Navigating the Case Analysis

Process for Strategic

Management
Dr. Paul N. Friga
2005
 Overview of Document
• This slide deck is designed to guide students
through the process of analyzing a case study
for a general management or strategic
management course
• It is a step-by-step process that is illustrated
with an actual case study - Singapore
International Airlines: Strategy with a Smile
(Thunderbird, 2001)

• The material is organised into 5 phases – and

each is supported by a suggested approach,
tips and sample output from the case (but
remember to try and solve the case before
reading the sample output from the case!)
 Objectives of Case Analysis
• Application of theoretical concepts
• Development of managerial skills
• Use of disciplined problem-solving process
• Group discussions afford multiple context
and perspective opportunities
• Deal with ambiguity

Source: HBS Note – An Introduction to Cases (Shapiro, 1984)

 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Phase 1 – Framing
Key Question: What are the objectives?
STEPS
Identify the key question (what is the
assignment, discussion questions, and purpose of
this case study)
Flip through the case (in less than 5 minutes,
look at the big picture of the case and the overall
components)
Skim read the case (in less than 15 minutes read
the intro and end of each paragraph and skim all
exhibits)
Carefully read the beginning and end (every
case has an important intro section and ending
section)
TIPS
•Pay attention to what the Professor says as the
case is introduced
•Understand the context of the case in terms of
material from the textbook
•This is literally intended to give you a look at the
overall contents of the case
•Conclude as to the general nature of the case –
quantitative/qualitative, technical/general,
long/short, etc.
•Don’t bother marking up the case at this point
•Focus on getting the ‘gist’ of the paragraphs
without reading every word (find the 1-2 primary
sentences and understand how other sentences
support them)
•Some of the most important information about the
framing of the case comes in the beginning and
end
•Realize that every story has a situation,
complication and resolution (try to find the key
issues to solve)
 Case Template - Framing
Key Question: Flipping and Skimming:

Beginning of Case: Ending of Case:

Note: Answer key is at the end of this deck; please attempt to fill in the template before looking at possible answers
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Phase 2 – Labeling
Key Question: What are the facts?
STEPS
Label the facts in the margins of the case
(using the nomenclature below, label the facts
in the case )
General – GEN (general issues include the
macro environment beyond the industry as well
as customers and overall trends)
Industry - IND (this pertains to any issues
that affect the specific industry under study –
not companies or general environmental issues)
Competition – COM (specific identification and
data related to competitors in the stated
industry)
Strength – STR (any facts that appear to be
positive for the company under study)
Weakness - WEA (any facts that appear to be
negative for the company under study)
TIPS
•Use abbreviations as indicated
•Underline the key sentence in the paragraph
•Review a checklist of the types of issues
beforehand
•Remember that this is not company or industry
specific – examples are social, economic,
ecological, technical, and political issues (STEEP)
•Examples include industry consolidation,
profitability, general strategies, differentiation,
market growth, etc.
•This does not include individual competitor data
•Examples include names of competitors, market
share, profitability, and specific strategies thereof
•Start thinking of the key dimensions by which
you can compare your company with competitors
•Even if you are unsure if this will ultimately be
positive, include it as a strength if the case
mentions it
•Be very careful to identify as many weaknesses
as possible as they drive strategies
•This is of the organization only – not industry
level
 Case Template - Labeling
General
Industry: Competition:
Environment:

Label in the
case and
capture
here

Strengths: Weaknesses:

Note: Answer key is at the end of this deck; please attempt to fill in the template before looking at possible answers
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Phase 3 – summarising
Key Question: What is important?
STEPS
Summarise the facts (the overall goal here is
to pull out the key facts that have been
marked in the case)
Eliminate unimportant facts (think of this as
creating two piles - important vs. unimportant
facts)
Eliminate redundant facts (as you go, you
will begin to see redundancy in the facts, so
eliminate and combine related facts)
Mark most important facts (highlight the
most important facts)
TIPS
•This process can take some time, but do not
attempt to include everything that has been
marked
•Set up some blank templates to be filled in by
using the material covered in the respective
textbook (common frameworks are STEEP,
Porter’s 5 Forces, 3 Cs – company, customers
and competition, 4 Ps – product, price, place
and promotion, & financial ratios)
•This is one of the hardest elements to effective
case analysis, but perhaps the most important
•As you sort through the facts, ask ‘so what’
about the fact and try to calculate if you think it
may change the final answer
•As you pull out a fact for the summaries, mark
out related facts throughout the case to avoid
redundancy
•Don’t stress about not including something –
you can always come back to the case at a later
point
•In the end, the conclusion will be based on a
few critical data points; the key is to start
looking for these facts as you go
•Use a highlighter or coding system to mark key
facts
 Case Template - Summarising

General Environment:
•Limit to 3-4 most important

Industry:
•Limit to 3-4 most important

External

Competition:
•Limit to 3-4 most important
What is really
important?
Strengths (of company under study):
•Limit to 3-4 most important
Internal

Weaknesses (of company under study):

•Limit to 3-4 most important

Note: Answer key is at the end of this deck; please attempt to fill in the template before looking at possible answers
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Phase 4 – synthesising
Key Question: What are the options?
STEPS
State the 1-3 key questions (decide what
the few key questions to the case are, note
that it may be that there is only one key
question)
Identify options - MECE (for each question,
list out the options or alternatives, using the
MECE format as described in tips)
State decision criteria (an important step is
to identify the few dimensions that will be
used to decide between options/alternatives)
Summarise pros/cons (list out the support
for and against each option/alternative)
TIPS
•Go back to the key questions identified in the
first step
•Do not include more than 3 key questions
(otherwise they likely are not ‘key’)
•MECE stands for ‘Mutually Exclusive,
Collectively Exhaustive’
•Examples of MECE are timing-day/night;
profit-revenue/expenses; expand oversees –
yes/no; etc.
•This is a step that many people skip and as a
result, it is difficult to reach a decision
•Explicitly state the decision criteria before
deciding (examples include profit, market
share, growth, impact on shareholders,
implementation effort, timing, fit with overall
vision, etc.)
•Review the summarised facts to find support
for and against alternatives
•Prioritize the pros and cons based upon
decision criteria
 Case Template – synthesising
Question Option / Decision Pros Cons
Hypothesis Criteria

Note: Answer key is at the end of this deck; please attempt to fill in the template before looking at possible answers
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Phase 5 – Concluding
Key Question: What is the answer?
STEPS
Take a position (this is the exciting end to
analysis; the first step is to decide what the best
supported answer is to the key question)
Identify the few key supporting facts (pull
out the most important support from the
summaries and pros/cons analysis)
Discuss implementation (one way to
differentiate a good case analysis is the
consideration of what it would take to
implement the recommendation)
Mention risks (the final step is to identify risk
and contingencies that may be encountered if
the recommended course of action is pursued)
TIPS
•Don’t be afraid to take a stand even if you feel
that you do not have enough data – any position
is better than no position
•Avoid the typical compromise solution (pursue
both of the alternatives)
•The best arguments are clear statements that
are supported by 2-3 key data-based
observations
•Be very familiar with the underlying
assumptions, facts, and numbers when you
present in class
•Think in terms of the few key action steps that
must be taken
•A checklist for consideration includes changes
in staff, style, systems, structure, shared values,
and skills
•This is the chance to show that you have
completed a thorough analysis and considered
what may go wrong
•Do not underestimate the power of the caveat!
 Case Template - Concluding

Overall Recommendation Implementation

Risks

Key Supporting Facts

Note: Answer key is at the end of this deck; please attempt to fill in the template before looking at possible answers
 Final Tips
• The key to success in case analysis is to take a
structured approach to organising and using facts
• It is easy to get carried away with too much data
and lose sight of the need for a clear story with a
few supporting ideas
• Prepare for multiple outcomes and see the pros and
cons
• Use hypotheses to focus analysis but do not get
personally attached to one ‘possible solution’
• In strategic management, there is no one right
answer, but there are better and worse ways to
present ideas
• Be structured, objective and thorough and you will
succeed
 Answer Key –
Singapore International Airlines
• A sample set of possible answers is presented
in this section to the Singapore International
Airlines: Strategy with a Smile (Thunderbird,
2001) case
• Remember to try the case on your own first,
using the suggested approach, tips and
templates from the preceding slides
• You very well may come up with different
and/or additional concepts than those shown
here, but remember, it is not the actual
answer, but the process that leads to learning
 Model for Effective Case
Analysis
Case Analysis Process

1. Framing 2. Labeling 3. Summarising 4. Synthesising 5. Concluding

What are the objectives? What are the facts? What is important? What are the options? What is the answer?

•Identify the key question •Label the facts in the •Summarise the facts •State the 1-3 key •Take a position
•Flip through the case margins of the case: •Eliminate unimportant questions •Identify the few key
•Skim read the case •General (GEN) •Eliminate redundant •Identify options supporting facts
•Carefully read the •Industry (IND) •Mark most important (MECE) •Discuss
beginning and end •Competition (COM) •State decision criteria implementation
•Strength (STR) •Summarise pros/cons •Mention risks
•Weakness (WEA)

The key to good case analysis is to break down the case facts into a
clear, understandable and useful form
 Case Example – Framing
Singapore International Airlines
Key Question:
How can SIA best position itself for the future?
•Should SIA invest in Virgin Atlantic?
•Should SIA pursue a low-cost strategy?
•Should SIA stay in the Star Alliance?
Beginning of Case:
What is going on and what is the problem?
•The timetable is the beginning of the 21st Century (1999)
•A major strategic issue is the possible investment in VA
•Other strategic issues include: (i) increasing
competition; (ii) labour costs are rising; (iii) customers
are moving toward lower fares; (iv) alliances
Flipping and Skimming:
What is most notable during the flip & skim?
• 16 page case with 10 exhibits and a glossary
•Lots of data provided – not all will be relevant
•The organization of the case is: (i) introduction;
(ii) industry; (iii) markets – NA, Europe, Asia;
(iv) alliances; (v) Singapore – country and company;
(vi) issues moving forward
Ending of Case:
What other insights may impact our decision?
•An important fact is that even though the airline industry
is increasingly global, there are very few true global
players
•The alliance decision is critically important
•SIA leaders seem to be in support of the VA investment
 Case Example – Labeling
Singapore International Airlines

Here are two

examples of
labeling

Note: the most important issues are summarised in the next slide
 Case Example – summarising
Singapore International Airlines
General Environment:
•Globalization is increasing demand for international air travel (esp. to Asia)
•Political changes include the increase of free trade markets (like Singapore)
•Economic conditions are important as recessions cause price sensitivity

Industry:
•Consolidation in the airline industry is increasing to enhance scale and scope
•Alliances are the hottest strategy tool as companies seek global connections
•Customers are increasingly price sensitive but business segments are loyal
External •There are little to no substitutes for international air travel

Competition:
•Key domestic competitors are Japan Airlines, Thai Airways, and Cathay
•Key international competitors are United, KLM, and British Airways
What is really •SIA has the best cost structure for premium level service but losing ground
important?
Strengths:
•Reputation and brand image of the “Singapore Girl”
•Young fleet and excellent training facilities and programs
Internal •Extensive regional and international route network

Weaknesses:
•Increasing difficulty supplying high quality labour at low costs (esp. Singapore)
•“Buttoned Down” image may not be attractive to younger demographic
•High cost structure needed for high quality service is difficult to change
Case Example – synthesising
Singapore International Airlines
Question Option / Decision Pros Cons
Hypothesis Criteria

Invest in VA? Yes Return on •Enables a lower •Competes with

Investment cost product Star Alliance
offering •Limited
•Access to resources/
younger opportunity cost
demographic •May affect
•Complimentary reputation
routes
Overall Low Cost (rather Long Term •Head to head •Lose reputation
Strategy? than Profitability with new as high quality
Differentiation) competitors provider
•Seems to be the •Goes against
trend in the U.S. infrastructure
•Fuel costs are •Differentiation
rising may be the only
way to win
Stay in Star Yes Market Share •Cross-selling •Lose control of
Alliance? Growth opportunities to scheduling
new customers •May
•Access to compromise the
additional routes consistent
quickly quality of service
 Case Template – Concluding
Singapore International Airlines

SIA should set a strategic

Vision to be the leading global Implementation
Risks premier service airline

•Alliances don’t deliver •Invest in VA (but go high end)

•Costs get too high •Stay in Alliance
•Other airlines act first •Expand high quality labour
pool

•This is a critical time as technology and global reach

require a high-end international access airline
•SIA’s best strengths are high end service and global routes
• Going low-cost will damage long-term profit potential