THE WAY HARVARD TEACHES CASE STUDIES ….

THE HARVARD WAY!

The Case Study Method of Harvard Business School (HBS)
(Presented By Dr Ranjita Banerjee)

Teaching Case-Studies the HARVARD WAY…..

Harvard Business School (HBS) has created a new method and a new definition of
case study in education.

A case study is the analysis of the institution or the event, its problems, causes,
and consequences.

 Harvard Business School case studies are intended to be used in classrooms as

a part of the discussion, which can help students develop their leadership
skills and put themselves in situations that require making decisions.
 Harvard case study method is rather effective, especially in terms of education. It
gives students the opportunity to become decision makers and judge
different situations, companies, and organizations, both government and
private.
 Harvard Business Review case study format proves that there are no easy
solutions in leadership. It’s an innovational educational technique, which
helps students communicate, share ideas, defend their points of view, and
exchange perspectives.

Have you ever worked with a group of people trying to solve a problem?
There are different opinions, different considerations, and each person’s
perspective provides a different angle on the problem.
Ultimately, you must decide a course of action. There’s no right answer, but you have
to confront the complexities of the choice you make. What if that room was filled
with people from diverse industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds? All
trying to analyze a problem and make a decision? Every day? That is what the case

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method at Harvard Business School prepares its students for in the MBA Program as
well as the Executive MBA Program.

How to go about the Harvard Way of Case-study Application?

It usually prepares cases of 10-20 pages and distributes it to the students comprising of
real life experiences or real life challenges or real business problems of an individual./
organization / Economy.
The following method is adopted for the Case-study method of pedagogy/ training in the
MBA Program for students as well as in the Executive Program for heads from big
MNCs across the globe:

STEP 1: Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page document written
from the viewpoint of a real person leading a real organization. In addition to
background information on the situation, each case ends in a key decision to be made.
Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by design, and decide what you
would do. Here’s when they need to take the role of the leader and the decision maker.
Their task is to recognize the main issues, analyze them, study the causes, think
of alternative outcomes, and provide some recommendations

STEP 2: Discuss the case. Participants brings their ideas to a small team of
classmates from diverse professional backgrounds, their discussion group, to share
their findings and listen to their peers/ team mates. Together, participants begin to see
the case from different perspectives, better preparing them for the class. Students are
usually divided into learning teams. Before the actual case study class, they meet to
warm up and discuss their points of view with the other team members.

STEP 3: Engage in class. Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with
classmates the best path forward for this organization. The highly engaged
conversation is facilitated by the faculty member, but it’s driven by the
classmates’/ participants comments and experiences.

Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and your job is to
better understand the decision at hand, what you would do in the case protagonist’s
shoes, and why. You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way
you thought about it coming in!

So, when they’re in class, they are under the guidance of the professor, but
students do 85% of talking, while the professor makes observations from time to
time, asks questions, and guides the discussion. In class, students have to
discuss the problem and analyze it. They present and compare alternative sides
of the situation and suggest different courses of actions, explaining why their
decision is the best possible one. Why is this method effective? Through
classroom interaction and live discussion, students learn how to listen to other people’s

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ideas and compare them to their own points of view. The discussion process is easy
and simple but has many benefits. The discussion is enriched by the diversity: different
students represent different countries, experiences, and points of view. Participation in
class case studies is very important for the development of the analytical and
problem solving skills as well as for holistic development.

STEP 4: Reflect. The case method prepares participants to be in leadership positions

where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. Reflecting and
thinking about your own thoughts as well as the participants’ thoughts on each
class discussion will prepare you to face these situations in your future roles.

To Conclude…. In addition to learning more about many businesses, the case

method helps to develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership
skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.

How to Prepare for a Case Study

Even though it’s a live conversation, you can prepare yourself for a group discussion.
First of all, do your research. In order to present your thoughts on the matter, you need
to be familiar with this particular situation or event. Find the most important and relevant
information.

 Pick the main points, which you are going to present during the discussion.
Don’t be shy to ask your team members about the information they have found.
 Next, you need to create a plan, which you are going to follow to during the
discussion.
 You can also write down the notes based on this plan, which will help you
keep your thoughts together when analyzing the event in class. Start with the
situational analysis.
 Ask yourself some questions to understand the event, for example, “Was the
decision maker aware of the possible consequences of his decision? Does it
mean that he’s not responsible for his actions? What parties are directly involved
in this problem? What are the ethical concerns related to the decision? Etc
etc….Next, you need to define the problem. You can create the list of potential
issues and highlight the most serious ones. That’s when you can start
talking about some alternative courses of actions.

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  And the last point in your plan should be dedicated to recommendations and
possible solutions to the problem.

Other students might argue your point of view, so it’s important to write it down
beforehand and also explain why you think your decision is the most effective.

How to Behave

Case study discussions are meant to see how students communicate with each
other and how they show leadership skills through those communications. So,
don’t forget to listen to other people’s points of view. Take every opinion into
consideration and make sure that your message is clear and easy to understand
by other students. Don’t be shy. Try to contribute to the conversation as much as
you can, but think about what you want to say and don’t forget to let other
students talk.

It’s important to show your interest, but you need to remember that other
people’s opinions matter too. Never be aggressive. Even if someone from the
opposite team becomes too excited and tries to provoke you, keep calm and
remember….: true leaders always control themselves.

Source: https://www.hbs.edu/mba/academic-experience/Pages/the-hbs-case-method.aspx

https://acasestudy.com/harvard-case-study-and-how-does-it-work/

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