Case Analysis With Discussion: James Houghton and Signature Theatre

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 1 of 2

Week 2 Weekly Briefing This week you begin the in-depth study of actual organizations, through both case study analysis, and through your first entry into your Strategy Playbook. The focus this week is on the evaluation and alignment of mission, purpose, and organizational values. Your learning goals for the week include:

• Analyze the success of an organization using the “5-question Strategy Playbook” and the “Living Organization” frameworks as a basis for your explanation.

• Create a strategy map of an organization with a strong mission and vision. • Develop future-oriented recommendations to senior leadership of an

organization. • Evaluate the stated mission, vision, and values, within the context-level of

analysis, of a chosen organization. Discussion 1: Case Analysis with Discussion: James Houghton and Signature Theater This case explores the ongoing success of Signature Theater, and you are asked to identify why and how James Houghton and his team’s strategies have been effective. Since this is the first case study of the course, it is important to read the Hammond article on preparing case studies. Here are some additional thoughts for preparing case analyses: The Case Study Process Before you jump into case analysis, please examine the case learning method itself, particularly as it relates to the online approach to using it as a tool for integrative learning. In John Hammond’s note, Learning by the Case Method (2002), he states that part of the fun, and the difficulty, of cases is that for them to be effective “you must put yourself in the shoes of the managers, analyze the situation” (given the facts of the case and no more), “decide what you would do”, and then come to the online discussions prepared to tell your peers and instructor why and how your ideas are relevant and feasible. In the online setting, You have discussion spaces where you will participate what should be lively discussion and debates about the various case studies. The cases assigned are relevant to the primary topics and readings/skills for each week, and which will help you integrate your learning from throughout your program. This means that you should refresh yourself on the topics of your previous courses, as you will be expected to utilize information and knowledge from all of those courses as you prepare responses to the case questions and to follow-up prompts from your instructor and peers. It is critical that you go well beyond “opinion” and have a well- crafted argument that supports your ideas in a case analysis. Anyone can have an

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opinion, but as a soon-to-be MBA, people will expect that you can defend your analysis and persuade them! Read the Hammond note closely, and mark those instances where he discusses “analysis, analytic viewpoint, analytical skills, expertise”. Case analysis is about identifying core problems and crafting potentially feasible solutions and actions for the future. It is not easy, and it will force you to work within many ambiguous, uncertain, risky decision contexts. That’s OK, and it’s the world that CEO’s and senior leaders live in—so if you are feeling uncomfortable at times doing your casework, keep with it! In terms of case preparation, Hammond’s notes are relevant and appropriate for both on-ground, and online courses. One important difference, however, is the way you will handle the case studies “in the classroom”. Rather than having an “open forum” where an instructor could potentially “cold call” you—and where the discussion can go in any direction—the online course will provide you with initial prompts, for which you will then prepare a formal response (as an individual), and put in the discussion forum. Then, once the response deadline has passed, the instructor will begin to ask questions and follow-ups. Even though the question may be directed within the context of one individual, treat all faculty questions as if they were directed to the entire class. Prepare well-thought-out responses to those Instructor follow-up questions. This is a critical part of this Capstone experience! [Technical Note: Case studies often have dates associated with them. Sometimes you will find a case that you might consider “old”. Do not be fooled into thinking just because a case is “old” that it is not relevant or important. All case studies are snapshots in time that have been developed to help you learn a particular concept or skill. You are to analyze the case within the information set provided. In this context “absolute date” is irrelevant. So do not let the dates of cases worry you.] Discussion 2: Capstone Forum: Evaluation of the Mission, Vision & Values of an Organization: The Soulful Purpose in Action

Your first Strategy Playbook entry will include your evaluation of your chosen company’s mission, vision and values. You will obtain information on these elements by going to the Walden library and using database services such as Hoover’s and Business Complete. Remember, each week you will continue to add to your Strategy Playbook, where you will identify and apply lessons from the case study, the week’s required readings, and readings you identify from the MBA Program Capstone Bibliography, into your Playbook entry for the week. So, be sure to keep this in mind as you are working on the case studies, so you can “work in parallel”.