the reasons behind Company X’s higher productivity.
 
 E. Correct Answer.  This is a tricky one but it is the only strengthen statement actually. If the Company X on-site employees are no more productive than on-site employees at other companies, that would mean their higher productivity would be not because they had super-productive on-site employees but because there are fewer remote employees who are clearly less productive, so they don’t have super-stars on-site who make the company shine, but they just have fewer remote folks, thus strengthening the conclusion that it is indeed the lower number of remote employees that is the reason for higher productivity.

Answer: E

poojaarora1818 · Answer

I don’t quite agree with the solution. Why is option B incorrect? Also, the difficulty level posted on the forum page is hard, but on the test, it shows a medium difficulty level.  KarishmaB   MartyMurray  please address my doubt?

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

Hi  poojaarora1818  let me try to help

Responding to your query for difficulty level, the difficulty level in the forum changes as per the no. of attempts. Suppose most of the test takers found this question hard and marked the incorrect option; then difficulty adapts as per the responses. But in mocks its difficulty is fixed and the mocks has its own pool; there the difficulty doesn't change as it happens in forums.

Now coming to the argument

Strategy Consultant: Company X has a lower percentage of employees working remotely than any other company of comparable size in the industry. Generally, companies with more remote employees have lower overall productivity than companies with fewer remote employees. Therefore, the primary reason Company X has higher productivity than any other company of comparable size in the industry must be its low percentage of employees working remotely.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the strategy consultant’s argument?

Authors conclusion- the Main reason for Company X's higher productivity than any other company of comparable size in the industry must be company X low percentage of employees working. On what basis he reached to this reason? in Company X has lower percentage of employees working remotely than any other company of comparable size in the industry and in general those companies have more remote employees have lower overall productivity in comparison to companies with fewer remote employees.
 
 Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the strategy consultant’s argument?

Now question asks to find the option which most strengthen out of the given options.

What can be the possible strengthener? The passage tells X is the only reason(because in conclusion it is mentioned "must") for Y

So the strengthener would Z cannot led to Y, or Z cannot led to both X and Y, or No X then No Y. Or any option which increases our belief that X is only reason. Now lets evaluate option choice

A. Company X’s remote employees are more productive than the remote employees of any other company of comparable size in the industry.- Irrelevant comparison given, we need to strengthen the reasoning or conclusion but this option does nothing 
 B. The percentage of employees working on-site is higher in Company X than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.- Again onsite employee comparison with other comparable size company wont help to increase the belief 
 C. Nationwide, companies without remote employees typically are less profitable than companies with a high percentage of remote employees.- Argument is about lower remote not without remote 
 D. In Company X, a lower proportion of employees work remotely than in any other company of comparable size in the industry.- this one is already given so no. 
 E. Company X’s on-site employees have productivity rates no higher than the productivity rates of on-site employees at other companies of comparable size in the industry.- So by elimination we have reached E, but lets check why this one is correct. This option says productivity rate of on-site employees in company X is not higher than on-site employees at other companies of comparable size. If this the case, we know that the Company X has higher productivity than any other company of comparable size in the industry, and if the on-site productivity is not more than, then we are eliminating the one factor which may be the reason for higher overall productivity, hence this one is increasing our belief by eliminating the other factor.

Hope this helps

poojaarora1818 · Answer

Thanks for the detailed response, Abhishek! So, option E gives us a strong reason to believe that  Company X has a lower percentage of employees working remotely than any other company of comparable size in the industry, by telling us that the productivity rate of on-site employees in Company X is not higher than that of on-site employees at other companies of comparable size. Got it! Now it's very clear to me.

pharo31 · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

V39-05

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards