Analyse the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions that follow it.

When Jack began his career as a stock broker in 2012, also the year he married Suzen, Bharat Tata set up a company, TATA Works, to manufacture outdoor tents, sleeping bags, rucksacks etc in Mathura, UP. After a year Bharat realised that it was no substitute for real thing. He disassociated himself from the venture, which is well today. But Bharat has no regrets.

The next year Bharat signed up with a UK based adventure tourism company, Colour Night, which was looking for guides (trained climbers) to take its customers into high mountains. Bharat, in the following couple of years, worked as a guide, spending nearly six months in mountains, each year. But Colour Night terminates its contracts in India in the year 2016, as a part of internal restructuring. At this juncture, when Bharat was jobless, he met his old friend Jack, who had suffered huge losses in the stock market.

These two with the assistance of Suzen, set up Apex Tourism Company (ATC). To make their venture more attractive than the other state subsidised clubs, they positioned it at the top end of the market. They decided not to compromise on hotels and transport, so that the spirit of adventure was not ruined by lack of comforts. They marketed a week-long trip to Ooty at ₹ 11,000 per head. But it took time for the idea to be accepted by the customers. In the first year ATC made loss mainly due to lack of proper marketing efforts. Since ATC was picking up slowly, they felt the need for another line of business. They started exploring the potential of corporate outdoor management development programmes. They roped in Ajay, a management consultant, to discuss the potential of combining management training with Mother Nature. The idea was that outdoor management development programmes help in reducing stress. It helps managers to interact with each other, away from the workplace and work roles. In the first few days ATC received a call form one of the India’s largest corporate houses, LHE.

Now, ATC conducts 25 to 30 outdoor management development programmes a year. A programme cost about Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000 per employee. As proximity to Noida is important for ATC’s clients, which include IT majors, ATC has developed sites in Lucknow. The hitch is that no company can afford to send 25 managers out for a long time. Hence, ATC relies heavily on its human resource consultants who charge the company between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 a day to get companies to attend ATC’s programmes. Most of the corporate HR’s who are interested in this programme are aware that the benefits do not translate into money immediately, but they are sure that programme will definitely have long-term intangible benefits, if the physical aspects are translated to address emotional issues. They feel that the programmes should be more business-oriented, the physical aspects of it are really secondary. That should ring warning bells for ATC.

Q1) 

Which of the following is a reason for ATC to position their venture at the top end of the market?

a To attract high value customers.

b To have larger profit margin.

c To make their venture look more attractive than those of the others.

d To ensure that spirit of adventure is not ruined by the lack of comforts.

e To attract customers from IT industry.

Q2)

Which of the following steps can make the venture of ATC more profitable?

a Position their business at the lower end of the market.

b Employ HR personnel instead of depending on consultants.

c Fix an upper limit for the number person participating in each programme.

d Long term the ups with IT sector.

e Conduct less number of programmes at a higher cost.