Case analysis

1. You will use these requirements & suggestions for both the case analysis on your mid-term examination and for your semester case analysis.

2. Please make sure that you thoroughly read Appendix A: How to Analyze a Case. If you have questions, ask them.

3. Ensure that you read everything that I post for you. Everything I post is meant to help you.

4. Read the case at least twice before you begin your analysis.

5. Follow the 7 step process outlined in Appendix A; however, make the following changes:

a. Create a new section in your analysis in which you discuss your Recommendation by itself. Do not include it with the Evaluation of the Alternatives.

b. Make one, and only one Recommendation.

c. If you wish to combine 2 or more of your Alternatives as your Recommendation, the combination needs to be treated as a separate Alternative, and hence, needs to be subjected to the same evaluation as the other Alternatives. In many cases, the combination of multiple alternatives changes the evaluation.

d. Whatever criteria you use to evaluate an alternative should be used to evaluate each and every one of your alternatives.

e. Include sections for Implementation and Evaluation & Control, but be relatively brief. I will only be looking to see if you included them.

6. The main focus of the analysis should be upon your Statement of the Problem (or Problem Definition), Development of Alternatives, Evaluative Criteria, Evaluation of Alternatives, and Recommendation. In previous semesters, students have spent an inordinate amount of time and effort on the Situation Analysis. While this section is indeed important, it is not as important (and hence is not worth as many points) as the listed sections.

7. Your Development of Alternatives, Evaluative Criteria, Evaluation of Alternatives, and Recommendation will be judged based on how YOU define the problem (even if you incorrectly identify the issue). However, your Alternatives must make sense from both a general business and a marketing viewpoint. In other words, if you provide an Alternative that does address the issue you defined, but it does not make sense, points will be deducted.

8. To be absolutely clear, in your Semester Case Analysis and Mid-term Exam Case Analysis, to adhere to the following order (each step must be its own section with its own heading):

a. Situation Analysis

b. Assumptions

c. Problem Statement

d. Alternatives Generation (minimum of 4)

e. Evaluative Criteria (minimum of 3)

f. Evaluation of Alternatives (relative to the evaluative criteria)

g. Recommendation

h. Implementation

i. Evaluation & Control

9. Specifically regarding the Problem Definition:

a. Be very clear and to the point in your Definition. Do not ramble and do not offer a double-barrel definition (i.e., a definition that contains more than one issue). If you provide a Problem Definition that contains multiple issues, you are defining symptoms, not the Problem.

b. Do not necessarily place a negative connotation upon the term “Problem” in this context. While the circumstances in your case may be negative, in some cases, the “Problem” is actually an opportunity, an objective, or some other positive issue.

c. Let me stress a point that your text authors make in Appendix A. The most important word in case analysis is “Why.” Keep asking that question when you are considering the Problem. Essentially, once you feel you must answer that question with something such as “that’s just the way it is,” then you’ve very likely defined the problem, or come very, very close to it.

d. Just to illustrate the usefulness of asking “Why” when defining the problem, a silly, but true case occurred in the early 1990’s in Washington, D.C.

i. The stones around the Jefferson Memorial were deteriorating very rapidly.

ii. Someone was smart enough to ask “Why?”

iii. The rapid deterioration was due to the overly-frequent washing of the stones.

iv. Why were we washing the stones so often?

v. Pigeons were leaving a huge quantity of “droppings” on the stones. For health, safety, and cosmetic reasons, the stones thus had to be frequently washed.

vi. Why so many droppings?

vii. The pigeons were there to eat the excess population of spiders.

viii. Why so many spiders?

ix. They were there to eat the huge population of moths.

x. Why so many moths?

xi. Someone was turning the lights on 2 hours prior to dusk (which just happens to be the prime breeding time for moths). This was the ACTUAL problem.

xii. Turning the lights on 2 hours later (at dusk), reduced the number of moths.

xiii. Fewer moths led to fewer spiders.

xiv. Without such a large food supply, fewer pigeons left fewer droppings on the stones.

xv. Fewer droppings on the stones allowed the stones to be washed less frequently.

xvi. Less frequent washing slowed the deterioration of the stones.

xvii. So, the solution to the issue of rapidly deteriorating stones at the Memorial to our 3rd president (and author of the Declaration of Independence), was to flip a light switch on at the proper time of day!

10. Note that I disagree with your text authors on a couple of points.

a. There is one and only one Problem, and one and only one Recommendation. The authors suggest multiples in both categories.

b. “Maintaining the Status Quo.” Your text authors suggest that this is always a viable alternative. I completely disagree. Keeping things the same rarely addresses the issue as you have defined it. In the past, when students have offered this as an alternative solution, 95% have failed to receive any credit for such an alternative.

11. Please include major headings at a minimum. Also, please, please stick to the format. Let me make this as straight-forward as possible … if you insist on “doing things your own way,” points WILL be deducted. To be foretold is to be forewarned.

12. Please ensure that you are clear when you describe your Alternatives. I may very well know what you “mean.” The questions are (1) do you know what you mean and (2) can you clearly and concisely communicate that meaning.

13. Your name should appear somewhere on the first page of the document. It is likely that I will print out your analysis. Thus, your name only appearing in a file name will be essentially useless.

14. Although I made this point in the course syllabus, it bears repeating here. Please save your files as Microsoft Word® documents. That is the software that the University provides to me. If you insist upon saving in another format, such as a pdf, whatever you submit will not be graded and you will earn a zero (0) for that assignment/examination.