"A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertisin

The above argument is about the study conducted on Mentian advertising executives and the dependency of their sleeping habits to the business prosperity. Well, the study conducted is only on 300 executives and all of them being Mentian. On how many firms was the study conducted, did all of the firms employ only Mentian executives, if so why was the study not conducted on other Mentian executives if there were any? These questions remain unanswered in the argument.

The next weakening point is that, the period of the study is not mentioned. If the study was conducted for just one day, then the above argument is not reasonable. There might be various other reasons like work stress, personal constraints, or being conscious about the study being conducted on them which is why the executives did not sleep for more than 6 hours. Also the sleeping habits in male and female differ. Some of them may be in a real way nocturnal and prefer going late to bed and few others may be habitual of waking up early in the morning. Additionally, were the executives able to sleep continuously without waking up for breaks during their sleeping hours? All these factors are highly important in shaping the argument.

Also, if the study was conducted for a longer duration, what was the period of study, were the executives aware of the study being conducted? These aspects would have helped in strengthening the argument.

Associated with this is the increase in profit margins and faster growth. Wouldn't it be more lucid if the market status of the firm and its performance over the years were included in the argument? This would then help in concluding if it the growth is due to people sleeping for 6 hours or a collective effort by the firm irrespective of their sleeping habits. We are not aware if the other executives on whom the study is not conducted also sleep for 6 hours or more than that.

For a firm to perform better and have higher profit margins, there are many other factors like the efficiency of the executives, their performance in the market, the workforce available. Considering these facts and with a stronger reasoning for the study conducted would have helped in making the argument stand out.