1. How to Deal with a Case Study

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

3. 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

4. Case Studies Solutions
Different from normal homework design
Often more than one answer
depends on assumptions and problem definition
Time is well spent
confidence in a decision-making position
parallels to real-world situations

5. 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

6. 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

7. More on the Question of Focus
Is there one issue or many issues?
The answer may not be simple or obvious
Often it makes sense to organize the problem statement in a hierarchical way
A single over-riding issue
Additional issues, but usually subsidiary to the main issue
Deal with most important areas first

8. CASE STUDY METHOD
Symptoms of a problem
Identification of a problem
Analysis of causes
Formulation of clear objectives
Options
Plan of action: short-term and long-term
Control of implementation

9. CYCLE Follow-up Symptoms Implementation Problem Options Causes
Objectives

10. How to Plan and Control for Action
Criteria of
Organizational
Effectiveness
Problem
Objectives
Plan of Actions
Monitor
Indicators of Goal
Effectiveness
Control

11. Human factors Who are the actors? Politics
Personal agenda of individuals
Power
Scarce resources
Cognitive limitations
Conflicts among individuals

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Case Study – The Wet Floor
Sushma works in Infosoft Solutions Pvt Ltd. She works there as Project Leader. Occasionally her job demands coming early for her duties or stay till late evening hours. Once she was handling 2 projects simultaneously and on one such day she had convened a meeting with her team members regarding project delivery. She had called her team members at 0800 hours.

17. Sushma is a disciplinarian and generally she follows duty timings strictly. Discipline starts with me, was her firm principle. She had made a habit of coming 5 minutes early at least. However, on that day she could not make meeting time of 0800 hours and she was worried of her reputation could be at stake.
Time was 0805 and she reached main gate of her company. Hurriedly she swiped her card and rushed towards board room. That time few housemen were doing cleaning. One of the housemen had spread soap solution on the floor. Unaware of what is on the floor, she continued to rush to the board room. In hurry, Sushma slipped her foot. The floor was made of marbles and soap solution was sprinkled over it. The floor had become quite slippery. Sushma, could not control her balance on the slippery floor and fell down. Slippery floor dragged her couple of feet further.

18. The impact was so strong that she wailed loudly
The impact was so strong that she wailed loudly. Her team members rushed to help her. Somehow she could get up with the help of her team members. Considering her wailing because of pain, she was taken to the hospital. In the hospital it was discovered that her hip bone was broken. Later she was immobile for about two months because of hip injury. Later in investigation, it was revealed that the houseman who was cleaning the floor had not put the display board “Caution: Floor is Wet”. Read the above case study carefully and find out the communication issues involved in it.

19. Thank you