PrepTest 130, Section 1, Question 16
Corporate businesses, like species, must adapt to survive.(33 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- ANo business can(7 more words not shown)
- BAs a business(10 more words not shown)
- CDifferent corporations have(4 more words not shown)
- DIf a business(11 more words not shown)
- EA business cannot(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A business may need to change when its market changes. Imagine a soft-drink company committed to making only sugary drinks while its customers increasingly want sugar-free options. To survive, it might have to change that commitment.
The species comparison helps us understand adaptation, but watch what happens in the conclusion. The premise says a business sometimes must change its core philosophy. The conclusion says it sometimes must become a different corporation.
What we’re looking for
Does changing your philosophy make you a different corporation? Perhaps the same company could adopt a new philosophy and carry on. For the required assumption, I want a connection ruling out that possibility: a change in core corporate philosophy amounts to becoming a different corporation. Otherwise, the need for the first change doesn't establish the need for the second.
Working the answers
- A
The premise says that sometimes adaptation requires a new philosophy, not that every business must change its philosophy to survive. Other businesses could adapt while keeping their philosophy intact. A is broader than the argument requires and doesn't supply the connection to becoming a different corporation.
- B
A business might become less efficient and fail rather than surrender its philosophy. Or it might restore efficiency without that change. The argument doesn't require philosophy changes to occur invariably as efficiency declines. It needs to connect a philosophy change, when required, with corporate identity.
- C
This compares different corporations at a given time. It doesn't tell us whether one corporation remains the same corporation after changing its philosophy. Even if distinct companies had different philosophies, a company could change its own philosophy without becoming a new company. The relation we need is between change over time and identity.
- D
Keeping a philosophy intact doesn't guarantee survival. A company might stay committed to a product customers no longer want and fail. The argument gives conditions needed for survival; it doesn't say that preserving the philosophy is enough to ensure it.
- ECorrect
This says a business cannot change its core philosophy while remaining the same corporation. Now the argument's steps connect: survival requires adaptation, some adaptation requires a philosophy change, and that change requires becoming a different corporation. The answer rules out our objection that the same corporation could simply adopt a new philosophy.
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