LSAT 109 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q8

LR Question 8 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Early in the development of a new product line, the…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The company’s best managers should work on new product lines.

REASONING: New product lines don’t produce much money at first, but they need a skilled manager to succeed.

ANALYSIS: There are many problems with this argument. Maybe most new ventures would fail even if they had skilled managers (we’re not told that current managers are unskilled).

Maybe new ventures will be unprofitable in the long term, even when they succeed.

Maybe existing products will fail unless they have the most skilled managers.

You can strengthen the argument by addressing any of those flaws.

___________

1. This weakens the argument. Skilled managers don’t seem to help new ventures.
2. This doesn’t really affect the argument. New products lines might still be important, even if there isn’t much spent on them.
3. This slightly weakens the argument. If we put skilled managers to work on new products lines, they might become bored and fail.
4. CORRECT. This removes the risk that established (and profitable) products will fail if we move experienced managers to new product lines.
5. This is meaningless. We don’t know how much revenue new products produce. And their revenue is just a predictor, because they may earn a lot more in the long run. E.g. maybe $10,000 in the short term predicts $10,000,000 revenue in the long term.

Recap: The question begins with “Early in the development of a new product line, the”. It is a Strengthen question. Learn more about LSAT Strengthen questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.