General Awareness
1. Match the Author in the first column with the correct country and book.
Author | Book | Country |
a. Fidel Castro | i. Sliding into Home | 1. Cuba |
b. Kendra Wilkinson | ii Fugitive Pieces | 2. Germany |
c. Anne Michaels | iii. Peeling The Onion | 3. U.S.A. |
d. Gunter Grass | iv. The Strategic Victory | 4. Canada |
A. | a-iv-1, b-i-3, c-ii-4, d-iii-2 | B. | a-i-1, b-ii-4, c-iii-2, d-iv-3 |
C. | a-ii-1, b-iii-2, c-i-3, d-iv-4 | D. | a-iii-1, b-i-2, c-iv-3, d-ii-4 |
2. Match the name of the Operation with the country it is associated with.
Operation | Countries involved |
a. SIMBEX-2010 | i. India & France |
b. GARUDA 2010 | ii. India & Oman |
c. Konkan-2010 | iii. India & Singapore |
d. Eastern Bridge-2009 | iv. India & Britain |
A. | a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv | B. | a-iii, b-i, c-iv, d-ii |
C. | a-ii, b-iv, c-i, d-iii | D. | a-iv, b-iii, c-ii, d-i |
3. How many Indian companies are ranked amongst the top 200 Asia-Pacific corporations in Forbes Asia’s ‘Best Under a Billion’ list for the year 2011?
A. | 20 | B. | 25 |
C. | 30 | D. | 35 |
4. Who among the following is the largest producer of Coffee in the world?
A. | Brazil | B. | Colombia |
C. | India | D. | Indonesia |
5. As per seismic map of India, prepared by Bureau of Indian Standards, what percentage of area of India comes under earthquake zone V (very high risk), IV (high risk) and III (moderate risk)?
A. | 20.5% | B. | 35.7% |
C. | 47.8% | D. | 58.6% |
6. Which of the following will host ‘World Water Summit’ in February 2012?
A. | New Delhi | B. | Mumbai |
C. | Bangaluru | D. | Chennai |
7. Which amongst the following countries had introduced the first polymer currency notes?
A. | Australia | B. | Switzerland |
C. | France | D. | USA |
8. Recently, India has inked a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with which of the following countries for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital?
A. | Uruguay | B. | Paraguay |
C. | Romania | D. | Italy |
9. In the context of WTO meetings, match the place with the name of its Director General and the year in which they reined.
Place | Year | Director General |
a. Singapore | i. 2001 | 1. Mike Moore |
b. Doha | ii. 1996 | 2. Pascal Lamy |
c. Cancun | iii. 2005 | 3. Supachai Panitpakdi |
d. Hong Kong | iv. 2003 | 4. Renato Ruggiero |
A. | a-iii-2, b-ii-4, c-i-3, d-iv-1 | B. | a-i-1, b-ii-4, c-iii-2, d-iv-3 |
C. | a-ii-4, b-i-1, c-iv-3, d-iii-2 | D. | a-iv-2, b-iii-1, c-ii-3, d-i-4 |
10. World’s first virtual card that operates off a mobile wallet linked to Airtel’s mobile commerce offering, Airtel Money, is being launched in which of the following countries?
A. | Kenya | B. | Sudan |
C. | South Africa | D. | Egypt |
11. How many companies have been conferred with ‘Maharatna Status’ till April 2011?
A. | 4 | B. | 5 |
C. | 6 | D. | 7 |
12. India’s first university for urban studies will be set up in which of the following city?
A. | Pune | B. | Jaipur |
C. | Bengaluru | D. | Gurgaon |
13. Under Drought Prone Development Programme, Union-State contribution ratio is :
A. | 50:50 | B. | 60:40 |
C. | 75:25 | D. | 90:10 |
14. The company which recently replaced Reliance Industries as the country’s most valued company is :
A. | NTPC | B. | Coal India |
C. | ONGC | D. | Indian Railways |
15. Match the Scheme with its Related Ministry and the year in which this scheme was launched.
Scheme | Starting Year | Related Ministry |
a. Annapurna | i. 2009 | 1. Ministry of Urban Development |
b. Rajiv Awas Yojana | ii. 1995 | 2. Ministry of Rural Development |
c. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) |
iii. 2000-01 | 3. Ministry of Human Resource Development |
d. Mid-Day Meal Scheme | iv. 2005 | 4. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation |
A. | a-iii-2, b-i-4, c-iv-1, d-ii-3 | B. | a-i-2, b-iv-1, c-ii-4, d-iii-3 |
C. | a-iv-3, b-iii-4, c-i-1, d-ii-2 | D. | a-ii-3, b-i-1, c-iii-4, d-iv-2 |
16. Which one of the following groups is the permanent member of the United Nations Security Council?
A. | France, China, U.K. and Russia | B. | France, Germany, U.K. and Russia |
C. | Germany, China, U.K. and Japan | D. | France, China, Russia and Japan |
17. Match the following countries with their capitals given below :
Countries | Capitals |
a. Armenia | i. Tashkent |
b. Kazakhstan | ii. Yerevan |
c. Turkmenistan | iii. Astana |
d. Uzbekistan | iv. Ashgabat |
A. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv | B. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv |
C. | a–ii, b–iii, c–iv, d–i | D. | a–ii, b–iii, c–i, d–iv |
18. Where was the seventeenth summit of SAARC held in November, 2011?
A. | Male | B. | Addu City |
C. | Colombo | D. | Dhaka |
19. Correctly match the International Occasions with the dates, when they are celebrated :
Occasions | Dates |
a. Wetland Day | i. 30 January |
b. World Leprosy Eradication Day | ii. 2 February |
c. World Heritage Day | iii. 8 March |
d. Women’s Day | iv. 10 April |
A. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv | B. | a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii |
C. | a–ii, b–i, c–iii, d–iv | D. | a–ii, b–i, c–iv, d–iii |
20. Which of the following is not penned by Kalidas?
A. | Meghdootam | B. | Malavikagnimitram |
C. | Vikramorvashiyam | D. | Mrichchakatikam |
21. Arrange the following hills in right order from north to south :
A. | Maikal, Kaimur, Ajanta, Balaghat | B. | Kaimur, Maikal, Ajanta, Balaghat |
C. | Maikal, Kaimur, Balaghat, Ajanta | D. | Kaimur, Maikal, Balaghat, Ajanta |
22. Match the given personalities with the organizations, he/she currently leads :
Personalities | Organizations |
a. World Bank | i. Haruhiko Kuroda |
b. Asian Development Bank | ii. Jim Yong Kim |
c. World Trade Organization | iii. Pascal Lami |
d. International Monetary Fund | iv. Christine Lagarde |
A. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv | B. | a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii |
C. | a–ii, b–i, c–iii, d–iv | D. | a–ii, b–i, c–iv, d–iii |
23. Which of the following organizations has never got the noble prize for peace?
A. | UNICEF | B. | International Labour Organization |
C. | International Committee of the Red Cross | D. | UNESCO |
24. Match the following revolutions with the sectors in which it is introduced :
Revolutions | Sectors |
a. Golden | i. Oil-seeds |
b. Yellow | ii. Horticulture |
c. Silver | iii. Fishing |
d. Blue | iv. Egg |
A. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv | B. | a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii |
C. | a–ii, b–i, c–iii, d–iv | D. | a–ii, b–i, c–iv, d–iii |
25. The Net National Income (NNI) of a nation is equal to which of the following?
A. | Gross Domestic Product - Indirect Taxes | B. | Net Domestic Product + Direct Taxes |
C. | Net National Product - Indirect Taxes | D. | Gross National Product + Direct Taxes |
26. Match the given missiles with their features :
Missiles | Features |
a. Akash | i. Surface-to-air missile |
b. Nag | ii. Anti-tank missile |
c. Sagarika | iii. Submarine launched ballistic missile |
d. Pradyumna | iv. Anti-ballistic missile |
A. | a–i, b–ii, c–iii, d–iv | B. | a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii |
C. | a–ii, b–i, c–iii, d–iv | D. | a–ii, b–i, c–iv, d–iii |
27. In 1954, India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna was awarded to :
A. | C Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru and C V Raman | B. | C Rajagopalachari, S Radhakrishnan and C V Raman |
C. | Jawaharlal Nehru, S Radhakrishnan and C V Raman | D. | Bhagwan Das, M Visvesvarayya and Govind Ballabh Pant |
28. What was India's official rank in the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 released by the World Economic Forum?
A. | 45 | B. | 59 |
C. | 61 | D. | 63 |
29. In the table below match the sessions of the Indian Science Congress with their correct places and the name of the General President of that session :
Sessions | Places | General presidents |
a. 96th | i. Thiruvanantpuram | 1. Geeta Bali |
b. 97th | ii. Shillong | 2. K.C. Pandey |
c. 98th | iii. Chennai | 3. G. Madhvan Nair |
d. 99th | iv. Bhubaneshwar | 4. T. Ramasami |
A. | a–i–1, b–ii–2, c–iii–3, d–iv–4 | B. | a–ii–4, b–i–3, c–iii–2, d–iv–1 |
C. | a–i–1, b–ii–2, c–iv–4, d–iii–3 | D. | a–ii–4, b–i–3, c–iv–2, d–iii–1 |
30. Recently, which of the following young politician has been commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Territorial Army of India?
A. | Abhijit Mukherjee | B. | Rahul Gandhi |
C. | Sachin Pilot | D. | Vivek Singh |
Reading Comprehension
Passage – 1
The development of the bicycle shows how impossible it is to explain the course of events and the development of designs by referring to intrinsic properties of the artifacts. In the 1870s in England, the highwheeled bicycle was developed. It seems a patent mistake: Why build this strange machine instead of using the chain, sprocket, and gears that were known since Leonardo da Vinci’s times to construct the
modern low-wheeled bicycle directly? To find an answer I have sought to trace the meanings that were attributed to the bicycle by different relevant social groups. For women and middle-aged men, the highwheeled bicycle was indeed a dangerous, non- working machine: a loose stone or hole in the road was enough to make one topple head-over-heels. Additionally, the machine made women move at too conspicuous a level among men’s eyes through Victorian streets. Such a bicycle had to lose out in the marketplace, it seems. This is, however, not what happened. The high-wheeled bicycle even became such a commercial success that, for several years, it could be denoted by the term ordinary. It evidently was also a machine that worked well. It was such for a specific relevant social group: the “young men of means and nerve,” athletic, upper- and upper-middle-class men who used the high-wheeled bicycle to impress their ladyfriends in Hyde Park. This relevant social group constituted the “Macho Machine,” whereas the group of women and middle-aged men constructed the “Unsafe Machine.” Using relevant social groups as the entrance for the description, it is thus possible to demonstrate the interpretative flexibility of artifacts. This concept of interpretative flexibility is central to the social constructivist project and, indeed, to most of recent social and historical studies of technology. Demonstrating the interpretative flexibility of an artifact amounts to showing that one seemingly unambiguous “thing” (a technical process, or some material contraption of metal, wood, and rubber as in the case of the bicycle) is better understood as several different artifacts. Each of the different artifacts hidden within that seemingly one “thing” can be traced by identifying the meanings attributed by the relevant social groups. The concept of interpretative flexibility is crucial in countering technical determinism. Indeed, to recognize the interpretative flexibility of artifacts is synonymous with refuting technical determinism. Hence the concept’s key role in the social studies of technology: Technical development can be subjected to social analysis only when it can be seen as being not autonomous and not driven by purely internal dynamics. The use of the concept of interpretative flexibility is thus the raison d’etre of the social studies of technology, the justification for its existence. The concept of interpretative flexibility finds its philosophical and methodological basis in the principle of symmetry. This principle was formulated by Bloor (1973, 1976) for the social studies of science. Bloor argued that, to analyze scientific belief systems, the sociologist of scientific knowledge should be impartial as to the truth or falsity of beliefs. True and false claims were to be analyzed symmetrically, that is, with the same conceptual apparatus. This means that the acceptance of a claim that is now considered to be true should not be explained by its truth content (for example, in terms of a better correspondence with nature), whereas the acceptance of another claim that is currently considered false is explained by referring to, for example, the social circumstance of its conception. “Nature” was not to enter the explanatory endeavor as explanans; rather, it should be the explanandum. Nature was considered not to be the cause of scientific beliefs but the result. Pinch and Bijker (1984) extended this principle to the analysis of technology by arguing that working and nonworking machines were to be analyzed symmetrically. The working of a machine should not be the explanans but should be addressed as the explanandum. The working machine
was not considered as the cause of its success but as the result of its being accepted in relevant social groups. Along these lines I have described the history of bicycles and used the case study to extract a general model for describing cases of technical development. To have such a descriptive model is necessary if a set of comparable case studies is to form the basis for generalizations. The descriptive model should allow the analyst to get into the black boxes of the various case studies but also subsequently to get out of the box again to compare one case with the others. Thus the model should strike a fine balance between getting down to the nuts-and-bolts level of technology and staying at enough analytic distance to allow for cross-case-study comparisons. The social construction of technology (SCOT) model was developed to meet these requirements. I shall briefly summarize its main characteristics, partly introduced in the previous paragraphs. In the SCOT model, relevant social groups form the starting point. Artifacts are, so to speak, described through the eyes of the members of relevant social groups. The interactions within and among relevant social groups constitute the different artifacts, some of which may be hidden within the same “thing.” In that case, the interpretative flexibility of that “thing” is revealed by tracing the meanings attributed to it by the various relevant social groups. With reference to a general methodological adage-that instability is more revealing about a system’s characteristics than stability- it was specified that, in tracing those meanings, the focus should be on the problems and associated solutions that relevant social groups see with respect to the artifact. Such a description would then result in mapping out increasing or decreasing
degrees of stabilization. In this descriptive model, an artifact does not suddenly leap into existence as the result of a momentous act by a heroic inventor; rather, it is gradually constructed or deconstructed in the social interactions of relevant social groups. In a subsequent case study, I used this SCOT model to describe the development of Celluloid and Bakelite. The main purpose of that study was to move one step further than the thick descriptions provided by the descriptive model. Assuming that it is now possible to generate an empirical base of different case studies in terms that enable cross-case comparisons and generalizations, the next task is to develop a conceptual framework for making such generalizations. What can be said about the characteristics that such a conceptual framework requires? I will discuss three such characteristics, related to, respectively, (1) the
“seamless” character of the “web of technology and society,” (2) the change/continuity dimension, and (3) the actor/ structure dimension. It is impossible to make a priori distinctions among, for example, the technical, the social, and the scientific. The case of the invention of Bakelite can illustrate this point.Bakelite was claimed to be the first “truly synthetic” plastic material, successor to the “semisynthetic” Celluloid (made from a base of cellulose from paper and textile wastes) and “natural” plastics, such as ivory, horn, and shellac. Baekeland investigated the chemical condensation reaction between formaldehyde and phenol and modified this in such a way that the resulting reaction product could be molded. Did Baekeland’s success in controlling the violent condensation reaction produce a scientific fact, as he himself claimed and for which he was decorated?
31. What is the central idea of the passage?
A. | To discuss how the SCOT model was developed to meet the requirements of cross-case-study comparisons |
B. | To assess the feasibility of conducting cross-case-study comparisons for technological advancements. |
C. | Technological advances were the result of their being accepted in relevant social groups. | D. | The working machine was not considered as the cause of its success. |
32. According to the passage, what is a feature of the descriptive model?
I. It helped bring the technological advancements closer to the relevant social groups.
II. It helped the researcher abandon analytic distance for cross-case-study comparisons.
III. It helped strike a fine balance between the technological advancements in the case-study comparisons.
IV. It allowed for a narrowing as well as a broadening of perspectives and views.
A. | II and III | B. | Only I |
C. | I and IV | D. | Only IV |
33. “It is impossible to make a priori distinctions…” This line, paraphrased, would mean.
A. An invention cannot be categorized into the technical, the social, or the scientific.
B. It is impossible to make distinctions, independent of experience, among the technical, the social, or the scientific.
C. It is impossible to make an independent distinction among the technical, the social, or the scientific.
D. It is impossible to make distinctions, independent of personal judgement, among the technical, the social, or the scientific.
A. | I and III | B. | Only II |
C. | II and IV | D. | None of the above |
34. Arrange the given concepts in the correct sequence as they appear in the passage.
I. interpretative flexibility
II. principle of symmetry
III. social construction of technology
IV. technical determinism
A. | IV, II, I, III | B. | II, I, III, IV |
C. | I, IV, II, III | D. | I, II, III, IV |
Passage – 2
What is the more likely cause of death in the U.S.: being killed by a shark or by pieces falling from an airplane? Most people will answer that shark attacks are more probable Shark attacks receive far more publicity that deaths from falling plane parts, and they are certainly far more graphic to imagine, especially if you’ve seen Jaws. Yet dying from falling airplane parts is thirty times more likely than being killed by a shark attack. This is an example of availability, a heuristic which causes major investor errors. According to Tversky and Kahneman, this is a mental rule of thumb by which people “assess the frequency of a class or the probability of an event by the ease with which instances or occurrences can be brought to mind”. As with most heuristic, or mental shortcuts, availability usually works quite well. By relying on availability to estimate the frequency or probability of an event, decision-makers are able to simplify what might otherwise be very difficult judgments.
This judgmental shortcut is accurate most of the time because we normally recall events more easily that have occurred frequently. Unfortunately our recall is influenced by other factors besides frequency, such as how recently the events have occurred, or how salient or emotionally charged they are. People recall good or bad events out of proportion to their actual frequency. The chances of being mauled by a grizzly bear at a national park are only one or two per million visitors, and the death rate is lower. Casualties from shark attacks are probably an even smaller percentage of swimmers in coastal waters. But because of the emotionally charged nature of the dangers, we think such attacks happen much oftener that they really do.
It is the occurrence of disaster, rather than their probabilities of happening, that has an important impact on our buying of casualty insurance.
The purchase of earthquake and airline insurance goes up sharply after a calamity, as does flood insurance. As a result, the availability rule of thumb breaks down, leading to systematic biases. The bottom line is that availability, like most heuristics, causes us to frequently misread probabilities, and get into investment difficulties as a result.
Recently, saliency, and emotionally charged events often dominate decision-making in the stock market. Statements by experts, crowd participation, and recent experience strongly incline the investor to follow the prevailing trend.
In the 1990’s small-capitalization growth stocks rocketed ahead of other equities. By early July 1996 this was almost the only game in town. The experience is repeated and salient to the investor, while the disastrous aftermath of the earlier speculation in aggressive growth issues in the sixties, seventies, and eighties has receded far back into memory.
The tendency of recent and salient events to move people away from the base-rate or long-term probabilities cannot be exaggerated. Time and again, we toss aside our long-term valuation guidelines because of the spectacular performance of seemingly sure winners. As psychologists have pointed out, this bias is tenacious.
A moment’s reflection shows that this judgmental bias reinforces the others. Recent and salient events, whether positive or negative, strongly influence judgments of the future. People, it appears, become prisoners of such experience and view the future as an extension of the immediate past. The more memorable the circumstances, the more they are expected to persist, no matter how out-of-line with prior norms.
The defense here is to keep your eye on the long-term. While there is certainly no assured way to put recent or memorable experiences into absolute perspective, it might be helpful during periods of extreme pessimism or optimism to wander back to your library. If the market is tanking, reread the financial periodicals from the last major break. If you can, pick up The Wall Street Journal, turn to the market section, and read the wailing and sighing of expert after expert in August and September of 1990, just before the market began one of its sharpest recoveries. Similarly, when we have another speculative market, it would not be a bad idea to check the Journal again and read the comments made during the 1979 to 1983 or 1991 to 1998 bubbles. While rereading the daily press is not an elixir, I think it will help.
We might briefly look a two other systematic biases that are relevant to the investment scene and tend to fix investment errors firmly in place. They are also difficult to correct, since they reinforce the others. The first is known as anchoring, another simplifying heuristic. In a complex situation, such as the marketplace, we will choose some natural starting point, such as a stock’s current price, as a first cut at its value, and will make adjustments from here. The adjustments are typically insufficient. Thus, an investor in 1997
might have thought a price of $91 was too high for Cascade Communications, a leader in PC networking, and that $80 was more appropriate. But Cascade Communications was grossly overvalued at $91 and dropped to $22 before recovering modestly.
The final bias is interesting. In looking back at past mistakes, researchers have found, people believe that each error could have been seen much more clearly, if only they hadn’t been wearing dark or rose-colored glasses. The inevitability of what happened seems obvious in retrospect. Hindsight bias seriously impairs proper assessment of past errors and significantly limits what can be learned from experience.
I remember lunching with a number of money managers in 1991. They were bullish on the market, which was moving up strongly at the time. One manager, looking at the upsurge of financial stocks from the depressed levels of 1990, asked rhetorically, “How could we not have bought the financial stocks then?” In 1988, he asked the same question about other ultra cheap companies after the much more damaging 1987
crash. He’ll likely ask it again after the next major surge.
This bias too is difficult to handle. That walk to the library may be as good a solution as any. I think you will see that the mistakes were far less obvious than they appear today.
35. Which statement does not reflect the true essence of the passage?
I. Tversky and Kahneman understood that people simplify decision-making by assuming that an event has a greater chance of occurring than another event if instances similar to the former can be recalled with greater ease than in the case of the latter, regardless of the actual frequencies of occurrence of these types of events in the past.
II. In a speculative market, an investor needs to keep an eye on the long-term and not get swayed by popular opinion.
III. Investors typically respond to impending changes in the marketplace by making an initial, usually inadequate, estimate and then continuing to fine-tune their response on the basis of such an estimate.
IV. Speedy response to a speculative market is the same as not being able to factor in long-term probabilities.
A. | Only I | B. | Only IV |
C. | II & III | D. | Only III |
36. The author of the passage identifies some biases that distort our understanding of the present market situation. Which of the following statements does not describe the biases mentioned in the passage above?
I. Expert opinion often influences investor decision-making.
II. Investors rely more on repeated and salient experience instead of learning from trends in the past.
III. Investors using availability heuristics tend to overlook base rate probabilities.
IV. Emotions rarely play a role in simplifying investor decision-making.
A. | Only I | B. | Only IV |
C. | I & II | D. | II & IV |
37. “This bias too is difficult to handle.” Which bias is the author talking about?
I. People tend to pass off as largely avoidable those errors that have taken place in the past.
II. The tendency to rely on experience rather than on statistically significant studies.
III. Exaggerating long-term probabilities without adequately considering market conditions.
IV. The tendency of an investor to make investment decisions based on what the present market sentiments are rather than learning from past mistakes.
A. | Only IV | B. | Only I |
C. | Only III | D. | I, II & III |
38. According to the passage which of the statements below is farthest in explaining the meaning of the passage above?
I. There are several heuristics that investors typically use to simplify decision-making.
II. Judgmental shortcuts become necessary for a typical investor in order to compensate for the dearth of available information about financial stocks.
III. Investors tend to make decisions based on intuition rather than statistical evidence,
IV. Anchoring and hindsight biases are systematic biases that tend to fix investment errors firmly in place.
A. | Only IV | B. | Only II |
C. | II & III | D. | Only I |
Passage – 3
The systematic organization of movements with most careful regard to the psychophysical conditions appeared to us the most momentous aid toward the heightening of efficiency. But even if the superfluous, unfit, and interfering movement impulses were eliminated and the conditions of work completely adjusted to the demands of psychology, there would still remain a large number of possibilities through which productiveness might be greatly decreased, or at least kept far below the possible maximum of efficiency. For instance, even the best adapted labor might be repeated to the point of exhaustion, at which the workman and the work would be ruined. Fatigue and restoration accordingly demand especial consideration. In a similar way emotions may be conditions of stimulation or interference, and no one ought to underestimate the importance of higher motives, intellectual, æsthetic, and moral motives, in their bearing on the psychophysical impulses of the laborer. If these higher demands are satisfied, the whole system gains a new tonus, and if they are disappointed, the irritation of the mental machinery may do more harm than any break in the physical machine at which the man is working. In short, we must still look in various directions to become aware of all the relations between the psychological factors and the economic output. We may begin with one question which plays a large, perhaps too large, rôle in the economic and especially in the popular economic literature. I refer to the problem of monotony of labor.
In the discourses of our time on the lights and shades of our modern industrial life, all seem to agree that the monotony of industrial labor ought to be entered on the debit side of the ledger of civilization. Since the days when factories began to spring up, the accusation that through the process of division of labor the industrial workingman no longer has any chance to see a whole product, but that he has to devote himself to the minutest part of a part, has remained one of the matter-of-course arguments. The part of a part which he has to cut or polish or shape in endless repetition without alteration cannot awake any real interest. This complete division of labor has to-day certainly gone far beyond anything which Adam Smith described, and therefore it now appears undeniable that the method must create a mental starvation which presses down
the whole life of the laborer, deprives it of all joy in work, and makes the factory scheme a necessary but from the standpoint of psychology decidedly regrettable evil. I have become more and more convinced that the scientific psychologist is not obliged to endorse this judgment of popular psychology.
To be sure the problem of division of labor, as it appears in the subdivision of manufacture, is intimately connected with many other related questions. It quickly leads to the much larger question of division of labor in our general social structure, which is necessary for our social life with its vocational and professional demands, and which undoubtedly narrows to a certain degree every individual in the completeness of his human desires. No man in modern society can devote himself to everything for which his mind may long. But as a matter of course these large general problems of civilization lie outside of the realm of our present inquiry. In another direction the problem of monotony comes very near to the question of fatigue. But we must see clearly that these two questions are not identical and that we may discuss monotony here without arguing the problem of fatigue. The frequent repetition of the same movement or of the same mental activity certainly may condition an objective fatigue, which may interfere with the economic output, but this is not the real meaning of the problem of monotony. About fatigue we shall speak later. Here we are concerned exclusively with that particular psychological attitude which we know as subjective dislike of uniformity and lack of change in the work. Within these limits the question of monotony is, indeed, frequently misunderstood in its economic significance.
Let us not forget that the outsider can hardly ever judge when work offers or does not offer inner manifoldness. If we do not know and really understand the subject, we are entirely unable to discriminate the subtler inner
differences. This inability to recognize, the differences which the man at work feels distinctly, shows itself even in the most complicated activities. Only when one stands in the midst of the work is he aware of its unlimited manifoldness, and feels how every single case is somehow different from every other.
39. The author is most likely to agree which of the following as fitting his characterization of ‘an outsider’?
I. A student who has to study Mathematics because of parental pressure.
II. A philologist who is convinced that it is utterly tiresome to devote one’s life to some minute questions of natural science.
III. A manager who disagrees with a reporter that the factory workers are treated as automatons.
IV. A worker who suggests improvements to the assembly line design in the factory.
A. | III & IV | B. | Only II |
C. | Only I & II | D. | Only III & IV |
40. There is only one term in the left column which matches with the options given in the second column. Identify the correct pair from the following table.
1. Mental starvation | i. root cause of the problem of monotony |
2. An unidentifiable problem of civilization | ii. inability to devote oneself to what mind desires |
3. Fatigue interferes with the economic output | iii. an attribute of subtle inner differences |
4. Subjective dislike of uniformity and lack of change in work | iv. a necessary but regrettable evil |
A. | 1 – i and iv | B. | 2 – i and iv |
C. | 3 – ii and iii | D. | 4 – i and iv |
41. Which one of the following represents a logically correct sequence?
I. Mental starvation arising from monotony
II. Social structures existing in any civilization
III. Incomplete human desires
IV. Decreased productivity and efficiency
A. | I-IV-II-III | B. | II-III-I-IV |
C. | II-II-I-IV | D. | I-IV-III-I |
42.Which of the following sentences represent the essence of the entire passage correctly?
A. | Monotony of industrial labor ought to be entered on the debit side of the ledger of civilization. | B. | The outsider can never judge when work offers or does not offer manifoldness. |
C. | There are various limits to monotony which contribute to the misunderstanding in its economic significance. |
D. | Unsatisfied higher demands lead to the breakdown of the physical machinery of man. |
Directions for questions 43 to 46 : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In the early 1990s, the U.S. automobile industry was locked into an all-too-familiar mode of destructive competition. End-of-year rebates and dealer discounts were ruining the industry’s profitability. As soon as one company used incentives to clear excess inventory at year-end, others had to do the same. Worse still, consumers came to expect the rebates. As a result, they waited for them to be offered before buying a car, forcing manufacturers to offer incentives earlier in the year. Was there a way out? Would someone find an alternative to practices that were hurting all the companies? General Motors may have done just that. In September 1992, General Motors and Household Bank issued a new credit card that allowed cardholders to apply 5% of their charges toward buying or leasing a new GM car, up to $500 per year, with a maximum of $3,500. The GM card has been the most successful credit-card launch in history. One month after it was introduced, there were 1.2 million accounts. Two years later, there were 8.7 million accounts—and the program is still growing. Projections suggest that eventually some 30% of GM’s nonfleet sales in North America will be to cardholders.
As Hank Weed, managing director of GM’s card program, explains, the card helps GM build share through the “conquest” of prospective Ford buyers and others—a traditional win-lose strategy. But the program has engineered another, more subtle change in the game of selling cars. It replaced other incentives that GM had previously offered. The net effect has been to raise the price that a noncardholder—someone who intends to buy a Ford, for example—would have to pay for a GM car. The program thus gives Ford some breathing room to raise its prices. That allows GM, in turn, to raise its prices without losing customers to Ford.
The result is a win-win dynamic between GM and Ford. If the GM card is as good as it sounds, what’s stopping other companies from copying it? Not much, it seems. First, Ford introduced its version of the program with Citibank. Then Volkswagen introduced its variation with MBNA Corporation. Doesn’t all this imitation put a dent in the GM program? Not necessarily. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in business it is often thought to be a killer compliment. Textbooks on strategy warn that if others can imitate something you do, you can’t make money at it. Some go even further, asserting that business strategy cannot be codified. If it could, it would be imitated and any gains would evaporate.
Yet the proponents of this belief are mistaken in assuming that imitation is always harmful. It’s true that once GM’s program is widely imitated, the company’s ability to lure customers away from other manufacturers will be diminished. But imitation also can help GM. Ford and Volkswagen offset the cost of their credit card rebates by scaling back other incentive programs. The result was an effective price increase for GM customers, the vast majority of whom do not participate in the Ford and Volkswagen credit card programs. This gives GM the option to firm up its demand or raise its prices further. All three car companies
now have a more loyal customer base, so there is less incentive to compete on price.
To understand the full impact of the GM card program, you have to use game theory. You can’t see all the ramifications of the program without adopting an allocentric perspective. The key is to anticipate how Ford, Volkswagen, and other automakers will respond to GM’s initiative.
When you change the game, you want to come out ahead. That’s pretty clear. But what about the fact that GM’s strategy helped Ford? One common mind-set—seeing business as war—says that others have to lose in order for you to win. There may indeed be times when you want to opt for a win-lose strategy. But not always. The GM example shows that there also are times when you want to create a win-win situation. Although it may sound surprising, sometimes the best way to succeed is to let others, including your competitors, do well.
Looking for win-win strategies has several advantages. First, because the approach is relatively unexplored, there is greater potential for finding new opportunities. Second, because others are not being forced to give up ground, they may offer less resistance to win-win moves, making them easier to implement. Third, because win-win moves don’t force other players to retaliate, the new game is more sustainable. And finally, imitation of a win-win move is beneficial, not harmful.
To encourage thinking about both cooperative and competitive ways to change the game, we suggest the term coopetition. It means looking for win-win as well as win-lose opportunities. Keeping both possibilities in mind is important because win-lose strategies often backfire. Consider, for example, the common—and dangerous—strategy of lowering prices to gain market share. Although it may provide a temporary benefit, the gains will evaporate if others match the cuts to regain their lost share. The result is simply to reestablish the status quo but at lower prices—a lose-lose scenario that leaves all the players worse off. That was the situation in the automobile industry before GM changed the game.
Did GM intentionally plan to change the game of selling cars in the way we have described it? Or did the company just get lucky with a loyalty marketing program that turned out better than anyone had expected? Looking back, the one thing we can say with certainty is that the stakes in situations like GM’s are too high to be left to chance. That’s why we have developed a comprehensive map and a method to help managers find strategies for changing the game.
The game of business is all about value: creating it and capturing it. Who are the participants in this enterprise? To describe them, we introduce the Value Net—a schematic map designed to represent all the players in the game and the interdependencies among them. Interactions take place along two dimensions. Along the vertical dimension are the company’s customers and suppliers. Resources such as labor and raw materials flow from the suppliers to the company, and products and services flow from the company to its customers. Money flows in the reverse direction, from customers to the company and from the company to its suppliers. Along the horizontal dimension are the players with whom the company interacts but does not transact. They are its substitutors and complementors.
Substitutors are alternative players from whom customers may purchase products or to whom suppliers may sell their resources. Coca-Cola and Pepsico are substitutors with respect to consumers because they sell rival colas. A little less obvious is that Coca-Cola and Tyson Foods are substitutors with respect to suppliers. That is because both companies use carbon dioxide. Tyson uses it for freezing chickens, and Coke uses it for carbonation. (As they say in the cola industry, “No fizziness, no bizziness.”)
Complementors are players from whom customers buy complementary products or to whom suppliers sell complementary resources. For example, hardware and software companies are classic complementors. Faster hardware, such as a Pentium chip, increases users’ willingness to pay for more powerful software. More powerful software, such as the latest version of Microsoft Office, increases users’ willingness to pay for faster hardware. American Airlines and United Air Lines, though substitutors with respect to passengers, are complementors when they decide to update their fleets. That’s because Boeing can recoup the cost of a new plane design only if enough airlines buy it. Since each airline effectively subsidizes the other’s purchase of planes, the two are complementors in this instance.
We introduce the terms substitutor and complementor because we find that the traditional business vocabulary inhibits a full understanding of the interdependencies that exist in business. If you call a player a competitor, you tend to focus on competing rather than on finding opportunities for cooperation. Substitutor describes the market relationship without that prejudice. Complementors, often overlooked in traditional strategic analysis, are the natural counterparts of substitutors.
43. Identify the correct statement :
A | The GM card caters to more fleet customers than nonfleet customers. | B. | The GM card has provided GM with a continuing unique advantage over Ford. |
C. | The GM card has inspired GM’s competitors to come up with their own cards. | D. | The GM card was targeted at both fleet and nonfleet customers. |
44. Identify the false statement :
A. | The GM card replaced some incentives that GM used to offer before. | B. | GM has consistently increased product prices since the introduction of the GM card. |
C. | In traditional business parlance, substitutors are called competitors. | D. | GM’s card program has proved beneficial for Ford as well. |
45. Match the following set of words :
Set A | Set B |
a. Tyson Foods | i. MBNA Corporation |
b. United Airlines | ii. Fleets |
c. Ford | iii. Carbon dioxide |
d. Volkswagen | iv. Citibank |
A. | a-ii; b-i; c-iii; d-iv | B. | a-ii; b-iii; c-iv; d-i |
C. | a-iii; b-ii; c-iv; d-i | D. | a-iv; b-ii; c-iii; d-i |
46. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?
A. | the same two companies can be complementors as well as substitutors with respect to the same group of customers. |
B. | game theory does not fully address the interdependencies that exist in business. |
C. | a win-win strategy can be effective for a company because it does not force other players in the market to retaliate. |
D. | All of the above |
Directions for questions 47 to 49: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Leadership brand is a reputation for developing exceptional managers with a distinct set of talents that are uniquely geared to fulfill customers' and investors' expectations. A company with a leadership brand inspires faith that employees and managers will consistently make good on the firm's promises. A Nordstrom customer knows that the retailer's employees and managers will give her white glove service. Parents who take their kids to a Disney theme park assume that ride operators and restaurant personnel will be upbeat, friendly, and gracious. McKinsey clients understand that smart, well-educated consultants will bring the latest management knowledge to bear on their problems. A leadership brand is also embedded in the organization's culture, through its policies and its requirements for employees. For example, the tagline of Lexus is "the pursuit of perfection." Internally, the Lexus division translates that promise into the expectation that managers will excel at managing quality processes, including lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. In observing 150 successful leader feeder firms of various sizes over the past decade, we have found that most of them have developed a similar outside-in approach, which helps them produce an excellent pipeline of leaders generation after generation. They also tend to enjoy remarkably steady profits year after year, because they have secured the ongoing confidence of external constituents whose expectations are comfortably filled by leaders throughout the organization.
Building a strong leadership brand requires that companies follow five principles. First, they have to do the basics of leadership-like setting strategy and grooming talent-well. Second, they must ensure that managers internalize external constituents' high expectations of the firm. Third, they need to evaluate their leaders according to those external perspectives. Fourth, they must invest in broad-based leadership development that helps managers hone the skills needed to meet customer and investor expectations. And finally, they should track their success at building a leadership brand over the long term. Before cons idering these principles in more detail, however, let us consider why relatively few companies are able to establish leadership brands in the first place.
In recent years, thousands of companies have spent millions on their own corporate universities; yet most have failed to develop true leadership bench strength. That's because, in too many cases, the approach to leadership training is detached from what the firm stands for in the eyes of customers and investors. Rather, training is the same from company to company, regardless of whether the company is a fast-food chain or an aerospace contractor: A senior executive extols the importance of leadership; outside experts talk about business strategy, elicit 360-degree feedback, or take personality inventories; everyone spends time socializing and playing golf. Leadership practices are piecemeal and are seldom integrated with the firm's brand, let alone with the daily operations of the organization.
At the root of this unfortunate problem is a persistent focus on developing the individual leader. HR and succession-planning teams tend to concentrate on finding and developing the ideal candidate, who they hope will raise corporate fortunes. In our experience, many firms rely on a competency model that identifies a set of generic traits-vision, direction, energy, and so on-and then try to find and build next-generation leaders that fit the model. Consider what happened when we held a workshop for nine companies that were all household names. We asked the representatives from each organization to send us their leadership competency models, which listed the "unique" characteristics that they sought in their leaders ("has a strong vision," "fosters teamwork," "demonstrates emotional intelligence," and the like). We then deleted the names of the corporations from each model. During the workshop, we asked the representatives to pick out their own. Few were able to do so; there was little difference among the models of a telecommunications company, a consumer products company, a financial services company, and an aerospace company. The conclusion was obvious: By focusing on the desirable traits of individual leaders, the firms ended up creating generic models. And vanilla competency models generate vanilla leadership.
Once it selects a candidate, a company will try to train her to be more emotionally and socially adept, to set direction, to build relationships of trust, and so on. Eventually, she may develop a personal reputation that distinguishes her from other executives; she may even become a “celebrity leader” of the kind featured in popular business magazines. With this leader in place, her firm feels that its long-term success is assured. This can be a trap, however, for a powerful and charismatic leader can develop a personal brand that overpowers the organization’s own brand. When employees become more dedicated to the individual who is in charge than focused on what customers want, the company can wind up in trouble. Moreover, an institution that becomes too beholden to an individual leader runs a risk if the leader turns out to be less than perfect. When Sandy Weill, a celebrity leader and a master of acquisitions, left Citigroup after a long string of mergers, the firm continued to struggle with a series of ethical problems; it’s been left to his successor, Chuck Prince, to figure out what holds the place together.
Certainly, a strong, energetic, and intelligent leader can help an organization; but given the short tenure of most CEOs and the changing fortunes of the corporation in a dynamic marketplace, we think that too intense a spotlight on the individual leader is both naive and incomplete. Expanding the competency model to include an external focus allows companies to offset that risk, by enabling them to tailor their leadership model to their own requirements.
Long-term success depends on making a critical distinction: A focus on leaders emphasizes the personal qualities of the individual; leadership emphasizes the methods that secure the ongoing good of the firm. We believe that long-term success—the kind that lasts generation after generation—depends on making the critical distinction between leaders and leadership. A focus on leaders emphasizes the personal qualities of the individual; a focus on leadership emphasizes the methods that secure the ongoing good of the firm and, in the process, also builds future leaders.
47. Which of the following statements is incorrect?
A. | Strong leadership brands need to focus on the desirable traits of individual leaders in the organization. | B. | Corporate universities have not always been successful in ensuring quality leadership in organizations. |
C. | Leadership practices in an organization need to be in sync with the firm’s brand and practices. | D. | A firm’s leadership competency model should be arrived at after factoring in the firm’s promises. |
48. Which of the following statements is correct?
A. | Setting strategy and grooming individual talent leads to broad-based leadership development in organizations. |
B. | Personality inventories do not contribute to an understanding of leadership in organizations. |
C. | Financial performance should be the primary factor to be taken into account when appraising leadership in an organization. |
D. | Organizational policies and requirements for employees have a role to play in fostering leadership in organizations. |
49. Identify the correct statement from the following :
A. | Celebrity leaders are highly sought after by firms because of the long term success that follows as a consequence. |
B. | Excessive dependence on a celebrity leader might prove harmful for an organization. |
C. | An organization should create a competency model for its leaders that emphasizes brand building rather than immediate profits. |
D. | An external focus in the leadership competency model of an organization leads to a misplaced exaltation of generic leadership traits. |
Directions for questions 50 to 53 : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Executives in large companies often ask themselves, “Why aren’t we better at innovation?” After all, there is no shortage of sound advice on how to improve: Come up with better ideas. Look outside the company for concepts and partners. Establish different funding mechanisms. Protect the new and radically different businesses from the old. Sharpen the execution.
Such strategic counsel, however, is based on the assumption that all organizations face the same obstacles to developing new products, services, or lines of business. In reality, innovation challenges differ from firm to firm, and otherwise commonly followed advice can be wasteful, even harmful, if applied to the wrong situations.
Consider how two different CEOs confronted the innovation challenges facing their companies. When Steve Bennett joined Intuit, the maker of the financial software programs Quicken and QuickBooks, in January 2000, it was a company with lots of ideas—most collected from outside the organization—but little discipline for bringing those ideas to market. “We had a lot of energy focused on learning from customers,” the CEO recalls, “but we were struggling to decide which ideas would have the highest impact.” To fix this, Bennett demanded that clear business objectives be set for ideas in development, and he held people accountable for delivering on them. Intuit is now just as good at executing on ideas as it is at generating them. The company’s revenues and profits are up 47% and 65%, respectively, from three years ago, in part because of this effort.
About the same time that Bennett took the helm at Intuit, A.G. Lafley became CEO of Procter & Gamble, a company that had traditionally been good mainly at developing new products internally and bringing them to market. But a persistent weakness was its insular culture. Lafley wanted the company to become better at cultivating ideas from the outside. After five years of investments, P&G now has a state-of-the-art process for sourcing ideas externally, which includes a global network of resources and online knowledgeexchange sites. This process complements P&G’s core competency in executing on ideas and has helped fuel an increase in sales and profits of 42% and 84%, respectively, over the past five years.
Bennett and Lafley faced different innovation challenges, which required different solutions. Intuit and Procter & Gamble probably would be worse off today had their CEOs simply imported the latest best practices in innovation management. Now consider a computer hardware company we analyzed. Buying into the latest advice about innovation—companies should focus on generating more ideas—managers set up a series of formal brainstorming sessions. Idea generation wasn’t the problem, however. The company had inadequate screening and funding processes: Concepts never flourished, nor did they die. The brainstorming sessions actually aggravated the innovation process—employees were pumping more and more ideas into an already badly broken system.
Even the strongest dose of the best analgesic on the market won’t help mend a broken bone. Likewise, companies can’t just import the latest fads in innovation to cure what’s ailing them. Instead, they need to consider their existing processes for creating innovations, pinpoint their unique challenges, and develop ways to address them. In this article, we offer a comprehensive framework—“the innovation value chain”— for doing just that.
The innovation value chain view presents innovation as a sequential, three-phase process that involves idea generation, idea development, and the diffusion of developed concepts. Across all the phases, managers must perform six critical tasks—internal sourcing, cross-unit sourcing, external sourcing, selection, development, and company-wide spread of the idea. Each is a link in the chain. Along the innovation value chain, there may be one or more activities that a company excels in—the firm’s strongest links. Conversely, there may be one or more activities that a company struggles with—the firm’s weakest links.
Our framework asks executives to take an end-to-end view of their innovation efforts. It discourages managers from reflexively importing innovation practices that may address a part of the chain but not necessarily the one that the company needs to improve most. It centers their attention on the weakest links and prompts executives to be more selective about which practices to apply in their quest for improved innovation performance.
Executives understand that innovation starts with good ideas—but where do these concepts come from? Managers naturally look first inside their own functional groups or business units for creative sparks; they usually find they have a pretty good sense of what’s close at hand. The bigger sparks, they discover, are ignited when fragments of ideas come together—specifically, when individuals across units brainstorm or when companies tap external partners for ideas.
Cross-unit collaboration—combining insights and knowledge from different parts of the same company in order to develop new products and businesses—is not easily achieved. Decentralized organizational structures and geographical dispersion make it hard for people to work across units. Managers at Bertelsmann, the large German global media company, took a staggering three years to catch up with Amazon in launching an online bookstore, in large part because of their company’s decentralized makeup. Bertelsmann’s autonomous publishing houses, book and music clubs, and distribution and multimedia divisions could not and did not collaborate on this new business opportunity.
Generating lots of good ideas is one thing; how you handle (or mishandle) them once you have them is another matter entirely. New concepts won’t prosper without strong screening and funding mechanisms. Instead, they’ll just create bottlenecks and headaches across the organization. In many companies, tight budgets, conventional thinking, and strict funding criteria combine to shut down most novel ideas. Employees quickly get the message, and the flow of ideas dries up. When Stewart Davies became head of R&D at BT in 1999, the UK telecommunications group was in financial trouble. Davies reviewed operations within R&D and recalled being staggered by the inventiveness—and the frustration—of the people he met. There was no shortage of good ideas at the company, he concluded. But inadequate commercial skills and a shortage of seed money for high-risk projects made it difficult for anyone to move forward with ideas for new technologies.
50. Match the following :
Set A | Set B |
a. Steve Bennett | i. Procter & Gamble |
b. Stewart Davis | ii. Bertelsmann |
c. Online knowledge-exchange sites | iii. Telecommunications |
d. Online bookstore | iv. Intuit |
A. | a-ii; b-iii; c-iv; d-i | B. | a-iv; b-ii; c-iii; d-i |
C. | a-iv; b-iii; c-i; d-ii | D. | a-iii; b-iv; c-ii; d-i |
51. Which of the following is not true about the innovation value chain?
A. | It asks executives to take a holistic view of innovation in his/her organization. | B. | It identifies certain tasks that managers need to perform to ensure successful innovation in any organization. |
C. | It relies largely on assimilating fragments of ideas from external partners. | D. | It focuses managerial attention on the activities that a company struggles with. |
52. Which of the following is true about ‘cross-unit’ collaboration?
A. | Cross-unit collaboration is an assimilation of innovation ideas both internal and external to the organization. |
B. | In cross-unit collaboration, knowledge-sharing happens between various parts of the same organization. |
C. | Decentralized organization structures facilitate cross-unit collaboration through greater dispersal of innovation ideas. |
D. | All of the above. |
53. Identify the correct statement :
A. | It asks executives to take a holistic view of innovation in his/her organization. | B. | It identifies certain tasks that managers need to perform to ensure successful innovation in any organization. |
C. | It relies largely on assimilating fragments of ideas from external partners. | D. | It focuses managerial attention on the activities that a company struggles with. |
Directions for questions 54 to 57: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Conventional strategic planning is driven by the calendar and tends to focus on issues, such as declining profits or market share. As long as this is the case, the organization will fall into the trap of investigating data related to the issues rather than exploring and testing possible solutions. A simple way to get strategists to avoid that trap is to require them to define two mutually exclusive options that could resolve the issue in question. Once you have framed the problem as a choice—any choice— your analysis and emotions will focus on what you have to do next, not on describing or analyzing the challenge. The possibilities-based approach therefore begins with the recognition that the organization must make a choice and that the choice has consequences. For the management team, this is the proverbial crossing of the Rubicon—the step that starts the strategy-making process.
In the late 1990s, when Procter & Gamble was contemplating becoming a major player in the global beauty care sector, it had a big issue: It lacked a credible brand in skin care, the largest and most profitable segment of the sector. All it had was Oil of Olay, a small, down-market brand with an aging consumer base. P&G crossed its Rubicon and laid out two possibilities: It could attempt to dramatically transform Oil of Olay into a worthy competitor of brands like L’Oréal, Clarins, and La Prairie, or it could spend billions of dollars to buy a major existing skin care brand. This framing helped managers internalize the magnitude ofwhat was at stake. At that point P&G turned from contemplating an issue to facing a serious choice.
Having recognized that a choice needs to be made, you can now turn to the full range of possibilities you should consider. These might be versions of the options already identified. For example, P&G could try to grow Oil of Olay in its current price tier or take it upmarket, or it could seek to buy the German company that owns Nivea or pry Clinique out of the hands of Estée Lauder. Possibilities might also exist outside the initial options. For instance, P&G could extend its successful cosmetics brand, Cover Girl, into skin care and build a global brand on that platform.
Constructing strategic possibilities, especially ones that are genuinely new, is the ultimate creative act in business. No one in the rest of the beauty industry would have imagined P&G’s completely reinventing Olay and boldly going head-to-head against leading prestige brands. To generate such creative options, you need a clear idea of what constitutes a possibility. You also need an imaginative yet grounded team and a robust process for anaging debate.
Desired output. A possibility is essentially a happy story that describes how a firm might succeed. Each story lays out where the company plays in its market and how it wins there. It should have internally consistent logic, but it need not be proved at this point. As long as we can imagine that it could be valid, it makes the cut. Characterizing possibilities as stories that do not require proof helps people discuss what might be viable but does not yet exist. It is much easier to tell a story about why a possibility could make sense than to provide data on the odds that it will succeed.
A common temptation is to sketch out possibilities only at the highest level. But a motto (“Go global”) or a goal (“Be number one”) does not constitute a strategic possibility. We push teams to specify in detail the advantage they aim to achieve or leverage, the scope across which the advantage applies, and the activities throughout the value chain that would deliver the intended advantage across the targeted scope. Otherwise it is impossible to unpack the logic underlying a possibility and to subject the possibility to subsequent tests. In the Cover Girl possibility, the advantage would come from Cover Girl’s strong brand and existing consumer base combined with Procter & Gamble’s R&D and global go-to-market capabilities. The scope would be limited to the younger demographic at the heart of the current Cover Girl consumer base, and it would need to build internationally from North America, where the brand was strong. The key activities would include leveraging Cover Girl’s stable of model and celebrity endorsers.
Managers often ask, “How many possibilities should we generate?” The answer varies according to context. Some industries offer few happy stories—there are simply not a lot of good alternatives. Others, particularly ones in ferment or with numerous customer segments, have many potential directions. We find that most teams consider three to five possibilities in depth. On one aspect of this question we are adamant: The team must produce more than one possibility. Otherwise it never really started the strategymaking process, because it didn’t see itself as facing a choice. Analyzing a single possibility is not conducive to producing optimal action—or, in fact, any action at all.
We also insist that the status quo or current trajectory be among the possibilities considered. This forces the team in later stages to specify what must be true for the status quo to be viable, thereby eliminating the common implicit assumption “Worst case, we can just keep doing what we’re already doing.” The status quo is sometimes a path to decline. By including it among the possibilities, a team makes it subject to investigation and potential doubt.
The team at P&G surfaced five strategic possibilities in addition to the status quo. One was to abandon Oil of Olay and acquire a major global skin care brand. A second was to keep Oil of Olay positioned where it was, as an entry-priced, mass-market brand, and to strengthen its appeal to current older consumers by leveraging R&D capabilities to improve its wrinkle-reduction performance. A third was to take Oil of Olay into the prestige distribution channel—department stores and specialty beauty shops—as an upscale brand. A fourth was to completely reinvent Olay as a prestigelike brand that would appeal more broadly to younger women (age 35 to 50) but be sold in traditional mass channels by retail partners willing to create a “masstige” experience, with a special display section. A fifth was to extend the Cover Girl brand to skin care.
54. Which of the following is correct according to the passage?
A. | Strategists should develop strategy alternatives by including the status quo in their calculations without considering it unchanged as one of the alternatives. |
B. | The entire range of possibilities for a strategic plan should be defined at the outset and not deviated from. |
C. | Conventional strategic planning does not always place enough emphasis on exploring and testing possible solutions. |
D. | It is not imperative that the advantage that an organization hopes to achieve is defined at the outset of strategic planning. |
55. Which of the following is incorrect according to the passage?
A. | Strategists would do well to define two mutually exclusive options at the outset of the strategic planning process. |
B. | Emotions have no part to play in strategic planning where a carefully structured approach is essential. |
C. | Constructing new strategic possibilities can be considered a creative act in business. | D. | Creative options in strategic planning need to be grounded by a clear understanding of what is possible. |
56. Which of the following correctly describes a desirable characteristic of strategic planning according to the passage?
A. | A goal statement should be used to ground all strategic possibilities. | B. | To begin with, possibilities should be sketched out only at the highest level. |
C. | The scope of a strategic plan should not be confused with a motto. | D. | The logic underlying a strategic possibility needs to be justified by the odds that the story will succeed. |
57. Which of the following has not been mentioned in the passage while discussing the strategic planning that went behind Oil of Olay?
A. | Keep Oil of Olay as an entry-priced, mass-market brand. | B. | Leverage R & D capabilities to improve the product. |
C. | Turn Oil of Olay into an upscale brand | D. | Introduce new variants to appeal to a larger consumer base |
Quantitative Analysis
58. What is the nature of the roots of the equation x2 + (x – a)2 + (x – b)2 – (x – c)2 – (x – d)2 = 0, where a : b : c : d = 2 : 3 : 2 : 3?
A. | Integer | B. | Irrational |
C. | Imaginary | D. | None of the above |
59. An automobile company has 12 machines of equal efficiencies in its factory. The annual production cost is Rs.36,000 and the establishment cost is Rs. 12,000. The annual output of the company is Rs72,000. The sum of the annual output, the production cost and the establishment cost is directly proportional to the number of machines. The share holders get 12.5% of the profit, which is directly proportional to the annual output of the company. Had there been 16.67% less number of machines, then by what fraction would the profit of company have been less than the actual profit? (where profit is excess of the annual output (in Rs.) over the sum (Rs. in) of the production cost and the establishment cost)
A. | 1/4 | B. | 1/5 |
C. | 1/6 | D. | 1/7 |
60. Six numbers are selected at random from the set {2, 3, 2, 4, 5, 2, 6, 5, 7}. If P is the product of the six numbers, what is the number of distinct possible values of P?
A. | 20 | B. | 28 |
C. | 31 | D. | 42 |
61. The product of the ages of Aman and Chaman two years ago is 26 more than the product of the present ages of Bimal and Aman. If the ages of Aman, Bimal and Chaman two years ago were three distinct prime numbers, find the sum of the present ages of the youngest and the eldest among three of them
A. | 20 years | B. | 24 years |
C. | 34 years | D. | Cannot be determined |
62. The ratio of milk and water in a mixture is 2 : 1. Some quantity of water is added to the mixture to make the ratio of milk and water in the new mixture 1 : 2. The quantity of water added to the original mixture is what percent of the quantity of water in the original mixture?
A. | 150 | B. | 200 |
C. | 300 | D. | 100 |
63. Find the units digit of the product of first 29 odd prime numbers.
A. | 7 | B. | 3 |
C. | 5 | D. | None of the above |
64. The perimeter of a rectangle is 62 cm. If the length of the diagonal (in cm) is an integer, which of the following can be the area (in cm2) of the rectangle?
A. | 220 | B. | 168 |
C. | 150 | D. | 300 |
65. If log5 2 + log5 (2x + 1) = log5 (2x + 3) + 2, then which of the following is true?
A. | -(73/46) < x ≤ 1 | B. | -(73/46) ≤ x ≤ 1 |
C. | 1 < x ≤ 2 | D. | No solution |
66. In an experiment, it was found that the rate of evaporation of ethanol in a container upon boiling at a constant temperature K°C is directly proportional to the square root of the area of the open surface of the container. If the container is open from the top face only, then which of the following options represents the containers with decreasing rate of evaporation at the start of the experiment?
i. A cube of dimension 5 cm × 5 cm × 5 cm.
ii. A cylinder of base radius 7 cm and length 10 cm.
iii. A hemi-sphere of radius 3.5 cm.
A. | i, ii, iii | B. | ii, iii, i |
C. | ii, i, iii | D. | None of the above |
67. If the measures (in cm) of the sides of a triangle are distinct integers, which of the following (in cm) cannot be one of the sides of the triangle?
A. | 1 | B. | 2 |
C. | 3 | D. | None of the above |
68. Kangkana thought of giving a last try to CAT, so she decided to take a mock test at Career Launcher. In Mock-Cat-4, she attempted all the three sections i.e. QA, VA and LR-DI, each of which had the maximum marks 75. It was observed that half of the marks obtained by Kangkana in LR-DI were equal to the one-fourth of the marks obtained by her in VA. If the average marks obtained by her in the three sections were 50 and the LCM of the marks obtained by her in the three sections was 60, what was the sum of the marks obtained by her in QA and VA?
A. | 90 | B. | 110 |
C. | 120 | D. | 60 |
69. A sequence is formed from the set of first 100 natural numbers. If the sequence contains all the numbers of the mentioned set except perfect squares and multiples of 6, find the number of elements in the sequence.
A. | 73 | B. | 74 |
C. | 75 | D. | 76 |
70. The positive real numbers a, b and c are in geometric progression such that a + b + c = 13/2 If a ≤ b ≤ c, then the maximum possible value of b is
A. | 13/6 | B. | 13/4 |
C. | 26/5 | D. | None of the above |
71. If the letters from A to Z are assigned values from 50 to 75 respectively, what is the highest prime number which divides the expression {(A + M) × (B – M) × (C + M) × ……× (Y + M) × (Z –M)}?
A. | 37 | B. | 61 |
C. | 67 | D. | 127 |
72. Find all the possible four digit even natural numbers that can be formed by using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
A. | 343 | B. | 686 |
C. | 1029 | D. | 540 |
73. Which of the following ratios has the highest percentage value?
A. | 25 : 34 | B. | 14 : 17 |
C. | 28 : 33 | D. | 63 : 68 |
74. Sam covers 5.25 km in the same time in which Radha covers 5 km. Radha covers 11 km in the same time in which Jeevan covers 10 km. If Sam covers one kilometer in 2 hour, how much time more than Sam will Jeevan take to cover one kilometer?
A. | 18.6 minutes | B. | 31 minutes |
C. | 51 minutes | D. | None of these |
75
A. | 1050 | B. | 525 |
C. | 788 | D. | 1576 |
76. A computer-based aptitude test consists of two sections of 10 questions each. Each section consists of two subsections of 5 questions each. A student can attempt any of the two sections first but the section selected has to be completed first in order to move on to the next section. The student can attempt the subsections in each of the two sections in the similar manner only. If the questions in each of the subsections can be attempted in any order, in how many ways can he attempt all the 20 questions?
A. | 5!)2 × (2!)3 | B. | (5!)4 × (2!)2 |
C. | (5!)4 × (2!)3 | D. | (5!)2 × (2!)2 |
77. In the figure given below ∠BAC = ∠CBD. Length of CD is equals to 5 cm and area of ΔADB = 16 cm2. Length of BC is equals to 5k cm, where k is a natural number greater than 1. What is the ratio of the length of CD to the length of AD?
A. | 1 : 9 | B. | 1 : 6 |
C. | 1 : 5 | D. | 1 : 8 |
78. Shama, Radha and Pia working alone can do a job in 36, 60 and 120 days respectively. Each of them follows a specific pattern for every 5 days. Shama works with 50%, 60% and 80% of her efficiency respectively on the first two, next two and the last day. Radha works with 70%, 80% and 100% of her efficiency respectively on the first, second and next three days. Pia works with 100% efficiency throughout. If all three of them start the work together, in how many days will the work get completed?
A. | 30 | B. | 25 |
C. | 20 | D. | 45 |
79. If displacement ‘s’ (in meters) as a function of time ‘t’ (in seconds) is represented as s = 7t3 – 6t2 + 5t – 4, then find the rate of change of velocity at t = 6 seconds?
A. | 240 | B. | 252 |
C. | 264 | D. | None of these |
80. Sum of first ‘n’ natural numbers is divisible by 5!. For the smallest possible value of ‘n’, which of the following is the largest prime number that divides the sum of the squares of first ‘n’ natural numbers?
A. | 37 | B. | 43 |
C. | 41 | D. | 31 |
81. Find the number of real solutions of log9(2x2 + 3x – 1) = log3(x – 3).
A. | 0 | B. | 1 |
C. | 2 | D. | 3 |
82. In a college, students speak only three languages – Hindi, English and Marathi. Number of students who speak at least two languages is 25% more than the number of students who speak all the three languages. Number of students who speak at most two languages is 30% more than the number of students who speak exactly one language. What percentage of students speaks exactly one language?
A. | 40% | B. | 50% |
C. | 45% | D. | None of these |
83. A jewelry box, made of thin sheet of Brass, consists of two parts – a cubical box, in which a bangle with outer circumference of 22 cm just fits in and a hollow cover in form of a right pyramid that completely fits over the top of the cubical box. If the slant height of a face of the cover is 12.5 cm, find the volume of the box.
A. | 350 cm3 | B. | 392 cm3 |
C. | 529 cm3 | D. | 539 cm3 |
84. Bhanu and Ria start running simultaneously on a linear track with same speeds and cover first 280 m in ‘t’ seconds. After covering every 280 m, Bhanu decreases her speed by fraction of 1/2 and Ria decreases her speed by fraction of 2/3.Bhanu takes 1.5t minutes less than the time taken by Ria to cover the entire distance. Find the distance, which in metres is an integer multiple of 280?
A. | 2800 | B. | 1680 |
C. | 1400 | D. | 2240 |
85. Two persons are travelling in the same direction but on either side a tower. They noticed that the angle of depression made by a man at the top of the tower is 30° and 60°. After 6 minutes, the two persons noticed that the angle of depression made by the man at the top of the tower is 45° for each of them. If the height of the tower is 6 metres, find the distance (in metres) that the slower person will travel in 15 minutes, travelling with the same speed?
A. | 30( √3 − 2) | B. | 5( √3 −1) |
C. | 5√3 ( √3 −1) | D. | None of these |
86. A person wants to visit five different clubs in a city such that he will visit each club exactly once. In how many ways can he visit the five clubs?
A. | 120 | B. | 100 |
C. | 24 | D. | None of these |
87. Cyclic quadrilateral ABCD has length of its sides AB, BC and CD as 5 √2 cm, 6 cm, and 8 cm respectively. Lengths of its diagonals are 7√2 cm and 10 cm. Find the area of the quadrilateral.
A | 54 cm2 | B. | 51 cm2 |
C. | 49 cm2 | D. | 63 cm2 |
88. Average salary per employee in an organisation is Rs. 40,000. All the employees in the organisation are divided into three levels – A1, A2 and A3. The numbers of employees in the three levels respectively are in decreasing Arithmetic Progression. Average salary per employee in the three levels respectively is Rs. 25,000, Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 75,000. If each employee belongs to exactly one level, find the ratio of the number of employees in A1, A2 and A3 respectively.
A. | 8 : 5 : 2 | B. | 7 : 5 : 3 |
C. | 2 : 5 : 8 | D. | 3 : 5 : 7 |
89. A function for real number x and y is defined as f(x) = x2 + y2 + x + 3y +5/2. Find the value of ‘x + y’ at the minimum possible value of f(x).
A | 0 | B. | –1 |
C. | – 2 | D. | None of these |
Lgical Reasioning
Directions for questions 90 and 91 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
In each of the following letter series, some of the letters are missing, which are given below. Choose the correct alternative.
90 .A _ B B __ C C __ A __ __ B __ C C __ A __
A. | BBCAABBC | B. | ABBACCBA |
C. | BCAABBCA | D. | None of the above |
91. __ Q R __ P P __ R Q __ P Q __ Q __
A | PQQPRP | B. | PPQQPR |
C. | PQRPPR | D. | None of the above |
Directions for questions 92 and 93 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
In a certain code language, the following lines are written as
‘shu mil jan tan’ means ‘Ron likes having tea’,
‘mil pan tin gin lan’ means ‘tea is healthier than coffee’,
‘zho jan lan pan’ means ‘she is having coffee’,
‘mil yan flo zho’ means ‘she hardly enjoys tea’.
92. What could be the code for ‘she hardly likes Ron’?
A. | tan zho jan fig | B. | zho shu yan tan |
C. | mil yan jan zho | D. | None of the above |
93. What could the code ‘gin’ stand for?
A | healthier | B. | is |
C. | coffee | D. | None of the above |
Directions for questions 94 and 95 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
In each of the following questions, find the relationship that can be definitely deduced on the basis of the relations given. The symbols used to define the relationship are as follows :
& means ‘equal to’
@ means ‘greater than or equal to’
% means ‘less than’
# means ‘greater than’
$ means ‘less than or equal to’.
94. If it is given that N@T, T&P and N%Z, then which of the following is definitely true?
A. | N#P | B. | P%Z |
C. | Z@T | D. | None of the above |
95. If it is given that A#4C, B&2D and 3B$2C, then which of the following is definitely true?
A | 6B@A | B. | C&6D |
C. | 12D%A | D. | None of the above |
Directions for questions 96 and 97 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
Six athletes – Andrew, Brian, Jose,Mark, Phil and Sam – are assigned for stay in four rooms numbered 101 to 104 during the Inter Indoor Games Tournament. Two of the rooms are double and the remaining single rooms. Brian is assigned an even numbered room which he shares with the Swimmer. Room number 103 is to be occupied by the Badminton player only. The room numbers of Andrew and Jose, who is neither a Badminton player nor a Squash player, are distinct and their sum is equal to twice the room number of the Hockey player. Phil, who prefers not to share his room, plays either Basketball or Squash. Sam is a national level Table Tennis player.
96. Identify the correct combination of athlete, sport and room number from the following.
A. | Jose, Hockey, 101 | B. | Phil, Squash, 104 |
C. | Brian, Swimming, 102 | D. | None of the above |
97. Who is the Swimmer?
A | Mark | B. | Brian |
C. | Jose | D. | None of the above |
Directions for questions 98 and 99 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
The seven finalists of ‘Variety Dog Pet Show’ are made to stand on the podium for their final round. Each participant has a different breed of dog as his/her entrant. The number of participants to the right of Ana is twice of that of Cindy and they are not standing next to each other. The owner of the Alsatian is a neighbour of the owner of the Bulldog and Britney, who is standing at one of the extreme ends. Pixy, who owns a Poodle is at the middlemost position. The Labrador and the Alsatian dogs are kept as far as possible and neither of them has the Dalmatian as its neighbour. Ana and Danny are the neighbours of the owner of the German Shephard. Either Mitch owns a Doberman or Laila doesn’t own an Alsatian.
98. Who is the owner of the Dalmatian?
A. | Danny | B. | Ana |
C. | Cindy | D. | None of the above |
99. If Mitch and Cindy interchange their positions, who is standing second to the left of the owner of the Doberman?
A | Poodle | B. | Bulldog |
C. | Laila | D. | None of the above |
Directions for questions 100 to 103 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
Six students – Anu, Banu, Coral, Dev, Emily and Farooq – went to an education fair, where each of them participated in a quiz on a different area among Science, Mathematics, General Studies, Economics, English and Reasoning, not necessarily in the same order. The quizzes were conducted one after the ther, in no particular order. It is also known that :
(i) Coral participated in the Economics quiz and Emily participated in the English quiz.
(ii) Mathematics quiz was not the first or third quiz to be conducted.
(iii) The quiz in which Anu participated, the Science quiz and the quiz in which Banu participated were conducted alternately in the same order.
(iv) Exactly two quizzes were conducted between General Studies and Economics quiz.
(v) Reasoning quiz was the fifth quiz to be conducted and English quiz was conducted after Mathematics quiz.
100. Who participated in the General studies quiz?
A. | Anu | B. | Banu |
C. | Dev | D. | Farooq |
101. In which quiz did Banu participate?
A | General Studies | B. | Mathematics |
C. | Science | D. | Reasoning |
102. Which of the following cannot be a correct sequence of Student-Quiz-Order of quiz?
A. | Dev-Mathematics-Second | B. | Coral-Economics-First |
C. | English-Emily-Sixth | D. | All are correct |
103. Which is the fourth quiz to be conducted?
A | General Studies | B. | Mathematics |
C. | Economics | D. | English |
Directions for questions 104 to 108 : Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
Nine families, each has a different surname – Chopra, Mehra, Sharma, Arora, Gupta, Bindra, Tikku, Malik, and Chugh – went for vacation to Manali. All the families stayed in Hotel Grace, which has a total of nine rooms on three different floors. Each family is allotted a different room. The rooms on the third floor are numbered 331, 332 and 333 from left to right in the same order and are just above the rooms numbered 221, 222 and 223 respectively, which in turn are just above the rooms numbered 111, 112 and 113 respectively. It is also known that :
(i) The Chopra family was allotted a room on the 1st floor and the Bindra family was allotted room numbered 222.
(ii) The rooms allotted to Mehra, Gupta and Sharma families were above one other, in no particular order.
(iii) The Chugh family likes the Tikku family and hence was allotted room adjacent to the one alloted to the Tikku family on the same floor.
(iv) The sum of the room numbers of the Tikku and the Sharma family is a three-digit number with all its digits same and the same is true for Malik and Arora families.
(v) Any two families whose surnames start with the same alphabet were allotted rooms either on the same floor or in the same column.
104. Which family was allotted room number 221?
A. | Arora | B. | Chopra |
C. | Mehra | D. | Sharma |
105. Which family was allotted a room just above the one which was allotted to Malik family?
A | Bindra | B. | Malik |
C. | Gupta | D. | None of these |
106. Which other two families were allotted rooms on the first floor?
A. | Arora and Gupta | B. | Arora and Sharma |
C. | Chugh and Tikku | D. | Malik and Mehra |
107. What is the sum of the room numbers that were allotted to Chugh and Mehra family?
A | 333 | B. | 335 |
C. | 444 | D. | 443 |
108. Which room number was allotted to Gupta family?
A. | 113 | B. | 221 |
C. | 333 | D. | 111 |
Directions for questions 109 to 111: Answer the questions on the basis of the information given below.
Six persons − Pawan, Saral, Govind, Hasan, Akansh and Nakul − and their wives Preeti, Sarika, Geeta, Himadri, Alka and Navya, not necessarily in the same order, work in three different departments of Home Textiles Pvt. Ltd in Delhi. Exactly two couples work in each of the three departments. Also, name of a husband doesn’t start with the same letter as that of his wife’s name. It is also known that :
(i) Hasan is not married to Navya.
(ii) Saral and Alka work in the same department.
(iii) Hasan and Navya work in the same department.
(iv) Pawan and Sarika work in the same department.
(v) Saral is married to Geeta and Akansh is married to Sarika.
109. Saral and Alka work with whom in the same department?
A | Nakul and Geeta | B. | Hasan and Navya |
C. | Akansh and Himadri | D. | Pawan and Sarika |
110. Which of the following is the correct combination of a husband-wife couple?
A. | Pawan and Navya | B. | Hasan and Preeti |
C. | Govind and Himadri | D. | Govind and Alka |
111. Which of the following pair works in the same department?
A | Nakul and Pawan | B. | Hasan and Alka |
C. | Nakul and Saral | D. | Pawan and Navya |
Answer Key
1 | A | 2 | B | 3 | D | 4 | A | 5 | D | 6 | C | 7 | A | 8 | A | 9 | C | 10 | A |
11 | B | 12 | C | 13 | C | 14 | B | 15 | A | 16 | A | 17 | C | 18 | B | 19 | D | 20 | D |
21 | B | 22 | C | 23 | D | 24 | D | 25 | C | 26 | A | 27 | B | 28 | B | 29 | B | 30 | C |
31 | C | 32 | D | 33 | B | 34 | C | 35 | B | 36 | B | 37 | B | 38 | B | 39 | B | 40 | A |
41 | B | 42 | A | 43 | C | 44 | B | 45 | C | 46 | B | 47 | A | 48 | D | 49 | B | 50 | C |
51 | C | 52 | B | 53 | D | 54 | C | 55 | B | 56 | C | 57 | D | 58 | A | 59 | C | 60 | B |
61 | D | 62 | C | 63 | C | 64 | B | 65 | D | 66 | B | 67 | A | 68 | C | 69 | C | 70 | A |
71 | C | 72 | C | 73 | D | 74 | A | 75 | C | 76 | C | 77 | C | 78 | B | 79 | A | 80 | D |
81 | A | 82 | A | 83 | D | 84 | C | 85 | C | 86 | A | 87 | C | 88 | A | 89 | C | 90 | C |
91 | A | 92 | B | 93 | A | 94 | B | 95 | C | 96 | B | 97 | A | 98 | B | 99 | D | 100 | A |
101 | D | 102 | B | 103 | C | 104 | A | 105 | A | 106 | D | 107 | C | 108 | C | 109 | A | 110 | B |
111 | C |