Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

How to Deal with a Case Study

Yale Braunstein June 2004

How to deal with a Case Study

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Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Agenda

1. Why Case Studies?

I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

How to deal with a Case Study

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Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Case Studies and Practice

- Interesting, real world situations with insights into the studies of management - Decision making - may become easier - better quality of decisions - faster decision making - Working in teams
How to deal with a Case Study
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I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Case Studies Solutions

- Different from normal homework design - Often more than one answer
- depends on assumptions and problem definition

I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

- Time is well spent

- confidence in a decision-making position - parallels to real-world situations
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Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Attacking the Case

- Problems with quantity of information - first too much/later not enough - Solution: - seek additional information - make assumptions - Decide which questions to ask - Instructor will be more interested in the analyses and process than in absolute correctness
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I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Steps of Problem Analyses

Read the case thoroughly Define the central issue Define the firms goals Identify the constraints to the problem - Identify all the relevant alternatives - Select the best alternative - Develop an implementation plan
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I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

More on the Question of Focus

Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

 Is there one issue or many issues?



The answer may not be simple or obvious

 Often it makes sense to organize the

I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

problem statement in a hierarchical way  A single over-riding issue  Additional issues, but usually subsidiary to the main issue  Triage ( Auswahl )
Deal with most important areas first
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Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

The Report
Written or oral Describes the solution of the case Express yourself clearly Explain the analyses and logic Separate "facts" from opinion Lay out a plan for implementating the decision

I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

How to deal with a Case Study

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Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Written Reports
- Short, well-organized report is better than a long, unorganized one - Do not include trivial matters - Typical sections: - executive summary - problem statement - alternatives - conclusion - implementation
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I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report

Lecture Knowledge Management June 2004

Oral Reports
- State what has occurred what is the case about? - Describe the context - changes in firm, industry, market - Typical contents: - description of the case situation - problem statement - analyses of the key alternatives - conclusion - implementation - Be able to comment on other ideas
How to deal with a Case Study
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I. Agenda 1. Why Case Studies? 2. How to deal with them? 3. The report