Writing a Case Study Analysis

One type of Case Studies is the Field Cases. Written by professors and students of business with the cooperation of managers and executives who experienced the events and problems described in the case.

Producing a case solution that demonstrates you are ready for management-level responsibility will involve the following steps:

1. Read and Examine the Case: Thoroughly more than once. DONT get to the end of a story quickly because you will miss the details of a case and begin formulating responses before you have all the facts. If you are uncertain about what to do, read the case again.
2. Take notes: Highlight relevant facts and underline key problems. Your notes should focus on the details you will need to identify the problems involved the case, the issues critical to solving those problems, as well as the resources available to the managers in the case.

3. Identify the key problem: At least one major problem will exist in the case. For example, A problem may be a small tactical issue, such as how the company will collect money from a criminal customer? The issue may be broader and more strategic that might involve the companys critical cash-flow difficulties. If this company has no cash problems, what longer-term opportunities might open up?

Sometimes, you can identify two to five problems. For example, if you are analyzing a case that involves accounting or cost control systems, the use of technology, supply chain problems, or marketing deficiencies; you may, also identify other HR problems such as supervision, communication, motivation, or training.

4. Specify an objective as a manager: Students usually are asked to consult on the

companys problems. Therefore, identify what results would you hope for? Dont limit your thinking to what the company should do, but to what the most successful outcome would be. Try to quantify the desired results.

5. Identify and rank order the critical issues: If you miss a critical issue, you may not be able to solve the case to the satisfaction of your professor. Some issues are inter-dependent, a solution to one issue might necessarily precede or depend on another. For example, the team who is responsible for a new product launch cant make a final advertising and promotion decisions until issues related to packaging, transportation, and distribution are solved.

Some issues are more important than others. A company may have a great opportunity

to launch a product line extension, but not have sufficient market research data to support and market the idea. This means that they may not have talent within their staff to understand and use such data. Thus, hiring a market research chief might be more important than simply contracting with an outside firm to find the data.

Each issue has a time dimension. While two problems may be equally important to the

success of a company, one may be near-term in nature while the other is long-term. For example, setting up a corporate web site may be important, but it wont solve the longer-term issue of marketing strategy: should we sell direct over the web or use retail partners to market our products? Specify which problems must be addressed first, and think how long will it take to fix this?

6. Consider relevant information: Sometimes, much of the information contained in the case will not be useful to your analysis and you will never know all which you would like to know in order to produce a solution

7. Uncover Possible Solutions/Changes Needed. Review course readings, discussions, outside research, your experience: Listing possible solutions is a form of brainstorming that will later permit you to assign values or weights to those ideas. For example, is one solution less expensive than another? Will one be more effective than another? Will one idea work more quickly? Will one of these ideas have more effect?
8. Select the Solution: Select the best and prepare to defend it. Show why the ideas you have thought about are superior and how they will work. If you have rejected other, more obvious ideas, you may want to explain why.
9. Decide how to implement the best solution: Having good ideas is insufficient as you must be able to put them to work. Graduate students, are often praised by executives for being theoretically well-grounded, but criticized for lacking practical application. For instance, an executive in the chemical industry said A team of young MBAs told me that we needed to sell a division of the company, but they couldnt tell me what to do or how to go about it. All they knew was that we should try to find a buyer. That was interesting, but was not very helpful. he concluded.
10. Write it up: Different professors have different expectations about what they want in a written case solution and probably do not provide you with specific, detailed instructions regarding their expectations, but they will certainly tell you if youve missed information or have produced a solid response. Some will ask for wide-ranging responses that cover many issues, while others will expect a more focused response. Just provide your professor with your best thinking and be as detailed as you think you can within the page limits youve been given.

Case Study 1

The Denied Promotion

Nolan worked at the headquarters of the Worldwide Motorbike Company. His task was to process the warranty claims and advises to service engineers working in the field with distributors throughout the world. Recently, Nolan heard of an opening for a field engineer. As a first step, Nolan approached his immediate superior, Mr. Brown, and asked him to be considered as a field engineer in Mrs. Smiths department; but his idea was rejected with the comment: Lets talk about it later. When Mr. Brown left for a business trip, Nolan approached Mrs. Smith, the service manager for international operations, who was not only Browns supervisor, but was also responsible for the field engineers. During the discussion; Mrs. Smith, who favored promoting young talent from within the company, recognized that Nolan was well qualified for the position of field engineer. She promised to talk to Mr. Brown after his return from the trip. One week later, Mr. Brown called Nolan into his office and opened the conversation as follows: I heard that you talked to Mrs. Smith while I was out of town, about the position of field engineer; yet, I cannot let you take this position. We just switched to a computerized claim processing system and I need you because you have the broadest experience of any of my seven subordinates. Nolan was shocked. Should he be denied the promotion because he was the best person in department? Two weeks later, a field engineer was hired from outside the firm. Nolan was wondering What he should do next. Can you help him?

Questions:

1. What advice would give to Nolan? What would you do?

2. What do you think about the staffing practices (recruitment & selection) of the company? What policies, if any, would you recommend?

3. What do you think about the managerial behavior of Mr. Brown?