one Pg and half - case study Questions (A Hospital Catches the Millennium Bug)

discussion case

A short (10-12 pages of text + up to 10 exhibits), somewhat simplified story for case-method instruction, which might or might not be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and is available to instructors.

The best discussion cases are rigorously field-researched true stories, written to support lively discussion.

A  Discussion Case  … is constructed around a decision that needs to be made, providing the sufficient context so that it can be used as the basis of a substantive classroom or online discussion. … There is no clear cut “right” decision and the case is authentic, meaning that it is based on a real world situation observed by the case writer(s) with only limited disguising, if any.

· not previously published

· decision focused (What to do?)

· real situation in a real organization

· based on primary research

· interviews, observation, co. documents, public record

· supplemented by appropriate secondary sources

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· What case? What organization? What issue?

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Enlist a Case Sponsor

· Why is this company so interesting?

· What situation or issue will this case focus on?

· How will you gather information:

· about them? from them?

· Why should this company participate?

· What will students/managers learn from it?

· Where/when/with whom will it be discussed?

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“startup” 2 page case proposal

· Industry, company, timeframe, general topic

· (strategic IT, small business ownership, ethics, etc.)

· Draft of Case “Opener”

· Outline of the rest of the case

· List of possible exhibits

· Outline of a partial Teaching Note:

· Target Course/s and Learning Objectives

· Brief Research Method

· Brief Foundations in Theory

Case “Opener” Example

“It was mid-November 2004, and as Dave Butler, CEO of Universal Pipe, Inc. (UPI) packed his bag for the flight early the next morning, he was thinking about the upcoming decisive meeting with the Japanese majority owners of UPI in their mid-town Manhattan office.

The continued existence of the company was at stake. The fate of UPI, one of the larger US PVC pipe manufacturers, and its employees, depended on him.”