Strategic planning documents outline executive reasoning for major business decisions, with corporate leaders frequently incorporating market analyses...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Strategic planning documents outline executive reasoning for major business decisions, with corporate leaders frequently incorporating market analyses and industry reports to support their proposed directions. Business consultant Dr. Jennifer Walsh observes that executives typically reference data that validates their strategic choices, yet the most effective planning documents anticipate and address stakeholder concerns; therefore, including analyses that challenge proposed strategies might ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
enable executives to develop strategic plans without consulting external market research.
make strategic planning documents more understandable to employees across different departments.
require executives to substantially revise their original strategic recommendations.
align strategic planning documents with approaches commonly used throughout the industry.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Strategic planning documents outline executive reasoning for major business decisions' |
|
| 'with corporate leaders frequently incorporating market analyses and industry reports to support their proposed directions' |
|
| 'Business consultant Dr. Jennifer Walsh observes that executives typically reference data that validates their strategic choices' |
|
| 'yet the most effective planning documents anticipate and address stakeholder concerns' |
|
| 'therefore, including analyses that challenge proposed strategies might ______' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map:
[CONTEXT: What strategic planning docs are] → [CURRENT PRACTICE: Leaders use validating data] → [EXPERT OBSERVATION: Confirms this pattern] → [CONTRAST: Most effective docs address stakeholder concerns] → [LOGICAL CONCLUSION: Challenging analyses might lead to what?]
Main Point: While executives typically use data that supports their strategic choices, the most effective planning documents go further by addressing stakeholder concerns through challenging analyses.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes what strategic planning documents are, describes current executive practices (using supportive data), then contrasts this with what makes documents most effective (addressing stakeholder concerns), leading to a conclusion about what including challenging analyses might accomplish.
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 sets up a clear contrast: executives typically use data that validates their choices, but the most effective documents anticipate stakeholder concerns
- If we include analyses that challenge (rather than validate) proposed strategies, this would likely force executives to confront potential problems or weaknesses in their plans
- This challenging process might require them to strengthen, modify, or even significantly revise their original recommendations to address those concerns
- So the right answer should indicate that challenging analyses would likely force executives to change or improve their original strategic plans in some meaningful way
enable executives to develop strategic plans without consulting external market research.
- Suggests challenging analyses would eliminate the need for external market research
- This contradicts the passage's emphasis on incorporating market analyses and industry reports
- Makes no logical connection to the contrast between validating data and addressing stakeholder concerns
make strategic planning documents more understandable to employees across different departments.
- Focuses on making documents more understandable to employees
- The passage discusses effectiveness in terms of addressing stakeholder concerns, not employee comprehension
- Does not follow logically from the setup about challenging vs. validating analyses
require executives to substantially revise their original strategic recommendations.
- Logically follows from the passage's reasoning: if you include analyses that challenge your strategies (instead of just validating them), executives would likely need to revise their recommendations
- Connects directly to the contrast between using validating data (current practice) and addressing stakeholder concerns (most effective approach)
- Makes sense that challenging analyses would force substantial changes to original plans
align strategic planning documents with approaches commonly used throughout the industry.
- Suggests challenging analyses would align documents with industry approaches
- The passage contrasts typical executive behavior with most effective practices, implying the effective approach is less common
- Does not logically follow from the setup about challenging existing strategies