Case studies - how to analyse and discuss

Today’s agenda

Introduction

Do’s and don’ts

Brief discussion of Innocent drinks

Breakout

Report back

Conclusions

What is a case study?

Distillation of reality

Indirect learning – no answers often

Process is often as important as the conclusion

Useful further reading

The Case Study Handbook – How to read, discuss and write persuasively about cases

Author: William Ellet

HBS Press

Why bother with case studies?

Mirror reality –gives you exposure

Low risk way of analyzing multiple problems

New way of thinking

Helps get you a job!

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Types of case

Problem eg how did we end up in this mess?

Decision eg what do we do now?

Evaluation eg what’s the effectiveness of an act or outcome

Rules eg quantitative analysis

Process for reading a case

1. Situation:Understand the situation (Read beginning and end?? Frankly I’d say read it right through)

2. Questions:Ask yourself key questions eg what do I need to understand to solve this problem

3. Hypothesis:Form a hypothesis eg Richard should do x

4. Proof and action eg I think x because of a,b and c

5. Establish alternatives eg y may work as well

1. 5 mins2. 15 mins3. 45 mins4. 40 mins5. 15 mins

Do

(identify issues and write down critical points)

(can make big points,easier, plus the longer you leave it the harder it gets)

Don’t

Expect it to be easy at first

Make comments out of context

Innocent Drinks

Summarise the case

What type of case is it?

What are the key uestions?

Innocent Drinks:summary

3 friends started company

Hugely successful

Decision to be made now

Evaluating Options

Process

Innocent drinks:issues

Innocent:issues

Growth

Management structure

How to grow -issues

What are the options?

How do we evaluate the options (criteria)?

Recommendation

What makes Innocent a success?

Steady sales growth

Growth of inital investment for Pinto

Market share

What has allowed it to succeed?

Management team

Strategy

Focus on quality

Acceptance of higher price (consistency)

Use of low volume bottle

Guerilla marketing tactics

Combination of this with “big brand” marketing

Supportive angel investor

Writing a case study

If you have time – state your conclusion upfront

Give supporting evidence

Don’t give lots of extraneous facts

Case studies : Problems

Problem definition

Diagnosis

Cause-effect analysis

Concepts and frameworks

Actions

Case studies : Decisions

Options

Criteria

Analysisi of options

Recommendation

(Concepts and frameworks)

Actions

Case studies : Evaluations

Criteria

Terms

Evaluation Analysis

Recommendation/judgement

Qualificati

Actions