AT&T and DirectTV merger case study

Learning with Cases

Given the muddy mass of strategy and execution, and processes, creative leaps and

rigorous analyses in the previous note, indicated were necessary to be a marketer, how is it

best to approach the learning of marketing? We think that experiential learning methods

are the only way that a would-be marketer can construct intimate enough understanding of

marketing's principles to have the confidence and skill to do the job. This is a very different

kind of learning from what most students have been exposed to over their academic or

business careers, and merits brief discussion before we turn to case learning as a method for

accomplishing the experiential task.

Tips to Maximize All Learning

What does it mean to toss off the easy statement "We are here to learn

marketing?" Learning has long been the province of psychologists, who sometimes are

overly fond of pedantic language and complicating the simple. Nonetheless, what they say

about learning has some merit:

Learning is the process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an

encountered situation, provided that the characteristics of the change in activity cannot

be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of

the organism.

In other words, learning occurs when you are changed because of an encounter; and the

change isn't something you were otherwise likely to do, something you grow into, or because

you drank too much coffee. That's an interesting definition, because using it as a just and

true criterion, most education would fail by one interpretation and be a raving success by

another.

If the criterion applied is an increase in independent thinking, creativity, innovativeness, and

judgment about important real-world phenomena, we should listen to critics who argue that

most education consists of thinly-disguised attempts to produce conformity and social

control. Educators Postman and Weingartner long ago wrote about students' in-born "crap

detectors," which are tuned to detecting various unjustified assumptions in the learning

process. Examples are:

 that learning necessarily requires a teacher, or

 that teachers necessarily know what each of their students should learn.

On this score, when the goal of the curriculum is to offer students something useful about

complex real-world phenomena, there isn't too much to be said for traditional education.

However, when the subject matter being addressed is one where rigid rules and procedures

exist (drafting, mathematics), or when the real world can be brought closer to the classroom,

either by alternative instructional methods (like Montessori learning or drivers' education) or

through some form of useful simulation, then it is fair to hope for "changes in the organism"

from the encounter.

Ways of Learning Need to be Matched by the Goals

All this argument says is that learning methods should be matched to the goals of the topic

in which instruction is being sought. Some goals and some constraints for marketing follow:

Goals Constraints

 Provide students the

skills to be effective

general managers,

with competence in

marketing

 No one can provide

skills; they can help

students acquire

them, struggle, and

improve, but

basically, there's no

teacher.

 Provide students a

view across a

variety of carefully-

chosen marketing

settings to give

them an

appreciation for

grappling with

marketing

problems, and for

"marketing thinking"

in different

situations.

 The normal

classroom

environment may

not be the best

place to get a view

of business activity --

this may require

getting closer to the

activity than is

possible from

lectures and

concepts.

When the goals of the course are skill-building and problem solving across a variety of real-

world settings, a nontraditional kind of learning, experiential learning, is called for.

Pros and Cons of Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning is a fancy phrase for encouraging students to learn from semi structured

experiences. The method, a time-honored one, is powerfully effective when done well and

superficial when done poorly. It is based on the notion that explaining the theory of

electricity to people is of little use until and unless they have moistened a finger and inserted

it into an electrical socket; then there may be interest toward and motivation for5 learning

about electricity? But, there is a great difference between inserting your finger into a

21,000=volt socket down at the local power station and putting it into a household outlet --

the first one will kill you, while the second may just motivate you to learn something about

electricity. In a nutshell, that's what experiential learning does: to use small sockets and

controlled experiences to make sure the motivational effects of the current aren't swamped

by the danger of the shocks.

There are many useful forms of experiential learning, from the Outward Bound "Survival Solo"

to police "stop and shoot" simulations to jet simulators, that allow the creation of multiple

emergencies the likes of which no pilot has yet to cope with in the air, but for which all

should be trained. The case study method of learning is one of the more venerable

branches on the experiential tree.

There are powerful advantages of experiential learning. Among them are that:

1. Since the learning is experience-based and reality-anchored, it tends to stick with the

student in a way that poring over texts and memorizing rules cannot.

2. Since the learning is learner-based, it is the learner's experience that dominates, not

the teacher's. This means, in effect, that there is no teacher in case learning, just more

and less experienced fellow learners who may be guided and facilitated by one

among them who is the most experienced with the topic under study. On the other

hand, of course, this means you can't accuse your instructor of "not teaching me

marketing." If you want to find that culprit, look in the mirror.

3. The learning produced by experiential methods tends to be powerful, personal, and

intimate. Because each learner constructs an individual interpretation of the realities

that comfort him or her, the learning is nearly fully "custom" to the learner while still

retaining a common core of concepts that generall have been validated.

But, the very advantages of experiential learning breed some disadvantages:

1. Since what is learned is personal, intimate, and private, no instructor can tell you the

"right answers." The instructor can tell you the right answers for him or her, can help

you as you struggle with your own insights and attempt to make sense of the

experiences with which you are presented, but the learning process will fail if

instructors attempt to substitute their understanding for yours. There is a sometimes

frightening lack of "right answers" when experiential learning is employed. This isn't to

say that your instructor won't guide you, or help you by introducing appropriate

concepts at the right times. It just means that the responsibility is on you.

2. Freedom can be scary in other ways, too. Since you are responsible, not the instructor,

you have the quite unusual role in the classroom of being responsible for the learning's

successes and failures. Expect your instructor to be deeply concerned with how you're

coming along, and as helpful as any one person can be to another. Don't expect him

or her to own the problem of how to teach yourself marketing, however.

3. You'll work harder with experiential learning than with other methods of

instruction. Only you know when you understand, when you are "done." You'll find

yourself changing your mind a lot when exposed to others' opinions at the beginning

which means you are learning. It will take a while before you have a "template" for

handling experiential problems, just as it did for you to construct a way to interact with

strangers you're comfortable with.

Case Method as the Experiential Pathway

Clinical case studies have been in use at least since the time Hippocrates wrote his classic

text on diagnosis during the time of the plagues. Major case writers and teachers have

included Plato in philosophy, the Brothers Grimm in moral conduct and ethics, and a host of

others in law and the professional disciplines. The first organized learning in business

education via cases was attempted in the 1920s at the Harvard Business School. In the

following sections, we restrict our attention to learning business administration generally, and

marketing specifically, as we examine the nature and purpose of case learning.

What's a Case?

A case study is a description of a management situation or perhaps, a "management

story." The analysis of a case study in administration may be thought of as the business

equivalent of the medical "second opinion."

In medicine, an individual may seek out a physician because of some perceived concern

about how the body, or mind, is operating. The physician ordinarily complies a problem

statement called a case history. The case history is a combination of the patient's responses

o certain symptoms over time ("When did you first get these headaches?"), general historical

background ("Was anyone in your family diagnosed as diabetic?"), and life circumstances

("About how many hours a week in your work do you read?"). Other data, both general and

problem-related, are also collected about the patient's state during the examination. One

set, routinely collected, is called "vital signs," and includes pulse rate, respiration rate, and

blood pressure.

From the sense of this case history, the physician attempts to construct a diagnosis or

statement of the patient's problem in terms suggestive of what might have caused

it. Further, a treatment is specified which is some course of action likely to remove or at least

ameliorate the problems diagnosed.

Where the patient's concerns and the physician's diagnosis are in conflict, or when the

indicated treatment involves risk, a second opinion may be sought. Here, a new consulting

physician reviews the case history, diagnosis, and treatment plan generated by the first

practitioner. The consultant often requires additional data generated by tests in an attempt

to rethink the problem and its proposed solution. A course of action (e.g., surgery), or

sometimes no course of action, is recommended.

When used in the study of an administrative situation, the case study offers the student and

practitioner a legitimate learning vehicle and the scholar a useful research tool. Like the

case history, data about a conflictful or risky situation are collected. Like the case history,

the "patient" may be interviewed at great length by the case writer to develop the history of

the problem, and "vital signs." The "patient" in administration often is the fictional actor called

a corporation by the legal system, though a single division, department, or even a manager

in the organization may be the case focus. The perceived concerns of the individual(s)

involved in the case are as varied as those which send a patient to a physician. However,

unlike the medical analogy, cases also include studies of especially excellent administrative

health in addition to its more problematical aspects. And, also unlike the medical analogy,

the case writer more often seeks out the company than the company dos the case writer.

How are Cases Constructed?

The construction of an administrative case study in marketing is remarkably similar to that of

the medical case history. Ordinarily, extensive interviews with management about their

behavior and circumstances will be conducted. Also, measures of importance to the issue

under investigation often are collected and reported in the case study. In the administrative

world, these often include the "vital signs" of financial, marketplace, or productivity efficiency

measures. General measures of the Firm's historical health and status, as well as examination

of its competitive environment and customer base, also are constructed or reviewed.

The business counterpart to the physician is the case preparer. This person often spends 200

or more h ours collecting information on the corporation and its situation, reducing it to a

statement of the essential facts, and presenting it in a manner designed to (a) illustrate some

rather than other aspects of the situation, and (b) encourage "second opinions" about

resolution of the issues facing the firm. As very good physicians are known to do, great cases

often put the student in the position of one or another case actor, to face a powerful

dilemma needing resolution.

Professor Thomas V. Bonoma prepared this note as the basis for class discussion.

Copyright, 1989, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.