Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960's when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even years after the program was implemented, minority business receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy's total receipts. Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a participating company to establish a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority businesses that have potential to become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company. MESBIC's are the result of the belief that providing established firms with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific experience, as well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply making general management experience and small amounts of capital available. Further, since potential markets for the minority businesses already exist through the sponsoring companies, the minority businesses face considerably less risk in terms of location and market fluctuation. Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC's far above the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of management needed. MESBIC's are now emerging as increasingly important financing sources for minority enterprises. Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter often still think mainly in terms of the "social responsibility approach" and thus seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness among many minority staff members, who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses should be judged by established business considerations. These staff members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of MESBIC's and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed, MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely to re-create the disappointing results of the original SBA approach
Qn:
Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?
1.There is a crucial difference in point of view between the staff and directors of some MESBIC's.
2.After initial problems with management and marketing, minority businesses have begun to expand at a steady rate.
3.The use of MESBIC's for aiding minority entrepreneurs seems to have greater potential for success than does the original SBA approach.
4.Minority entrepreneurs wishing to form new businesses now have several equally successful federal programs on which to rely.
5.For the first time since 1960, large corporations are making significant contributions to the development of minority businesses.
The majority of successful senior managers do not closely follow the classical rational model of first clarifying goals, assessing the problem, formulating options, estimating likelihoods of success, making a decision, and only then taking action to implement the decision. Rather, in their day-by-day tactical maneuvers, these senior executives rely on what is vaguely termed "intuition" to manage a network of interrelated problems that require them to deal with ambiguity, inconsistency, novelty, and surprise; and to integrate action into the process of thinking. Generations of writers on management have recognized that some practicing managers rely heavily on intuition. In general, however, such writers display a poor grasp of what intuition is. Some see it as the opposite of rationality; others view it as an excuse for capriciousness. Isenberg's recent research on the cognitive processes of senior managers reveals that managers' intuition is neither of these. Rather, senior managers use intuition in at least five distinct ways. First, they intuitively sense when a problem exists. Second, managers rely on intuition to perform well-learned behavior patterns rapidly. This intuition is not arbitrary or irrational, but is based on years of painstaking practice and hands-on experience that build skills. A third function of intuition is to synthesize isolated bits of data and practice into an integrated picture, often in an "Aha!" experience. Fourth, some managers use intuition as a check on the results of more rational analysis. Most senior executives are familiar with the formal decision analysis models and tools, and those who use such systematic methods for reaching decisions are occasionally leery of solutions suggested by these methods which run counter to their sense of the correct course of action. Finally, managers can use intuition to bypass in-depth analysis and move rapidly to engender a plausible solution. Used in this way, intuition is an almost instantaneous cognitive process in which a manager recognizes familiar patterns. One of the implications of the intuitive style of executive management is that "thinking" is inseparable from acting. Since managers often "know" what is right before they can analyze and explain it, they frequently act first and explain later. Analysis is inextricably tied to action in thinking/acting cycles, in which managers develop thoughts about their companies and organizations not by analyzing a problematic situation and then acting, but by acting and analyzing in close concert. Given the great uncertainty of many of the management issues that they face, senior managers often instigate a course of action simply to learn more about an issue. They then use the results of the action to develop a more complete understanding of the issue. One implication of thinking/acting cycles is that action is often part of defining the problem, not just of implementing the solution.
Qn:
The passage suggests which of the following about the "writers on management" mentioned in line 12?
1.They have criticized managers for not following the classical rational model of decision analysis.
2.They have misunderstood how managers use intuition in making business decisions.
3.They have not based their analyses on a sufficiently large sample of actual managers.
4.They have relied in drawing their conclusions on what managers say rather than on what managers do.
5.They have not acknowledged the role of intuition in managerial practice.
The Reading Comprehension (RC) section has been the b Şte noire of CAT candidates for long now. Simply because the length of the passage has varied every year, the type of questions asked has also varied and there is no tutorial/technique that one can use to prepare for the various types of passages.
Is there a stiff rule for use of their for example, Which of these are right: 1. They have to keep their receipts in order. or, 2. They have to keep receipts in order.
Here I am talking of the case when receipts belong to the persons. Is there any chance that both are correct and there is no hard and fast rule for the use of their. If there is a stiff rule for the use of their please elaborate. 😃
The Battle of Bull Run, which took place on July 21, 1861 near the town of Manassas, an important event in American history in that this historic event was the first major ground battle of the Civil War, which resulted in over 500,000 deaths and a turning of the tide against the practice of slavery.
A.
an important event in American history in that this historic event was the first major ground battle of the Civil War, which resulted in over 500,000 deaths and a turning of the tide against the practice of slavery.
B.
an important event in American history marking the first major ground battle of the Civil War, which resulted in the death of over 500,000 Americans and the abolition of slavery.
C.
was an important event in American history as it had marked the first major ground battle of the Civil War, which resulted in the death of over 500,000 Americans and the abolition of slavery.
D.
is an important event in American history as it marked the first major ground battle of the Civil War, which resulted in the death of over 500,000 Americans and the abolition of slavery.
E.
is an important event in American history due to it marking the first major ground battle of the Civil War, resulting in the death of over 500,000 Americans and the abolition of slavery.
