"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 advertising firms studied, those whose
executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had
higher profit margins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a
business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6
hours of sleep per night."

The suggestion provided by the author based on the above study

is too much of an extension of what can be inferred from the
meagre details provided. Firstly, the number of advertisement
firms and the number of executives from each firm that were the
part of the survey has not been mentioned. Further, the study
provides the average number of hours the executives sleep per
night which is not cogent enough as there may be variation
among individual executives in the same advertisement firm.
Also, the author fails to address the roles of the executives in their
respective advertisement firms. Suppose, a particular executive is
not a part of any significant work in the firm, then the number of
hours he/she sleeps is totally pointless. It may also happen that
executives with more workload and responsibilities do sleep for
more than six hours and those with a low workload sleep less but
because of taking average the study fails to incorporate this
possibility. Hence, the results may be deceiving.
Additionally, no information regarding the size of the
advertisement firm and the number of advertising executives
working in the firm is provided. A relatively large firm depends on
the performance of all the executives and various departments
and is less likely to be influenced by a particular executive who
was the part of the survey. There may be certain other factors
that might be contributing to the higher profit margins but are
overlooked by the author.
The author also weakens his argument by failing to acknowledge
that all business are not similar to advertising firms. Therefore, it
is not certain that other business would also thrive if they were to
hire employees who sleeps no more than six hours at night.

Different business requires different skills and might not be

concerned about how much an employee sleeps during nonworking hours.
Examining the above facts, it is clear that the assumptions made
by the author has flawed his argument. Hence, the result
suggested by him is invalid and a more extensive study is
required to justify the above stated argument.