Analyzing Cases

(the following material was derived, in part, from The Case Study Handbook by William Ellet)

A case, at its simplest level, is a real-world situation in which you, the marketing professional, are expected to use your critical thinking skills to figure out what to do. As in most real-world situations, you have neither enough information or time to really address the problem, and you also have a million other things going on at the same time. So rather than thrashing about aimlessly, this mini-guide is intended to give you a skeleton of an approach that may be useful in analyzing these cases.

The first step in any case analysis is to actively read the case. That means going through it carefully and making notes in the margins, highlighting, or whatever other methods you typically use to understand what is really going on in the case. Treat the case like a mystery novel – try to unravel the complex web of information (and sometimes disinformation) that is presented. Typically the cases will be tied to the chapter of the text we are currently reading, but that is not always the case. If appropriate, think about the principles we are discussing for that chapter and see if they apply to that particular case or not. The instructor (me) is not always good about fitting the cases and the chapters together, and these are general purpose cases not necessarily oriented to a Product Management course, so there may not be the perfect overlap that would happen in a perfect world, or somewhere like Harvard.

All cases are self-contained – all the information you need about the industry, the company, or the project are in the case itself – there is no need to go to any outside sources or do extensive web searches to get more information. In fact, going outside the case information will generally just cost you valuable time and aggravate the instructor (me) who has to go find and validate this additional information. Force yourself to set a time limit for this first step – say a couple of hours – so that you aren’t just iterating repeatedly. Become the main character in the case, and try to see the situation through that person’s eyes.

The second step is to identify the situation or circumstances surrounding the case. Usually the case will start out with a short overview of the industry or the circumstances, and finish with a brief conclusion as well. Try to put those in your own words and see if you understand what is going on. Generally this will be the first paragraph of your case analysis.

The third step is to identify the main problems or decisions to be made. Many cases have discussion questions or explicit problem statements in them – that tends to help identify the case focus. Put the problem statements in your own words – what is going on in the case? Who is the subject of the case? What kinds of decisions need to be taken? Who or what is being evaluated? Do you have enough grasp of the problem statements to proceed? Generally, this will be one or two paragraphs of your analysis.

The fourth step is to construct an analysis framework or model that contains the analysis of the decisions you are going to examine. In the stats world, step three is setting up the hypotheses and step four is building the models. In the case analysis world, step four is where your critical thinking about what can be done (alternatives) and course of action (recommendation) are conducted. Support your decisions. There is nothing more frustrating for an instructor (me) than to have a case study in which the student (you) carefully lays out the problem statement, carefully analyzes the data, and then makes a bold assertion that it is obvious as to why a certain decision needs to be taken. Lead the instructor (me) through your thought process. If multiple options are available, describe why the one you have selected is the best option, or better than the other options. If your alternatives involve numbers, run the numbers and prove your case.

A fifth and often overlooked step is to discuss alternative courses of action. Often, cases will lead the student (you) to making a choice between two alternatives, such as building a plant in China or in India. But the clever student (you) may have thought of alternatives not presented in the case, such as building a plant in Peru and then shipping the partially built products to China for final build. These alternatives would all flow from the materials in the case, not from speculative day-dreaming. In this section, you are really looking back at your decision in step four and checking for strengths and weaknesses of your decision.

What I am expecting in your case write-ups: read the instructions in the syllabus. If there are questions at the end of the case, use those to guide your analysis. If there are not, I will provide you with questions one week before the case is due. Attach any pertinent analysis, data, or graphics at the end of the case, not in the middle of the write-up. It should be no more than two pages in length, double-spaced, typed, and no cover sheet or binding – just a simple staple will do.

So your case has four basic sections. These are Situation, Problem, Analysis, and Recommendation. Use headers for these sections, and help guide the reader (me) along through your thought processes.

A full case analysis and write-up should take you anywhere from two to six hours of time. If less, you probably missed something important; if more, you are probably over-thinking or trapped in analysis/paralysis. Use your marketing professional judgment in the cases, and also write them from a marketing professional perspective. Trite comments, opinions, and humor will probably count against you, because you are being trusted to make a serious decision for your company, not give seat-of-the-pants or off-the-cuff simplistic evaluations.

Don’t waste valuable space repeating what the case says – quotes and paragraphs repeated from the case are not helpful to either you or me. Focus on the key elements of the case and convince me that you have thought through the decision carefully and that you are quite prepared to stake your career on the outcome of the decision. After all, that is what happens in the real world.

During class, I will call on students (you) to discuss various elements of the case and solicit your opinions. Be prepared. Case analysis is your own work – you can talk over the cases with your classmates, but you need to analyze and write up the case on your own, just like you would in the real world. I view these cases as practice for your first or second marketing job, so take advantage of this sheltered environment to put your marketing knowledge to work. Unlike the real world, I won’t fire you for making a bad decision, just try to help you understand how the decision might have been improved. Good luck!