Studied by 14 peopleCase or Case study
Is a real business story that requires you to step into a role of a manager or member of a management team that faces a dilemma, or the role of a consultant assisting an organization that is facing an issue
Case studies provides you
the opportunity to apply your knowledge and skills into real-life or realistic situations
Case analysis is used as a
Learning tool to practice the art and science of management
true or false
There is only one right answer for every case study
False answers will vary and there is not a single right solution
In all cases you are to create your own…
Solutions as well as support them using your own analysis
Learning the case method will help you develop…
essential management competencies, skills, and abilities.
Before reading the case, you must
read the course requirements in the syllabus or on the course website
When reading a case for the first time, what should you resist doing?
the temptation to highlight important facts and to begin doing analysis and generating alternative solutions
When reading a case for the first time, what should you do?
Establish who is the decision maker and what decisions need to be made
What should you highlight after reading a case?
highlight any questions raised by the principal character and case facts in order to extract them for later
How many times should you read a case?
2 times. one is for the initial reading to understand the issue and the other for specific and relevant facts
Case Analysis have four basic steps:
Identifying the Issue
Analyze the Issue
Develop and evaluate alternative solutions
make recommendations for actions
Case guide
Are designed as an overview of the case method and provide a general template or pattern for case analysis
Class discussion
Instructor will use discussions of a case to apply and supplement lecture material
Analyze
refers to the full process of applying the case method and refers to the steps of probing and dissecting the issue at hand
The first step of analyzing a case
identifying the organization’s issues, problems, and opportunities (collectively referred to as Issues)
Who can provide important clues for a case?
The principal actor or character of the case
The instructor
The author of the case
If you have not answered all the questions of a case, it is likely that…
You left out an important issue or became sidetracked by a minor one
To correctly identify Issues…
it is important to distinguish between symptoms and underlying causes
what question should you ask when uncovering issues
“why?”
When you identify your issue, you may need to…
reduce it to a manageable size to enable you to carry out subsequent steps of your analysis
Use case facts to help…
build logical arguments, develop findings, and draw educated inferences than casual guesses
Many important case facts are contained in a
case’s figures and exhibits
Case facts include
Data about worldwide market size, competition, the company’s revenue and profit, industry sales, product prices, and organizational charts
Another aspect of analysis is the use of
Business concepts and tools to analyze the issue
To analyze the issue of an accounting case, you could use
tools like contribution margin analysis or capital budgeting
To analyze organizational behavior, you could use
equity theory or expectancy theory
In a marketing case, you could apply
the model of the product life cycle and the concept of a target market. you can also calculate market shares or changes within them
In an integrated strategic management case, you might
apply the concepts of the value chain and competitive advantage, compute financial ratios and apply tools such as a competitive position matrix and porter’s five framework
Measuring alternatives against decision criteria can help reduce
Bias and help keep your analysis consistent
When identifying pros and cons, it is best to
be very specific as possible
EX: instead of saying that market shares will rise. you can say
Market shares will rise by 3% to 4%
when working with financial measures, you must
incorporate all information about revenue and cost into a profitability measure
is a solution that is considered “costly” or “time consuming” the worst choice?
No. in some cases a costly solution could produce a sufficient advantage
The last step of the case is to
choose your recommended solution
When basing your recommendation, you should avoid what?
recommending any further information to be obtained or additional analysis that needs to be completed
Performing a case analysis can be used for what purposes
Discussing in class, writing a report, making a presentation, or writing a case exam
Your willingness to participate in class will
enable you to consider a variety of viewpoints and insights and gain the full benefit of the class
Active listening helps
build on analyses and arguments presented by the previous speaker
When listening to a speaker, avoid
making judgments about a speaker’s idea; quick judgement would limit your willingness to listen
When entering a discussion, approach with
an open mind
Listening etiquette starts with
focused attention on the speaker, give feedback to the speaker through body language
What should you not do for listening etiquette?
having side conversations and being distracted by electronic devices
When writing your analysis, what should you avoid?
Jargon and decorative elements
When writing your analysis, you should keep your sentences…
Simple and straightforward
When writing your analysis, you must Always use what type of tone?
A professional one. (the only exception could be if you played the role of a consultant).
When writing your case report, focus purely on what is
Important and clearly identify those issues
When writing your issue statement, it’s best to let your readers
know what to expect to ensure that the issues you identify are the same ones you’ve analyzed
For complex cases, your issue statement could identify…
sub-issues associated with each issue
Business concepts that are used within your report should…
add value to your report and must be relevant to the situation
You should not assume that your reader…
is familiar with business models and so it’s best to briefly explain them
A case report is not a…
Academic report.
Most reports will not require
external research (unless the professor says so)
rather than providing a complete evaluation of the pros and cons of all the alternatives, it would be sufficient to
only briefly mention some of the alternatives and give a short rationale on why they were discarded
Using too many list or tables can
lead to the report looking cluttered
When doing your recommendations, avoid
introducing a new analysis or new alternative
Write your executive summary after…
you’ve written your report
The body of the report is
divided into sections for issues, analysis of issues, alternatives, and recommendations
The conclusion to your report is
the final section written and should be brief
Figures or appendices
are used to capture some of your analysis or recommendation in a form more succinct than a prose
All quantitative appendices should include
a clear trail of assumptions, calculations, and explanation
For your conclusion, avoid the tendency to
preface conclusions and recommendations using words like “I think” or “I believe”
overusing the word “must” can
reflect a lack of distinction between what is essential and what is a recommendation
Oral presentations are
used to highlight the main findings in an accompany written report
Oral presentations should give
a broad overview of the main issue and recommendations
A good oral presentation should
convey information in a format allows your audience to understand your intended message
A good presentation should also address
The needs and knowledge of the intended audience
Your presentation should be accompanied by
audiovisual aids like presentation slides
Presentation slides should be
Simple and use at least 28-point font
Your presentation should not
be filled with the text due to your audience now being more focused on what’s written rather than your presentation.
During your presentation remember to
Speak loud and clear so that your audience can hear you
When doing a presentation, It is more comfortable to…
stand behind the podium to read your notes, step out of it (at least periodically) to connect with your audience
Practicing your presentation skills will
help you adjust towards what you need to say as well as prepare while being in front of an audience
All members of a team presentation should
be involved with some aspect of the presentation itself
Three main theories of Business Ethics
Moral principals and Norms (Deontologism)
The human goods at Stake (Utilitarianism)
The education of character for the good life (Virtue Ethics)
Deontologism, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics are in what perspective?
First Person Persective
Utilitarianism
Determining what is right or wrong based on the outcomes of your actions
Deontologism
theory that says actions are good or bad according to a clear set of rules.
Virtue Ethics
deals with honesty and morality of an individual
Business ethics is usually taught through
Moral Ethics
Dilemmas are
artificially designed situations in which there is a conflict of principles that leads to a choice between mutually exclusive alternatives that, at first sight, are morally wrong.
What question is involved with the deontological approach?
“What is the right thing to do?”
A software developer is working on a new program. The developer realizes that there is a problem with the product they are about to launch to the public. Instead of doing something about it, he decides not to take action and sells the program as is.
This decision is considered…
Unethical since it did not follow the norms established by the company regarding quality standards.
A software developer is working on a new program. The developer realizes that there is a problem with the product they are about to launch to the public. Instead of doing something about it, he decides not to take action and sells the program as is.
This problem has now turned into a
Dilemma
Business Ethics usually follow a
Utilitarian Calculus, or a cost-benefit analysis that helps managers obtain more efficient results
The consideration of potential consequences might also include
The protection or advancement of morally relevant values, such as social welfare, Human health, and employment
The second type of dilemma that occurs within the Utilitarian Approach would be
Principles and consequences
What is the responsibility of managers?
To maximize value for their shareholders.
The rational approach assumes that
In an ideal world, it should be possible to reach a conclusion with a single, rational choice and should lead to the best course of action.
Moral Landscape
the idea that each individual has their own convictions, as well as each society, has their own culture.
For virtue ethics, we develop them from the perspective of
the acting person
Virtue ethics emphasizes three different levels of discourse
The psychological, sociological, and deciding if our plans in life and our role models are good or not.
The psychological actions of virtue ethic is compromised through three categories
Actions, Habits, and character
A good habit is called a
Virtue
A bad habit is called a
Vice
A role is
A kind of behavior that we need to display for the success of a certain form of human cooperation
Different roles demand
Different characters
The concepts of roles becomes more difficult when you consider
that we usually play different roles in different communities or forms of human cooperation
A job description provides
a formal definition of a role
Role models are
crucial in defining the requirements of a role and in providing clues on how they perform
Note
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