Critical Reasoning

A survey of entrepreneurs who started companies last year shows that while virtually all did substantial preparatory research and planning, only half used that work to produce a formal business plan. Since, on average, the entrepreneurs without formal plans secured the capital they needed in half the time of those with plans, these survey results indicate that, in general, formal plans did not help the entrepreneurs who produced them to secure the capital they needed.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A - Companies started by entrepreneurs who had used formal business plans to attract investment were on the whole as profitable in their first year as were companies started by entrepreneurs who had not produced such plans.

B - In surveys of entrepreneurs who have attempted without success to raise sufficient capital, more than half of the respondents indicate that they have produced a formal business plan.

C - Among the entrepreneurs surveyed, those who did not produce formal business plans sought and received a much larger proportion of their capital from investors with whom they had a long-standing business relationship.

D - The entrepreneurs surveyed who did not produce a formal business plan spent nearly as much time doing preparatory research and planning as the entrepreneurs who produced plans.

E - The entrepreneurs who produced business plans generally reported later that the process of writing the plan had increased their confidence that their company would succeed.

OA after replies.

C to me. Since the entrepreneurs who did not form formal plans succeeded or obtained higher proportion of funds from people they knew then, saying they succeeded because they did not have formal plans is weakened or affected.

A and E talk about things not discussed in the prompt.

B and d are somewhat on similar lines, but don't help us much.

Hope I am correct.

Is the Answer [C].. this choice rights suggest that we cannot say that "planning was not helpful"

What is the OA?

Yes the OA is C

But I could not arrive to it.

The argument states that there are two types of researchers
1 - Do the research and do not make a plan
2 - Do the research and do make a plan

Group 1 secures the funds in half the time. Then the Conclusion states - Plans did not help GROUP 2.
To weaken the conclusion we should find a premise that shows the plans did help group 2.

Answer choice C talks about Group 1.

faraz_jeddah wrote:Yes the OA is C

But I could not arrive to it.

The argument states that there are two types of researchers
1 - Do the research and do not make a plan
2 - Do the research and do make a plan

Group 1 secures the funds in half the time. Then the Conclusion states - Plans did not help GROUP 2.
To weaken the conclusion we should find a premise that shows the plans did help group 2.

Answer choice C talks about Group 1.

Hmmm it is not so complicated as such. As I have mentioned, the issue is "that they got more funding because they did not to formal planning"

Fact is they got major capital infusion by people known to them, this is opposite to what has been assumed to be the reason for their success to get funds.


Aside: You arrived at or to it?

Hi,

As all have rightly pointed out,answer is C. My reasoning is as follows:

In weakening questions,it is not always required that the answer choice has to negate an assumption.

If x causes y, an answer can also be a different cause of y.

It means, there can be an alternate explanation for people with no plan to get capital. It can be - their contacts and relationships in the industry.

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.