Introduction to the Case Method A Presentation for the Entrepreneurship Class President University, Indonesia Yayasan Pendidikan Universitas Presiden January 2013

The Case Method It refers to the use of cases as educational vehicles to give students an opportunity to put themselves in the decision maker’s or problem solver’s shoes. In medical analogy the case method is like providing the corpse to the students to practice on.

In a case method the student gains an opportunity to develop analytical and planning skills, through repeated personal analysis discussions with others Definition of problem Identification of alternatives Statement of objectives & decision criteria choice of action & plan of implementation

What is a Case? A case reflects a slice of real life. This slice can never replicate the 100% of the business situation and scenario. It enables discussing the business reality in a class room setting. The purpose is to sharpen the analytical abilities and executive judgement.

A ‘Case’ can be defined as “ A case typically is a record of a business issue which actually has been faced by business executives, together with surrounding facts, opinions and prejudices, upon which executive decisions had to depend.”

“ A good case is the vehicle by which a chunk of reality is brought into the classroom to be worked over by the class and the instructor.” “ A good case must enable a passionate debate.” “A good case provides data and information in a manner which could facilitate students to either understand a business concept or support their arguments with the help of facts.

Types of Cases Success or Failure Stories ISSUES Identification Cases Functional Strategy Cases Comprehensive Cases Caselets

Success or Failure Stories A three to four page case sharing the success or failure story. This can be on a new recruitment policy, new incentives for the Human resources or introduction of a new product. The purpose is to identify the reasons for failure or success.

ISSUES Identification Cases These cases are written in a manner which can help the students to identify the issues being faced by an organization. The length of such cases may be 5 to 20 pages.

Functional Strategy Cases These cases provide a comprehensive view of a specific function like marketing, human resources, operations management . These cases offer opportunity to identify and evaluate alternative strategies available.

Comprehensive Cases These cover overall growth strategies, mergers & acquisition, performance of a firm over the years, leader ship and vision of an organisation The contexts of such cases are the jobs and challenges of a CEO/president/project director etc.

Caselets The maximum length of the caselets is not more than two pages. Caselets are written in a manner which reflects the dilemmas or conflicts which a decision maker may be facing. Being short the students can read these cases in a few minutes and then participate in a lively and meaningful debate.

SAMPLE FORMAT INTRODUCTION KEY PERSONS INVOLVED ISSUE IDENTIFICATION ANALYSIS SWOT STRENGTH WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITY THREAT {also area specific analysis can be done e.g. grid study in hr,PERT,CPM, Ratio analysis(du pont),and other statistical tools as per requirement}

FORMAT KEY PRINCIPLE /RULE/LAW INVOLVED PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS SUGGESTIONS CONCLUSION

END OF THE PRESENTATION