Roberto Chen is a business executive who has built his career developing market strategies for both emerging startup companies and...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Roberto Chen is a business executive who has built his career developing market strategies for both emerging startup companies and established multinational corporations. In a recent industry conference presentation, he explained how his diverse experiences across different business environments have collectively strengthened his strategic planning abilities: _____
Which quotation from the presentation most effectively illustrates this claim?
'Working with startups requires rapid pivoting and creative problem-solving that established corporations rarely demand due to their structured processes.'
'Multinational corporations offer extensive resources and established market presence, advantages that startup companies typically lack during their initial growth phases.'
'Startup environments taught me agile decision-making and resource optimization, while corporate settings provided systematic planning frameworks—skills that now complement each other in every strategy I develop.'
'My corporate experience provided systematic strategic planning methods that transformed how I approach business development in any organizational context.'
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Roberto Chen is a business executive who has built his career developing market strategies for both emerging startup companies and established multinational corporations.' |
|
| 'In a recent industry conference presentation, he explained how his diverse experiences across different business environments have collectively strengthened his strategic planning abilities:' |
|
| '_____' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Roberto Chen believes his combined experience with both startups and multinational corporations has made him a stronger strategic planner.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes Chen's background working across different business environments, then presents his claim that this diverse experience has collectively strengthened his strategic planning abilities. We need evidence that specifically illustrates how both types of experience work together to enhance his skills.
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 correct answer needs to show how Chen's experiences with both startups AND corporations have combined to strengthen his strategic planning abilities
- It should demonstrate that he learned different valuable skills from each environment, and that these skills now work together to make him better at what he does
- We're looking for integration and collective benefit, not just a comparison between the two types of organizations
'Working with startups requires rapid pivoting and creative problem-solving that established corporations rarely demand due to their structured processes.'
✗ Incorrect
- Focuses only on contrasting startup vs. corporate environments
- Doesn't show how both experiences collectively strengthened his abilities
'Multinational corporations offer extensive resources and established market presence, advantages that startup companies typically lack during their initial growth phases.'
✗ Incorrect
- Again only contrasts the advantages each type offers
- No mention of how Chen's abilities were strengthened by experiencing both
'Startup environments taught me agile decision-making and resource optimization, while corporate settings provided systematic planning frameworks—skills that now complement each other in every strategy I develop.'
✓ Correct
- Shows specific skills learned from each environment: startups taught 'agile decision-making and resource optimization' while corporations provided 'systematic planning frameworks'
- Explicitly states these skills 'complement each other in every strategy I develop'
- Directly illustrates the claim by showing how diverse experiences collectively strengthen his current work
'My corporate experience provided systematic strategic planning methods that transformed how I approach business development in any organizational context.'
✗ Incorrect
- Only mentions corporate experience, ignoring startup experience entirely
- Fails to demonstrate the 'diverse experiences' aspect of the claim