Case Studies

3.1.2.2 The Long Cycle Process

At this point, the task consists of two parts:

• A detailed reading of the case, and then
• analysing the case.

3.1.2.2.1 A detailed reading of the case

When you are doing the detailed reading of the case study, look for the following sections:

• Opening paragraph: Introduces the situation.
  • Background information: Industry, organisation, products, history, competition, financial information, and anything else of significance.
  • Specific (functional) area of interest: Marketing, finance, operations, human resources, or integrated.
  • The specific problem or decision(s) to be made.
  • Alternatives open to the decision maker, which may or may not be stated in the case.
  • Conclusion: Sets up the task, any constraints or limitations, and the urgency of the situation.

Most, but not all case studies will follow this format. The purpose here is to thoroughly understand the situation and the decisions that will need to be made. Take your time, make notes, and keep focused on your objectives.

Therefore, the first step to a successful case solution is to read the case, carefully and with an eye for detail – more than once. Personality theorists tell us that some people are eager to get to the end of a story quickly. “Don’t bother me with details,” they say. “Just tell me what happened.” Such people, often dependent on Cliffs Notes and executive summaries will bypass the details of a case in order to reach a conclusion about what happened in the story. They are often reluctant to read the case attachments and will frequently avoid tables of numbers altogether.

Many arrive at conclusions quickly and begin formulating responses before they have all the facts. The less clever in this crowd see the details of a case as a nuisance; reading the facts will only interfere with their preparation of a response.

After you have read and thought about the issues in a case, if you are uncertain about what to do, read it again. As you mature in the experiences of business school, you will get better at this, but at first, your best defense against being surprised or frustrated by a case is to read it thoroughly.

Students typically want to either underline or highlight much of what is contained in a book chapter, reprint, or essay. Case studies, however, are constructed a bit differently. Textbook chapters are typically organised in a hierarchical fashion, with key points and sub-points listed in order of importance, carefully illustrated and summarised. Not so, with case studies, which are often simply arranged in chronological order. Textbooks usually proceed in logical fashion, with one concept building on others that came before it. Case studies, on the other hand, are seemingly chaotic; many events happen at once, order and discipline are sometimes missing, and key issues are not always self-evident.

Case studies may also contain substantial amounts of information in tabular form; annual revenues, product shipment rates, tons of raw materials processed, or cost data organised by business units. To know what such data mean, you will have, to read the tables and apply what you have learned about reading a balance sheet, or about activity-based costing. You may find crucial information contained in a sequence of events or a direct quote from a unit manager. Sometimes you will discover that the most important issues are never mentioned by the principals in the case – they are simply ideas or tools that they weren’t clever enough to think of, or didn’t think were important at the time.

Your notes should focus on the details you will need to identify the business problems involved in the case, the issues critical to solving those problems, as well as the resources available to the managers in the case. Those notes will be helpful in producing a case solution.