Business
lilianjie
CaseStudiesOverview-Powerpoint2.pptxCASE STUDIES
What is a case?
Description of an actual situation, which usually involves a decision, a challenge an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person or persons in an organization.
Why use cases?
Helps you to learn by doing
Tool to test theory understanding; connect theory to application and to develop theoretical insights
Helps in developing self confidence & your ability to think independently and work cooperatively
Skills Developed By Using Cases
Analytical skills
Decision making skills
Application skills
Oral communication skills
Time management skills
Interpersonal or social skills
Creative skills
Written communication skills
Analytical: forces you to reason clearly & logically while shifting through the available data
Decision making: based on your analytical work, you assess what can be done and the decisions that need to be made based on evaluating different alternatives and choosing the best one and then formulating an action plan to implement
Application: practice using the tools, techniques & theories in this course
Oral: to express yourself, construct arguments & convince others of your views & consider other’s viewpoints, defend your positions
Time Mgt.: manage your time effectively by scheduling your school & other responsibilities
Interpersonal: learning to work in groups effectively & managing conflict & the art of compromise
Creative: use your imagination in problem solving
Written: effective writing skills
Cycle Process Steps
Read the case
Apply the case solving process
Define the issues
Select decision criteria
Generate alternatives
Analyze & evaluate alternatives
Select preferred alternative
Develop an action & implementation plan
What are the immediate issues of concern to the decision maker (you) in the case: what are you worried about?
Define the issue/s. What is the root source (not the symptoms) of the difficulties in the case?
What is the relevant chapter material that can and will be applied throughout your case analysis?
Not all parts of chart are equally important to all cases – refer to the marking rubric as you work on you case.
Common Decision Criteria
QUANTITATIVE
Staff turnover
Customer satisfaction
Productivity
Profit
Cost
ROI
Market share
Capacity
Delivery time
Growth rate
Quality
QUALITATIVE
Competitive advantage
Employee morale
Corporate image
Ethics
Values
Synergy
Safety
Motivation
Goodwill
Flexibility
Cultural sensitivity
Quantitative: measurable, generates data
Qualitative: more subjective, typically non-numerical content is generated
Identify 3 criteria to use to analyze your alternatives. Use the same 3 criteria for analyzing your pros/cons for each alternative
Provide a rationale as to why you chose these three criteria?
How are they relevant to the case issues?
Alternatives to solve issues:
Pros & cons of each
Almost every alternative may be evaluated on both quantitative & qualitative factors
Evaluate each alternative by analyzing your criteria to each alternative.
Preferred Alternative/s
Critical part of a case analysis
May be obvious
Rarely only one sensible course of action
May be more than one alternative
Recommendations
Recommendations must be clearly stated using an action verb at the beginning of each statement.
Include a brief rationale for each recommendation.
Action & Implementation Plan
Who
What
When
Where
How (details):
How will it be implemented?
Provide detail as to how our recommendation/s will be implemented.
Missing Information
Identify what information would assist in evaluation
Assumptions
Identify assumptions made
What info is missing?
Who might have the missing info?
What difference would it make?
Assumptions: note any assumptions you are making as you complete each ‘block’ in the chart.
