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1. Why Case Studies?

2. How to deal with them?

3. The report

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Researching the Case Situation

Financial analysis

A place to begin

Ratio Analysis (part of SWOT)

Analyzing Financial Statements

Scrutinizing historical income statements

Comparison of Historical Statements

Calculate Changes that occur in individual categories

from year to year Determine the change as a %age as well as an

absolute amount

Adjust for inflation

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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

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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

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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 theanalyses and process than in absolutecorrectness

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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

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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 problemstatement in a hierarchical way

A single over-riding issue

Additional issues, but usually subsidiary to the mainissue

Deal with most important areas first

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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

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Written Reports

- Short, well-organized report is better thana long, unorganized one

- Do not include trivial matters

- Typical sections:- executive summary

- problem statement

- alternatives

- conclusion

- implementation

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Oral Reports

- State what has occurred what is the caseabout?

- 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

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Discussion

What are the firms most important external

opportunities and threats? What are the organizations major strengths and

weaknesses?

How would you describe the organizations financial

conditions?

What are the firms existing strategies andobjectives?

Who are the firms competitors, and what are their

strategies?

What objectives and strategies do you recommendfor this organization? Explain your reasoning. How

does what you recommend compare to what to whatthe com an lans?