XAT Decision Making MCQ Quiz - 3 - CAT MCQ

• Option A is limiting the choices, not the best solution in this case.
• Option B is incorrect as it increases operational effort for Madhuri.
• Option C is ruled out as cleaner cannot stay whenever guests leave the apartment.
• Option D is not an effective solution as customers may still not leave their keys behind despite the polite reminders given to the
• customers.
• Option E addresses the concerns that customers don't leave the keys behind, as well gave an option to recover a portion of the cost, if such incidents still occur.
• Option E is correct.

• Switching to physical lock will be a retrograde step. Digital lock provides Madhuri with an option to monitor her apartment remotely and a physical lock will not allow her to do the same. Therefore, we can eliminate option A.
• We can eliminate option B too since it suffers from the same flaw as option A.
• It has been given that the cleaner will be available only for a limited period every day. Therefore, the cleaner cannot be asked to explain the working of digital lock and hence, we can eliminate option C as well. 
• Madhuri cannot afford to be indifferent. Doing so will result in unsatisfied customers. Therefore, we can eliminate option D as well.
• Option E states that Madhuri should educate her customers using a video on how to operate the digital lock. Releasing such a tutorial will ensure that the grievance of the customers get redressed. Also, Madhuri can continue using the digital lock as well. Therefore, option E is the right answer. 

• The leakage of information should be prevented. Sudharsan Lal is supposed to know the proceedings of the company but it should be through a formal communication channel.
•  
• We can eliminate option B since it proposes an immature course of action. 
• Option C can be eliminated as well since it proposes no step to curb the leak of information.
• We can eliminate option D since it does not propose any course of action.
• Option E can be eliminated as well since it spoils the relationship between him and the business heads. Also, it fails to find out the person responsible for leaking the information and even if someone is fired, there is no way to know whether Chhaganlal has fired the right person. 
• Chaganlal should request Sudharsan to be patient till he gives out the information. This will ensure that Sudharsan will not have the need to depend on second-hand information and hence, will address the root cause of the issue. Therefore, option A is the right answer.

• To make a decision, there must be a factor that encourages/discourages the distribution of territories to his subordinates.
• Options A shows that Sayed has been a good performer, and can be allotted a fair share of the territories. Option B shows that Sayed is in a tight spot, and hence can be allowed to focus more on his territory and not assign him significantly more territories.
• Similarly, Options D and E provide info as to how the performance of Godwin has been. They would help Satyender to decide to assign more territories or fewer territories according to the performance of Godwin over the past years.
• Note that C provides no such factor of consideration. It merely states that there is a new territory that faces stiff competition. What about the other territories, what should be their distribution? Even we are unsure about this territory. Let us say Palani's performance is poor. But should this territory be assigned to Godwin or Sayed, who is a better performer? Hence, C does not lead us anywhere.

Option A provides a justification why Palani's expenses are on a higher side. Also, the other options involve a level of subjectivity. The truth in the claims cannot be verified in the other options and hence, a decision cannot be arrived. Option A talks about a quantifiable reason and hence, Satyendar can make a decision. Therefore, option A is the right answer.

• We cannot predict the future performance using the past records. Therefore, any option that stresses on the track record to allay the fear can be eliminated. 
• Options A, B, C, and D use the past performance as a tool to assert that the person will perform well. Therefore, we can eliminate these options. Only option E states that Sayed has an option to exclude the new joinee's performance. Even if Palani fails to perform, Sayed will not have to bear the brunt for the same. Therefore, option E will encourage Sayed to provide Palani with a chance and hence, option E is the right answer. 

• From the statements of minister and his answers to the questions raised by the Head of the nation, it is clear that the minister has allocated resources following the rules set by the government and there is no partiality or irregularities have taken place. So, Media has wrongly accused Minister.
• Option A is wrong as we can't define a boundary to media.
• There is no support to validate claims in option B.
• Option C is wrong.
• Option D is correct answer.

The minister has stated that the loss is notional and in reality, the projects have benefited everyone. Options C and D talk about actual losses. The minister has not made any statement regarding the loss. Therefore, we can eliminate options C and D. Options A and B talk about notional losses. Again, notional losses should not be a factor deciding whether a project should be implemented or not. We can eliminate options A and B as well. None of the given statements are valid inferences and hence, option E is the right answer. 

• Option B is false as state of Sambhu cannot be decided according to the paragraph.
• In the last line of the second paragraph it is mentioned that "  He used this opportunity as a platform to spread the message that only citizens with an unblemished character should be allowed to hold a public office." Thus Sambhu was not directly involved in the politics, he just uses the stage to garner support, which might be the reason for decline.
• Option D and E are trivial.
• Option C is correct

• Shambu's initial success was due to the latent anger in the people and Shambu's moral courage to stand up against corruption. Raising income level was not the reason for Shambu's initial success. Also, Shambu became the darling of the media once he was successful. It has not been given that media aided in furthering Shambu's struggle against corruption. 
• Points 1 and 2 played a pivotal role in Shambu's initial success. Therefore, points 3 and 4 are unlikely to be the reasons for Shambu's initial success and hence, option B is the right answer. 

Since Seema is a conscientious female entrepreneur, she should realize that one of the basic premises behind her forming her company was to provide equal opportunity to female employees. Hence she cannot step back from that aim. At the same time she has to run her business profitably. Hence she should look at placing female employees in jobs where they can perform productively without the company’s interests being compromised. For jobs requiring overtime and travel she could then look at perhaps hiring more male employees.

• Since Saundarya Cosmetics has to maximize long-term profits, it has to look at moving beyond the ‘rich’ segment it has serviced so long. It has to look at catering to the middle class and poor segments which aspire to its products. Also sales in the rich segment are stagnating.
• Therefore the company should target products of different quality (and hence by implication price) to these other segments. Option (A) is ruled out because by selling-high quality products at low prices the company will lose money in the long run. (C) also implies selling the same products previously targeted at the rich (under different brand names) to the poor and middle classes.
• This would also potentially lead to losses through higher cost of productions and the need to maintain lower prices. Continuing to target only the rich would not maximize long-term profits as sales in this segment is clearly stagnating. Targeting only the middleclass would also be putting all eggs in one basket and hence not desirable.
• Thus option (B) is the correct answer as the company would be customizing is offering for targeting the different segments.

• The company has sold its software to more than a million of customers. The bug poses a significant threat to these customers. Hence if the problem is left unattended the company will face even greater loss of credibility and bad word-of-mouth if it keeps quiet and the customers discover the bug.
• Hence in order to keep its reputation with its customers and show its commitment to them the company should own up and fix the bug for all software copies sold even if it involves expenses for it. (B), (C) and (D) talk about keeping silent about the problem and hence can be ruled out. (E) is also not correct.
• Taking off a product that has sold more than a million copies is also an extreme step which will show up the company in a poor light.

The important cause behind this entire incident was definitely the fact that while Mr Thakur took the bold initiative of negotiating wage contracts directly with supervisors he was inconsistent. He took the trouble to negotiate with day supervisors personally but failed to follow the same process for night supervisors which led to Ram Lal feeling aggrieved, resulting in the incident.

Option (A) is incorrect because his objective was definitely not to create a channel wherein employees could bargain on their wages. Option (C) is not correct as there is no mention in the passage that the supervisors were planning collective action against the management. Similarly neither option (D) nor option (E) are borned out by the statements mentioned in the passage.

The reason(s) for Ram let’s “grievance” have been mentioned as both his inability to meet the President & the unfairness of his wage contract. Thus, option (B) is the correct answer. Option (C) states the immediate cause of his outburst in the President’s office.

The fact that Mr Thakur hit Ram Lal back when he tried to assault him shows that he clearly became emotionally unstable under pressure and did not deal with the problem in a manner befitting a mature, senior executive.

The answer is ‘may be never’ because it is not possible to find out the year in which Shekhar is going to break even simply from the data provided. While the sales in Patna and Bistupur may be the same, the costs (for example rentals) may be very different in Patna compared to Bistupur and hence we cannot predict that Shekhar will enjoy the same profit margin as the franchisee in Patna. Thus in the absence of complete information we cannot predict any certain figure for break-even and therefore “may be never” is the best choice.

‘Patronage’ here means the support that a person gives to a shop/store etc. by spending money there. Refer to the lines “Most upper middle class customers stopped there”. Thus option (E) is the most appropriate choice.

Shekhar’s decision on whether to take up the Music World franchise would depend to a large extent upon how well he expects the business to grow in future. This would impart his decision, for instance, to set up the store in Sakchi rather than Bistupur if the market really is expected to grow there in future. Factors like real estate prices and profitability of business in first two years would be short-term factors while factors such as changes in the music industry would be largely beyond the scope of decision-making.

The learning from the solitaire incident is that people in certain roles would have different ways of carrying out their duties. The way Rabindra reacted to the solitaire incident and took a unilateral decision without informing his supervisor clearly illustrates this.

The problem that Rabindra’s decision created lay with the fact that he acted on impulse without investigating the matter properly. Hence D is the right choice.