Case Process

UNDERSTANDING THE CASE PROCESS INTRODUCTION The purpose of this section is to help you to understand what a case is and how you, as a student of business, can more effectively prepare your answers and benefit from a case discussion. The material covered in this section includes: 1. Understanding what a case is. 2. Reading a case effectively. 3. Analysing and preparing for a case discussion. 4. Reporting your case findings. 5. Discussing the case. 1. Understanding what a case is. Socrates, the teacher-philosopher, used questions rather than statements of fact, to lead his students through the reasoning process. As a student we can try and help you learn in several ways, and the case approach does much the same thing that Socrates did by asking questions. You, as the student, are not told the answer to a problem, but will have to build your own solution. This is a type of active learning where your instructor will guide you in your case discussion to the point at which you discover the solution for yourself. So cases are a problem-solving situation. You are given a story, based on a real business situation, and then you are asked questions or posed a problem based on the situation outlined in the case. Some cases are short, and focused on a very specific topic or issue, while others are longer and provide much more information. In both situations the solution that you, and each person in the class presents, is based on your understanding of the problem and how you would solve it. 2. Reading a case effectively In this course you will be presented with different cases. This case will be of two types. When you read a case the first task is to decide what kind of case you are dealing with. The first type of case is generally short with little or no excess information. Facts are well ordered and clearly stated. In these types of cases you should look for ways to use specific tools or a model to arrive at your solution. A "best"