Case Analysis Format (5 pages normally). The page count does not include Title Page and Reference page.

Follow these guidelines for APA:

Student Resource - Overview

Before beginning to research, analyze and write this assignment be sure you have written approval from your instructor for a company

This (approved by instructor) company that you want to analyze, this could be a company for which you have some knowledge or a company for which you have some interest and desire to find out more about through this analysis. The company should not be your current employer and it is easier to find something to recommend for this company if it is not a huge company. It may be a company where you are a frequent customer. In other words you are to choose a company that you are interested in, and then write a masters level case study about a strategic problem that you have identified based upon your research and analysis for that company. You are not writing a book report on this company. Please do not use Amazon, Walmart or any of the Fortune 100 companies.

Title of the Case Problem Statement: (The problem statement is a one sentence declarative sentence that describes the strategic issue to be examined.) The title must incorporate all of the sections below. So this would read, XYZ company (cite the website) has been in business for over XX years, they offer (product and or service). The focus of this paper will be to identify an issue (and cite that problem - this is not just your opinion) that the company is currently experiencing (that is probably costing them money).

Scenario: (The scenario is a 3-5 sentence summary of the case which includes the names of principles and companies, such facts and details as would be necessary to the understanding of the problem). This provides a clear (and cited) context for the problem, (who, what, where, when and financial considerations). For example, is your chosen case study trying to analyze a financial, cultural, supplier, competition, customer or other problem? Once you have identified which of the above is the key issue that you are going to analyze then you would use the proper operations or supply chain analysis found in the textbook to analyze the problem using a case study method.

Analyses: You can choose from two different forms of analysis or assessments for your case study which flow logically from the problem and present these in detail. For example, if the problem deals with profitability then the choice could be pro forma budget an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). If the problem is growth, competitive industry analysis, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT), Key Factors of Success (KFS), etc. could be chosen. This takes two to three pages usually with three to five APA references, one of which is always the textbook. Your research comes from business or library sources (never Wiki anything or Google). Remember you have to use APA headings for all of your MBA work, you can find resources under the Start Here Button on Blackboard. This is the link:

Conclusions: (Express what you have concluded from the analyses and present outcomes of the analysis either in narrative or bullet point format). This is usually a half or full page and is always cited using business sources.

Recommendations: (Present the action items that should be undertaken or implemented based on your conclusions that would solve all or part of the problem that you identified. This may be done in either narrative or bullet-point format. However, if you use bullets you have to have an explanation for each bullet. This is usually a half or full page.

Remember the job of an MBA is to offer recommendations, options or opportunities based upon the data (and cite). The MBA would never use the words must, should, have to, etc. in their work. The MBA only presents opportunities and options. Each recommendation, opportunity or option needs to have a business citation (otherwise it is just opinion and companies dont have to pay MBA salaries for people who give opinions).