Business Analysis
Strategic Case AnalysisStrategic Case Analysis
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Strategic Case Analysis
To remain competitive, established firms must continually refine their ability to solve business problems. This requires making good decisions.
Making a good decision requires choosing among various alternatives, and research is required in order to identify alternatives.
Good research requires asking and answering the right questions.
Strategic Case Analysis: Questions
• Case analysis helps us learn how to ask good questions and to make good decisions.
• Why do some firms succeed, and others fail? • Why are some companies higher performers than others? • What information is needed in the strategic planning process? • How do competing values and beliefs affect strategic decision
making? • What skills and capabilities are needed to implement a strategy
effectively?
Strategic Case Analysis: Requirements • Strategic case analysis requires:
• Ability to evaluate business situations.
• Going beyond the textbook and rooting out essential issues and causes of a company’s problems.
Strategic Case Analysis: Skills
• Strategic capabilities needed include the ability to differentiate.
• Strategic capabilities also include the ability to speculate.
• Strategic capabilities also include the ability to integrate.
Conducting a Case Analysis: Preparation
• Investigate the situation. • Analyze and research possible solutions. • Gather the advice of others. • Put yourself in the shoes of an actual participant.
• Are you a strategic decision maker? • Are you the business founder or owner? • Are you a member of the board of directors? • Are you an outside consultant?
Conducting a Case Analysis: Step 1 • Step 1: Become familiar with the
material. • Read quickly through the case one
time. • Assess possible links to strategic
concepts. • Read the case again, making notes. • Evaluate application of strategic
concepts. • Formulate an initial
recommendation. • Go through the case again to assess
the consequences of actions you propose.
Conducting a Case Analysis: Step 2 • Step 2: Identify problems.
• Some cases have more than one problem to solve.
• Avoid getting hung up on the case symptom.
• Try to articulate the case problems.
• Some problems will not be apparent until after you do the case analysis.
Conducting a Case Analysis: Step 3 • Step 3: Conduct strategic
analyses. • Determine which strategic
issues are involved. • Use strategic tools to
conduct the analysis. • Test your own assumptions
about the case.
Conducting a Case Analysis: Step 4 • Step 4: Propose alternative solutions.
• Develop a list of options – what are the possible solutions?
• Evaluate the alternatives. • Can the company afford it? • How will competitors respond? • Will employees accept the
change? • How will it affect other
stakeholders? • How does it fit with the vision,
mission and objectives? • Will the culture or values of the
company change?
Conducting a Case Analysis: Step 5 • Step 5: Make recommendations.
• Make a set of recommendations supported by your analysis.
• Describe exactly what needs to be done.
• Explain why this course of action will solve the problem.
• Indicate how best to implement the proposed solution.
• Note: the solution you propose must solve the problem you identified.
Getting the Most from Case Analysis
Keep an open mind.
Take a stand for what you believe.
Draw on your personal
experience.
Participate and persuade.
Be concise and to the point.
Think out-of-the- box.
Learn from the insights of others.
Apply insights from other case
analyses.
Critically analyze your own
performance.
Conduct outside research.
Case Analysis Decision- Making Techniques: Integrative Thinking
• Integrative thinking involves making choices by reconciling opposing thoughts.
• Asking heretical questions can help challenge long-term beliefs about how things work.
• Conflict inducing techniques can be very helpful in arriving at better solutions.
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