Using the phone at her desk, Sylvia in Corporate Sales consistently generates a very steady $1500 per hour in gross revenue for her firm. After all of her firm's costs have been subtracted, Sylvia's sales amount to $100 in bottom line (net) profits every 15 minutes. At 10:00 a.m. one day the desk phone Sylvia uses to make her sales calls breaks. Without the phone Sylvia cannot make any sales. Assume that Sylvia's regular schedule is to begin making sales calls at 8:00 a.m. Assume she works the phone for four hours, takes a one hour lunch exactly at noon, and then returns promptly to her desk for four more hours of afternoon sales. Sylvia loves her work and the broken phone is keeping her from it. If necessary she will try to repair the phone herself.
Which of the following options would be in the best interest of Sylvia's firm to remedy the broken phone problem?
Using the phone at her desk, Sylvia in Corporate Sales consistently generates a very steady $1500 per hour in gross revenue for her firm. After all of her firm's costs have been subtracted, Sylvia's sales amount to $100 in bottom line (net) profits every 15 minutes. At 10:00 a.m. one day the desk phone Sylvia uses to make her sales calls breaks. Without the phone Sylvia cannot make any sales. Assume that Sylvia's regular schedule is to begin making sales calls at 8:00 a.m. Assume she works the phone for four hours, takes a one hour lunch exactly at noon, and then returns promptly to her desk for four more hours of afternoon sales. Sylvia loves her work and the broken phone is keeping her from it. If necessary she will try to repair the phone herself.
Which of the following options would be in the best interest of Sylvia's firm to remedy the broken phone problem?
Use Ed's Phone Repair Shop down the street. Ed can replace Sylvia's phone by 10:30 a.m. Ed will charge the firm 
500.
75 knowing she
can plug it in and have it working within a few minutes after she gets back to her desk at 1:00 p.m.
The correct option is A Use Ed's Phone Repair Shop down the street. Ed can replace Sylvia's phone by 10:30 a.m. Ed will charge the firm 500.
Solution Strategy-: Interpreting " in the firm's best interest" as in its best financial interest, the best answer from among those given will be the option which costs the firm the least.
Applying the strategy - : Interpreting " in the firm's best interest" - Interpreting the firm's best interest as meaning in its financial interest is based on two contextual elements: First that the question is set in the context of business transactions rather than other possible kinds of personal or social issues which might emerge in the workplace; and, second, that the details provided in the body of the question and its four answer choices are about time and money. Financial interests are not the only potential concerns Sylvia's firm might have. Good critical thinking not only enables one to recognize the multiplicity of possible interpretations, it also enables one to make a prudent choice among them. In this case, given all that is said and not said about Sylvia, her productivity, her work habits, and her job satisfaction, it would unreasonable to interpret " in the best interest of Sylvia's firm" as meaning something other than in its financial interest.
Focusing on costs, therefore, the reasoning tasks become analyzing each of the four options and drawing correct inferences as their respective financial impacts. The final critical thinking tasks are to compare the projected costs of each option and to select the one which would be the least costly to the firm. Along the way, the person with strong critical thinking skills would be monitoring his or her own reasoning, vigilant for possible errors in calculating the costs or errors in properly analyzing the details of each of the four choices. The person might reason as follows:
Option (A) would cost $700. The $500 paid to Ed's Phone Repair Shop and the $200 of lost profits Sylvia would otherwise have been expected to generate in the 30 minutes between 10:00 a.m. when the phone broke down and 10:30 a.m. when the replacement phone is in place.
Option (B ) will cost nothing for the phone since the instrument is already in inventory. But it will cost the firm six hours of net revenue, which is $2400, because Sylvia will not be able to make calls until tomorrow.
Option (C) would cost $875 or a bit more. That figure comes from the two hours of lost time between 10:00 am and Noon, plus the $75 to reimburse Sylvia for the cost of the new phone, plus perhaps whatever little bit of additional profits would be lost in the few minutes it would take Sylvia to install that new phone her self.
Option (D) requires that Sylvia not have a working phone for four hours, not counting the noon hour which she spends at lunch, and thus it would cost the firm approximately $1600 or perhaps more. Answer--: Option A, for it, costs the firm the least financially.
Use Ed's Phone Repair Shop down the street. Ed can replace Sylvia's phone by 10:30 a.m. Ed will charge the firm 500.
Solution Strategy-: Interpreting " in the firm's best interest" as in its best financial interest, the best answer from among those given will be the option which costs the firm the least.
Applying the strategy - : Interpreting " in the firm's best interest" - Interpreting the firm's best interest as meaning in its financial interest is based on two contextual elements: First that the question is set in the context of business transactions rather than other possible kinds of personal or social issues which might emerge in the workplace; and, second, that the details provided in the body of the question and its four answer choices are about time and money. Financial interests are not the only potential concerns Sylvia's firm might have. Good critical thinking not only enables one to recognize the multiplicity of possible interpretations, it also enables one to make a prudent choice among them. In this case, given all that is said and not said about Sylvia, her productivity, her work habits, and her job satisfaction, it would unreasonable to interpret " in the best interest of Sylvia's firm" as meaning something other than in its financial interest.
Focusing on costs, therefore, the reasoning tasks become analyzing each of the four options and drawing correct inferences as their respective financial impacts. The final critical thinking tasks are to compare the projected costs of each option and to select the one which would be the least costly to the firm. Along the way, the person with strong critical thinking skills would be monitoring his or her own reasoning, vigilant for possible errors in calculating the costs or errors in properly analyzing the details of each of the four choices. The person might reason as follows:
Option (A) would cost $700. The $500 paid to Ed's Phone Repair Shop and the $200 of lost profits Sylvia would otherwise have been expected to generate in the 30 minutes between 10:00 a.m. when the phone broke down and 10:30 a.m. when the replacement phone is in place.
Option (B ) will cost nothing for the phone since the instrument is already in inventory. But it will cost the firm six hours of net revenue, which is $2400, because Sylvia will not be able to make calls until tomorrow.
Option (C) would cost $875 or a bit more. That figure comes from the two hours of lost time between 10:00 am and Noon, plus the $75 to reimburse Sylvia for the cost of the new phone, plus perhaps whatever little bit of additional profits would be lost in the few minutes it would take Sylvia to install that new phone her self.
Option (D) requires that Sylvia not have a working phone for four hours, not counting the noon hour which she spends at lunch, and thus it would cost the firm approximately $1600 or perhaps more.
Answer--: Option A, for it, costs the firm the least financially.
