POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN

MANAGEMENT AGRI BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

(RECOGNISED BY AICTE, NBA and equivalent to MBA degree granted by AIU)

PGDM-ABM 2015-2017

Case Methods

Term III
Prof. Mohan Phadke

, 411 007
Page
1

Table of Contents

Course Outline

Basic questions to be addressed in analyzing a case

4

Introduction -- Student Guidelines for Case Discussion1

EXHIBIT 1 CASE TERMINOLOGY IN BUSINESS

EXHIBIT 2

11

EXHIBIT 3

12

EXHIBIT 4

13

Course Outline
1) Total Sessions : 4 numbers ( 75 mts each )
Page
2

10

BASIC QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN ANALYSING

A CASE
1 what are the FACTS ?
2. What are the ISSUESMain issues & Supplementary issues
Page
3

3. What are the decisions /options ?

4.Who is the PRIME OWNER ?
5. Who will be most affected ?
6.. Fall Back strategy ?

Introduction -- Student Guidelines for Case Discussion1

This course will introduce you to the case-study approach to learning. Our goals include
the development of critical thinking skills, acquiring the ability to work collaboratively,
and honing the art of applying theoretical concepts to actual historical and contemporary
situations.

Page
4

A case is a narrative of an actual, or realistic, problem that typically (but not always)
portrays actors sometimes historical or living, other times fictional or composites of
actual people -- confronted with the need to make a decision. Cases for teaching present
information, but not analysis; the goal of group discussion is to supply the latter, as well
as to advocate solutions or courses of action. Case discussion is also seen as an exercise
in building analytic bridges between theory and data.
You should find case learning an enjoyable experience. But unless you have used cases
in other courses, you are likely to find you will need to develop some new skills. First,
preparing the cases may seem frustrating. Like the situation faced by real actors and
policy makers, the information supplied in the case is frequently partial and, at times,
even misleading. Alternatively, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer
volume of information. To further complicate matters, the problems presented are both
ambiguous and complex. Generally a case has no single correct answer; there are
only choices, and the reasons behind them -- some better, some worse, than others.
Second, class discussion of cases may seem intimidating to some of you, and working
together in a group to solve a problem may be unfamiliar to many of you. Learning with
cases also involves your active participation. Unlike lectures, case discussion demands
your ideas and participation. Just as few people can be told how to ride a bicycle, so it is
that few can simply be told how to make good analyses. Cases put you in the position of
doing analysis and deciding on courses of action.
Third, some students have discomforts of various kinds, particularly with role playing
and decision-making.2 These range from shyness and reluctance to be an actor/tress,
to ethical or philosophical reservations about making decisions in someone elses
place (for them), to the complexities of portraying individuals from cultures other than
ones own (and the potential for ethnocentric, racist, sexist, classist, or heterosexist
views to be voiced). My hope is that you will overcome the first of these discomforts, be
sensitive to the last (and supportive of each other), and suspend your reservations about
the second.
A final issue is that you may be asked to represent views with which you disagree,
sometimes passionately. This can be hard, but it can also be extremely valuable, both for
understanding your own position (and the reasons which support it) better and for
actually shifting your views, whether on their own terms or simply acquiring a deeper
appreciation for those held by others. If you can manage all these layers, you will be
surprised at what you might learn.
Page
5

The following are several suggestions you may find useful in preparing cases, and for
discussing them in class. Try some or all to determine which are most useful to you.
Back to Top
A. Case Preparation
Preparing for in-class discussion of cases is likely to require significantly more effort than you
might anticipate. Be assured, however, that your effort preparing cases will significantly improve
your ability to participate in class discussions. One approach that many students find useful is to
work in small groups.

1. Try first to get a quick sense of the whole case. What can you learn from the title, headings,
and outline? What do the introduction and conclusion (if present) reveal about the problem?

2. If this is a case requiring a decision, who is the key decision maker? What decision does s/he
have to make? What are the objectives of the decision maker? What other actors are there in
the case? What are their objectives?

3. At this point, it might be helpful to reread the case carefully, underlining or highlighting key
facts.

4. Try to identify the key problems on a piece of paper. Then go through the case again, sorting
out the relevant information for each problem. What are the resources and constraints
associated with each problem?

5. What are the possible courses of action for the decision maker? Endeavor to identify and
rank alternative policies. What are the likely short and long term consequences of the
policies that you have identified?
Back to Top
B. Case Discussion
At the heart of learning from cases is their discussion in class. This is a collective exercise. You
might think of the class as a team of community members or colleagues, perhaps a team of
government ministers or a departmental working group, that has been asked to work together on a
problem.

1. Be prepared to present your ideas with conviction, and to support them with as much care
and persuasion as you can. At the same time, be equally prepared to listen to the comments
of your classmates. Keep an open mind, and do not hesitate to incorporate ideas of other
students when you find them persuasive.
Page
6

2. Do not wait too long to get involved in the discussion (although we all realize how hard it is
for some to speak in public that includes your teachers!). The longer you wait to
participate, the harder it may seem to become involved.

3. If you want to raise an issue that is completely different from the one the class is discussing,
consider waiting until the class is ready to move to another issue. Alternatively, if you feel
the need to interject your point (particularly if you feel the class is moving off onto a
tangent) try to do so by linking your comments to those of others.

4. Try to be alert to keep the class discussion moving toward constructive solutions to the case.
Although this may take some practice, try to find opportunities to build on the comments of
others. Be mindful too, of who has spoken, and not yet spoken, and try to give space to those
who have not yet contributed as much to the conversation as you have.

5. Do not hesitate to admit confusion, ask for clarification, or simply be wrong. Most of us do
not like to do any of these, but bear in mind that by doing so, you may help the group stay
focused on the problem.
1

Adapted from professors Louis L. Ortmayer of Davidson College and Brian Mandell of the Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University, who in turn adapted it from David Schodt of Saint Olaf College. Thanks are also due
to John Boehrer, former director of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs, Kennedy School, Harvard.
2

I want to thank my students at Smith College, especially those in my seminar on globalization and its alternatives in
the fall of 2001, for raising these issues with me.

advantages and limitations

In the foregoing discussion many of the advantages of the use of case method
have been brought out. Charles Gragg in his classic article - Because Wisdom
Page
7

cant be told brings out very well the merits of the case method (26, p.6-14).
To summarize,
1. It distributes knowledge and facts ;
2. It improves participants skills in problem analysis,
communication and decision-making;
3. It affects attitude formation and particularly brings home to
the participant that nothing is absolutely right or wrong in
the field of human behavior.
The limitations of case study are as follows:
1. A student may sit through a discussion and take no part at
all or, at best, merely make some comments based upon what
he has heard rather than on a true study of the case. In larger
classes many who may wish to speak do not find the
opportunity. The value of the method in developing the ability
the formulate, state, and defend a reasoned opinion is thus
reduced.
2. The method, even when operated well, is time consuming. A
case may require several hours of private work and a full
discussion to establish a principle which the teacher could
have put over by lecture and illustration in, perhaps, thirty or
forty minutes.
3. It can be breed in the student the dangerous belief that
answers to case problems can be applied directly to the
problems he meets in later employment. Also, skill in dealing
with case studies is by no means a sure indication of skill
management.
4. No matter how detailed and comprehensive the information, a
case cannot hope to impart the knowledge of a companys
background and the personalities involved which a person in
the real situation, would have absorbed long before and taken
for granted. In this sense the student is at a disadvantage,
although, of course, in the case study learning-by-doing
method, what he is doing is far less important than how he is
doing it. Expressed in words of Winston Churchill, there is a
great deal of differences between being responsible for an
order which may lose several valuable ships and expressing an
opinion without such responsibility. The typical Harvard
argument in this case is that the serious student gets the
essential background for responsible decisions without the
risks to himself and to his firm which are inseparable from
amateurish action (26, p. 14).
Page
8

5. It has also been claimed that prolonged exposure to case

studies can develop overly critical approach, and a habit of
looking for what is wrong rather than instilling a more positive
and constructive outlook, This view gave rise at one time in
American business circles to quip you can always tell a
Harvard Business School graduate- but you cant tell him
much. This criticism obviously stems from the divorce of
responsibility from the exercise of authority in case study
sessions (28, p. 158).
6. A teacher cannot hope to cover all the material in his course
by using case studies alone, not only are they very time
consuming but they do not lend themselves to systemic and
thorough coverage of technical information.
7. Particularly in the early stages of the training, the success of
case method depends on the ability of the teacher as a case
study leader, case teaching calls for more skill than knowledge
and inept case leader can reduce a case study session to an
exercise in pointless prolixity.
8. Lastly a seriously criticism raised is that close adherence to
the case method as a grave risk that research becomes
directed towards the wrong ends.
It is particularly interesting to note the comments of one American professor of
Human Relations that he is now lecturing much more than he did five years ago
when he made great use of the case method because today there is so much
more lecture material available (14, p.5).

EXHIBIT 1
CASE TERMINOLOGY IN BUSINESS
Page
9

The term case and the expressions case history, case record, case
report, case problem, are in wide currency and are generally used
interchangeable. Little effort has been made to delineate their exact meaning.
In 1931, Malcolm McNair of the Harvard Business School suggested the
following distinctions between case and case problem : The term case is
used to denote a case where the decision is state while problem is used to
denote a case which ends with a question rather than a statement if the
companys decision. However, such a distinction between the two terms is not
always made. Sometimes the expression case study is also used either as a
synonym of any one of the expressions noted above or as a synonym a case
writhing
The expression case method is used to denote both an approach to and a
philosophy of education. In the contest of the former, is it argued that the
theoretical contents of the business course being imprecise, these courses are
best tough through the inductive method: i.e., through an examination of
variety of real life situations. In the latter context, it is stated that the purpose
of education is not to help students memorize information but to help them
develop faculties of thinking, comprehension, analysis, integration, decisionmaking, and action. Often the term case method is used loosely. A teacher
who uses cases to illustrate an otherwise theoretical or abstract point, as well
as the one who uses cases to help his students develop a general insight into
real life situation, is also described as using the case method.
Pigors and Pigors have evolved a variant of the case method and have termed
it the incident process. This involved five steps:
1. The students are given short description of an incident which is
usually one short paragraph.
2. Since no background material is made available to the students, they
interview the teacher to obtain background information (the teacher
is briefed on the information beforehand). One student then
summarizes the facts as they have been obtained.
3. The students must decide on what the central issues are.
4. Each student is asked to write a brief decision, which is discussed by
the class.
5. Finally, the class discusses the broader meaning of the case in an
effort to tie it in with similar situations or to suggest means of
preventing such problems from arising in the future.
Although the expression case method is used primarily of a teaching
method, it is also used in the context of research effort. The collected cases
provide vivid details of organizational functioning and thus seem to offer a rich
source of raw material for systematic, organized, and generally applicable
conclusions. The series of Harvard Business Reports published between 1925 &
1932 was an effort in this direction. The cases were systematically classified
and commented upon toward the end that business wisdom be developed
Page
10

inductively on the basis of empirical factors disclosed in these cases.

Subsequent studies such as Thode of Culliton, Tosdal, and Butters et al., have
used selected cases for inductive theorization on managerial problems.
EXHIBIT -2
A CASE REPORT AS CONTRASTED TO A CSE STUDY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Element
Case Report
Case Study
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Purpose
Produced primarily for Teaching
May be used as a teaching tool,
and training Purposes. Not
but this not its central purpose.
intended To generate new theories, The main purpose is to
principles or formulations. Instead
facilitate new insight into
it is to serve any one or more of
current knowledge and theory
the following purposes: (1) to
in the field. May be undertaken
illustrate an abstract argument; (2) to explore unknown research
to help students develop a general frontiers, to formulate or refine
insight into real life situation; and
concepts in order to generate
(3) to help students develop
hypotheses or test a current
operational skills and mental
theory.
faculties.
2. Nature of
A) The cases are either typical (to
A) There is not emphasis on
the case
help serve purposes number 1&2)
typical and problematic cases.
or problematic (purpose number)
Often an a typical case or one
3. Often a case will have both
about which little is known
these characteristics.
better serves the research
purpose than would a typical
case. Generally the selection of
a case is dictated by the
B) Events in the near past are
intended purpose of the case
preferred.
study.
C) The case may be fictitious,
although real life cases are
preferred.

B) Concurrent events are

preferred.

C) The case must be real

3. Method of
date collection

The emphasis is on obtaining the

whole story and not on how
The method uses is not reported.
Useful guidelines for locating
appropriate cases, for securing coPage
11

The methodology is a crucial

consideration. A case study is
only as good as its
methodology of research. The
description of the methodology

4. Content

5. Length

6. Identity of
the subjects
studied

7. Identity of
the author

operation of people concerned, and

for reporting have been developed.
A case is described to the end, and
information is a provided on (1) the
event, (2) its background and (3)
its conclusion. The authors
analysis and conclusion are not
included.
Length is an important
consideration. A very lengthy case
is cumbersome and often
unmanageable for class use. A
case which may run to fifty pages
is often considered too lengthy.
It is not important to identify the
persons, places, organizations, and
products by their real names. In
fact the fictitious names are
preferred to the real names for two
reasons:
(1) to protect all concerned from
any harm which might be caused
to them if their real identities were
made known; and (2) to permit a
more objective and dispassionate
discussion in the class.
Identity of the author is not crucial.
When an author is identified it is to
reward him for the trouble taken in
preparing the case report

Page
12

is an important part of the

report.
A case is described in full. In
addition, analysis of the data
together with the authors
conclusion is included.

Length is not an important

consideration. The important
thing is to get all the data,
analysis and discussion in. A
case study reported in more
than 1,000 pages is not too
long.
Real identity of the subject is
often crucial information
without which verification
possibilities are substantially
reduced. The names may be
omitted only when this is
justifies on the ground of
research strategy or ethics.

Authors identity is very

important. The findings are
often evaluated in the context
of the authors standing as a
researcher. In those cases in
which the subjects studied
cannot be identified by their
real names, the authors
identity serves as the primary
basis for evaluating the
integrity of the research effort.

EXHIBIT -3
COMPARISON OF CASE STUDY AND ROLE PLAY
CASE STUDY

ROLE PLAY

1. Presents a problem for discussion.

Places a problem in a life-like setting.

2. The problem is derived from

previous events.

The problem involved ongoing

processes.

3. The problem typically involves

others.

The problem typically involves the

participants themselves.

4. Emotional and attitudinal aspects Emotional and attitudinal aspects are

are dealt with in an intellectual frame dealt with in a similar frame of
of reference.
reference.
5. Emphasizes the importance of
facts.
6. Discussion is typically from a
psychological position outside of
the problem situation.

Emphasizes the importance of

feelings.
Participants are psychologically
inside the problem situation.

7. Facilitates intellectual
involvement.
8. Furnishes practice in analysis of
problems.

Makes for emotional involvement.

9. Provides for development of ideas

and hypotheses.

Provides for testing ideas

hypotheses.

10. Trains in the exercise of

judgment.
11. Defines action or solution

Trains in emotional control.

12. Consequences of action are

usually undetermined.

Provided practice in interpersonal

skills.

Provided for execution of action or

solution
Allows continuous feedback.

Page
13

EXHIBIT -4
CASE CHARACTERISTICS AND EDUCATION OBJECTIVES
Educational
Case
Data Dimension Analytical
concepts
Description
Methods
1. Develop
Exposition of
Facts clustered worked out
concepts
problem in
to highlight
example
business
cause and
effect relationships
2. Understand
Problematic
-do-dotechniques
3. Acquire skills Short realistic
Facts
Method
in use of
business
selected for
signaled, but
technique
problem
relevance, but
not worked out.
structured
not clustered to
attach
meaning.

4. Acquire
skills in
analysis of
business
problems

Complex,
unstructured
slice of life

5. Acquire skills
on
6. --- useful
attitudes

Problems with
clear ----- with on key
executives

More facts
added, mainly
within one
value system,
but amenable
to more than
one analytical
method

Still more facts,

(often including
seemingly,
irrelevant
facts), related
to more than
one value
system heavy
use of opinions
of case
characters
Page
14

Value
Dimensions
Objective
function
made explicit

-doValue
systems clear
(usually
profitoriented), but
objective
function open
for choice by
student

No clear signals
regarding
methods;
analytical
techniques
open to
students
choice,
including mixed
and sequential

Choice of
values
systems left
open to
student

7. --- mature --- Complete

wisdom
realistic
unstructured
problem

No known
satisfactory
technique

Page
15