Case Studies

While there is no one definitive ‘case method’ or approach, there are common steps that most approaches recommend be followed in tackling a case study. It is inevitable that different instructors will tell you to do things differently; this is part of life and will be part of working for others. This variety is beneficial since it will show you different ways of approaching decision making. What follows is intended to be a rather general approach, portions of which have been taken from an excellent book entitled, Learning with Cases, by Erskine, Leenders, & Mauffette (1997).

Although the following discussion primarily refers to class discussions, you should follow the same guidelines when preparing to answer a case study included in your assignments.

The process of preparing for a case study starts by you getting a case study beforehand with guiding questions to be answered about the case study, and (sometimes) additional reading assignments that have relevance to the case subject.

Your work in completing the case can be divided into three components:

1. What you do to prepare before the class discussion
2. What takes place in the class discussion of the case
3. Anything required after the class discussion has taken place.

For maximum effectiveness, it is essential that you do all three components. Here are the subcomponents, in order. They will be discussed in more detail shortly.

3.1.1.1 Before the class discussion:

• Read the reading assignments (if any).
• Use the Short Cycle Process to familiarise yourself with the case.
• Use the Long Cycle Process to analyse the case.
• Usually there will be group meetings to discuss your ideas.
• Write up the case (if required).

3.1.1.2 In the class discussion:

• Someone will start the discussion, usually at the prompting of the instructor.
• Listen carefully and take notes. Pay close attention to assumptions. Insist that they are clearly stated.
• Take part in the discussion. Your contribution is important, and is likely a part of your evaluation for the course.

What you should expect

If you have read the case thoroughly, identified the business problems, rank-ordered the critical issues, proposed various solutions, and then identified how you will implement and communicate them, you can expect to be more or less as well prepared for classroom case discussion as your classmates. Here’s what else you should expect:

• An occasional cold call. Be prepared for your lecturer to ask you to provide key details from the case, sometimes referred to as a ‘shred’. Simply explain what happened in the case, identify the business and its principals, and give your best thinking on critical issues in two minutes or less. Do not worry about providing a solution just yet. Your lecturer is likely to want a more thorough discussion of the issues first. If you are feeling especially confident, you may wish to volunteer.
• A logical, step-by-step approach. If classmates offer information that is useful but not relevant or in line with the question the professor asks, expect the discussion to return to the issues the lecturer thinks are most important before you move on.
• Different approaches from different lecturers. No two lecturers are exactly the same in their approach or preferences. Virtually all of them, however, appreciate a bold, ‘do something’ approach over hedging, caution, and a reluctance to act.

What you should not expect

• More information. From time-to-time, your lecturer will present you with a ‘B’ case that offers new or subsequent information. Such cases represent an extension of the facts in the ‘A’ case and usually provide another managerial decision opportunity. For the most part, though, the information given in the ‘A’ case is all you will have and you must make do with that.
• A ‘right answer’. Because case studies are most often based on real events, no one can say for certain what would have happened if your ideas or other, ‘better’ ideas had been implemented. Some solutions are clearly better than others, but many ideas will work. Some of the very best ideas may not yet have been thought of or spoken aloud.
• An explanation of what ‘actually happened’. Many lecturers either do not know what happened to the managers and the businesses described in your case studies, or they do not think that your having that information will be useful or productive in the learning process. Your own thinking may be limited or skewed if you focus on actual outcomes.
  • A single discipline focus to each case. While some cases are principally about marketing, they may contain issues related to finance, operations management, human resources, or communication. Authentic business problems are rarely, if ever, one-dimensional. The more you are willing to think about other dimensions of business and their interdependency, the more you will learn about how real businesses work.
  • That your response will solve all of the problems in the case. Focus on the most important, most urgent, and most relevant problems first. You may wish to identify issues for further thought or investigation by the management team described in the case, but you cannot and should not try to solve all the problems in the case.

In summary, your task is to read, identify and understand the business problems in the case. By identifying, rank-ordering, and exploring the critical issues it contains, you should be able to propose a workable solution, identifying how to implement and communicate it. From that point forward, you must explain your choices in writing and be ready to defend them in the classroom.

3.1.1.3 After the class discussion:

• Review ASAP after the class. Note what the key concept was and how the case fits into the course.