Over the past eighteen months, constant strategic pivoting has characterized the startup's European expansion efforts. Executives have regularly chang...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Over the past eighteen months, constant strategic pivoting has characterized the startup's European expansion efforts. Executives have regularly changed target demographics and product offerings, creating a _______ growth plan that leaves investors uncertain about long-term profitability.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
conservative
innovative
sporadic
profitable
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Over the past eighteen months, constant strategic pivoting has characterized the startup's European expansion efforts.' |
|
| 'Executives have regularly changed target demographics and product offerings,' |
|
| '[MISSING WORD]' |
|
| 'growth plan that leaves investors uncertain about long-term profitability.' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map:
[TIMEFRAME & PATTERN] 18 months of constant strategic pivoting → [SPECIFIC EXAMPLES] Changed demographics + product offerings → [MISSING DESCRIPTOR] growth plan → [CONSEQUENCE] Investor uncertainty about profitability
Main Point: The startup's frequent strategic changes over 18 months have created an unpredictable growth plan that concerns investors.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a pattern of constant strategic changes, provides specific examples of these changes, and then shows how this pattern results in a particular type of growth plan that ultimately makes investors uncertain about the company's future profitability.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage tells us about constant strategic pivoting and regular changes to target demographics and product offerings
- This creates some kind of growth plan that makes investors uncertain about profitability
- The missing word needs to:
- Reflect the pattern of constant changes and pivoting we just read about
- Logically connect to why investors would be uncertain about profitability
- Describe a growth plan that results from inconsistent, frequently changing strategies
- So the right answer should describe a growth plan that is inconsistent, unpredictable, or irregular—something that would naturally make investors uncertain because they can't rely on a steady, predictable approach
conservative
✗ Incorrect
- A conservative growth plan would be cautious and steady
- This contradicts the 'constant strategic pivoting' and frequent changes described
- Conservative approaches typically increase investor confidence, not uncertainty
innovative
✗ Incorrect
- While the changes might seem innovative, this word has positive connotations
- Innovation alone doesn't explain why investors would be uncertain about profitability
- Doesn't capture the problematic nature of the constant pivoting
sporadic
✓ Correct
- Sporadic means occurring irregularly or intermittently
- Perfectly captures the 'constant strategic pivoting' and 'regularly changed' pattern
- A sporadic growth plan would naturally leave investors uncertain because they can't predict the company's direction
- Creates the logical connection between frequent changes and investor uncertainty
profitable
✗ Incorrect
- Directly contradicts the phrase 'leaves investors uncertain about long-term profitability'
- If the growth plan were already profitable, investors wouldn't be uncertain about profitability
- This represents a trap where students might choose this because 'profitable' sounds positive for a business context, but it creates a logical contradiction with the sentence's ending