How to write simple business case studies

How to Write
Business Case Studies
By
Maxwell Ranasinghe
Presentation made to lecturers at
Department of Marketing at
University of Kelaniya
10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

Outline of the presentation
 Types of Case studies
 Importance of case studies
 Undergraduate/ MBA level case studies
 Guideline for case study writing
 Developing a plot
 Where to get information
 How to get commitment from a company to write a real
case study
 Structure of a case study
 Q & A
 Comments of Harvard’s “Nike” case study – Practical
Session
 Discussion

 We write assignments/case studies for
testing of knowledge and skills of
students
 We usually write two types of
scenarios as follows:
◦ 1. Find the answer through given facts
◦ ( analysis based assignments)
◦ 2. Request students to answer by
collecting further information from the
market place
◦ ( tasks based assignments)10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

 The first option where you provide
information in the case study itself and
let student answer it without referring to
any other material (but with logical
assumptions)
These case studies can be given in an
exam, where student write the answer on
his own
 The second option is a kind of
exploratory, observational or research
type of tasks. These case studies can be
given as individual or group
assignments. 10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

 A business case study puts the student in
to real life scenario.
 It challenges student to apply theory he
or she has learnt in the class to a practical
situation.
 The case study should be a story that
changes the student’s view point to a
business manager’s

 Student should feel that he is the
principal character( protagonist-
ප්‍රෝටැ) who is given the responsibility
of solving the problem in the case.
 He should also feel that the body of
knowledge that he had acquired
through academic work and
experience can be used to handle
the case.

Therefore, a good case study
should be written to create a
real life kind of situation with a
well crafted story to intrigue
the student.

Undergraduate level case
studies
Case study writers who write
cases for undergraduate level or
diploma Level students should
bear in mind that the answer
expected could be provided well
with the level of knowledge and
experience that those students
posses.

Case study should not be
complicated and it should
have one central decision
point or dilemma ( bear in
mind that this is not an MBA
case)

MBA Level case studies
 These case studies may have one or
more core issues and could be
complicated.
 Therefore the case writer should be in a
position to describe a scenario that has
many facets to the problem
 Case writer has to mix different areas of
the problem to form a challenging
situation
 Individual related areas could be thought
separately and it has to be mixed
together by superimposing each other to
have a one single story. It is a challenge
! 10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

Layers to be thought separately
and superimposed
 Internal layer( staff relations, resource
constraints and corporate culture etc.)
 Operational layer(Suppliers,
Intermediaries, Competitors- Direct
and Indirect ,Customers of a
business/marketer, Publics)
 External layer ( PESTEEL factors)
 It is important to note that they are not
written in sequence but throughout
the story

Lets start with undergraduate
case study to illustrate
 Case should have a proper problem
within the facts of the case
 Student should not feel that he can
answer the case study without going
through the facts of the case but
referring to the class notes or any
other material outside of the case

 The nature of the situation should be
clearly apparent once the case is
read.
 Most importantly the case writer
should not write too much of
background details which may not
have much bearing on the problem.

In marketing case studies
Case writers should be careful
when making the plot of the
story not to end up in asking
the student to write a
marketing plan as it has
become a common feature of
many marketing case studies

 There is no proper format for case
studies but it is always better to
have a logical format so that the
case writer will be directed to
include the main ingredients of a
case study

Have you got to follow
Harvard, Princeton or Yale
University styles ? No
 Have your own Sri Lankan
style. Then only you will get
creative and objective.
Can we have a simple
guideline in writing case
studies ? Yes10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

Guideline
1. Decide what you need to
test in students through the
case study.
2. Develop a plot
3. Structure the case
4. Find information and data to
fill the structure

 5. Provide symptoms of the
situation
 6. Let student analyse the
symptoms and find out the central
problem.
 ( Case writer should not write all information that student could
write that back in his/her answer in the same form. In other words,
do not ask a question that student can write the answer without
analyzing the facts of the case)
 7. Ask questions to provide
answers to the central problem or10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

Decide what you need to test in
students through the case study.
 Most importantly the case writer
should know the level of
knowledge and experience that
the student posses
 At least the course content and
the syllabus should be known to
the case writer

Case writer should not write a
problem that he has to face in
his business which may not be
suitable to check on students
at this level or in the subject
that the case is given

 Case writer should know the
areas of studies done by the
student where the practical
application is very important
 Those are the areas that he
should test through a case study.
 Then the student will also
appreciate about the importance
of the case study10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

Developing a plot
 Here the case writers creativity comes to
play ( copying from other exam papers or
case books are not recommended….. be
creative ??????)
 He can have any kind of logical formats
(where the facts that he is going to relate
will have a bearing on finding the symptoms
of the problem that would finally pave the
way in finding the central problem)
 The plot should provide a “fine idea” “ big
idea” to be structured and developed

Where to get information
Published information: ( no permission from
company is needed)
 Newspaper articles
 Magazines
 Special brand related books, reports or
periodicals such as “Super brands Sri Lanka” or
Brand Finance, Millward Brown and Interbrand
Reports.
 Annual Reports and company websites
 Students’ assignments
 Your own experience
 Many other secondary sources
 ( please quote all the sources you have obtained
data and information at the end of the case)

Unpublished information
If you are indicating unpublished actual information of a company,
please take proper authority to indicate them in your case study
 If a business case employs insider
information, written permission must be
obtained from the company to use,
publish, and market the case study.
 Organizations can be notoriously
frustrating to work with in this regard—
especially large, complex organizations
with sophisticated legal and marketing
departments.
 Once the case is complete, it can take
months (or longer) to obtain permission
and approvals. So many drafts may
have to be written

 It is best to let the organization know
up front that you are writing a case
study that will be used in teaching and
published for use in institutions of
higher learning.
 Assembling the right team of
advocates for the case study is a
critical task, and the team should
include representatives from the
company.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE
FEATURED ORGANIZATION?
 The role of the Featured Organization
is to provide information and data, to
check for accuracy/completeness, and
to assist in final review and release of
the case.
 Most importantly, the Featured
Organization must provide legal
permission to use the case for
educational purposes upon completion
of the case.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING A
FEATURED ORGANIZATION?
 1. Being a Featured Organization is
both a practical and altruistic role.
The organization will play a significant
role in helping tomorrow’s business
leaders become better prepared to face
complex decisions in the constantly-
changing world of business.

 2. The organization will also gain
broad exposure to thousands of future
graduates who are likely to seek out
the organization for employment.
 ( Students with diverse experience may
come out with fine answers. Sometimes the
business managers of the featured
company in the case study, attend class
discussions and presentations to find out
the ideas of the students)

 3. Many Featured Organizations use
the completed case study in their
internal training programs.
 4. Employees within the Featured
Organizations benefit from sharing the
importance of their roles and tasks in
the case study’s business situation.

Structuring the case studies
 Title and introduction
 Company
 Industry
 Competitors
 Symptoms of the problem
 Challenges
 Problems to be answered

Structuring the case
studies….
 Title and Introduction
 It is always better to have a creative
title so that the student will feel he is
not reading another note
 Even a journalistic title should create
interest in student to read
 In a case study written in English, can
even have a title in your own mother
tongue e.g. Sinhala

Introduction
 Within the first paragraph, identify the
protagonist. ( main character)
 Within the first few paragraphs, present—
from the protagonist’s point of view—the
decision point. (This will avoid posing case
study questions such as “Assume you are
appointed as Marketing Manager” at the
end)
 In a good case, you need to set the main
character that the students has to play in the
case, from the beginning.
 Then student will read the case as it is his/her
problem.

Context
 Provide the context for the situation.
Include the situation’s time frame,
location, the purpose of the company
or organization, relevant business
factors, and the goal of the
protagonist.
( write only the relevant facts, even
famous case studies by renowned
universities, make this mistake)

Structuring the case studies…
Background
 Case writers often add extraneous
information in this section in a deliberate
effort to lead students astray.
 Case writer should bear in mind that he
should provide the relevant information only
to set up the foundation to build his story
 Many cases have too much of background
factors
 Do not write a lot of historical matter just
because you find them in the internet or other
journals/magazines

 Company and products
A brief historical setting of the
company, its product lines,
brands, status in the market place,
market share etc.
Consider depicting the structure,
culture and resources of the of the
company or organization, if it has
any bearing on the story that you
are going to present

 - Industry
Brief introduction of the industry, size,
nature and the trends should be
provided depending on the problem
that you are going to write in the case
study
If any PESTEEL factor would be
relevant to your case, you may write
about it too
.

Competitive environment-
Major competitors, market
share, products, challenges
posed and strategies
adopted can be discussed
depending on the case

 Symptoms and the problems
 The important part of the story begins here
 Bear in mind that you are writing a story. It
should not be totally technical or
colloquial. Use some dialogues of company
managers
 A fine blend will make the case interesting for
the reader
 It is always better to bring the main character
here into play so that students will read in his
point of view. ( protagonist)

 Bit of his background, character and
the dilemma faced by him should be
introduced
 The writer should describe what has
happened to create an emotional
attachment by the reader to the
central character( protagonist) of the
story

 Readers who have both an emotional
connection to the Central Character
of the story will be more motivated to
find actionable solutions to the
problems depicted in the case.
 Keep this section complex enough
that students cannot come to an easy
decision.

 Write the symptoms supported by
data, sales, profits, tables, graphs
to show the status where the
student can analyse and find out
the trend .
 ( Students should not be able to get the
trend or problem by just reading the figures,
but by analyzing it)

 Connect the background in this
section to the current situation,
including underlying causes and
current results.
• Deal more deeply into the context and
possible consequences of the decision
point, dilemma faced.
 Include the consequences for the
central character as well as for
company or organization.

 Tell what has the principal character
done in order to remedy the situation
and what is the status after such
action
 Clearly state the current status
 What finally matters in your story is to
provide information to the student to
analyse and find out the underlying
reason/reasons for the central
problem.

 Challenge
 Throw the challenge of finding the
underlying problem to the student on
behalf of the Central Character of the
case study
 Students should be looking at problems
from a systemic perspective and trying to
solve problems based on the
complexities of the environment,
resource constraints, availability of
information, and a general understanding
that the main characters situation is

Problem to be answered
 At the conclusion of this section,
include the degree of urgency involved
in the decision-making or the timeline
for the decision to be made
 Offer him the chance of suggesting
the proper course of action or task to
be done in order to remedy the
situation

Tables and Exhibits
 You could have tables such as market
share, financial information etc. in the
body of the case study or at the end
 Exhibits such as advertisements,
paper articles, reports etc. should
come at the end of the case study.
 Links to video clips, websites etc.
 ( Let student analyze data to take
decisions rather than citing what is
stated) 10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

 Do not issue case studies
 Without going through you draft
several times to ensure it is in line with
your plot.
 Without checking spelling and
grammar
 Without developing your own model
answer before it is issued to the
students.
 Without being moderated by a Senior10/2/2020 Presentation By Maxwell Ranasinghe

 The only way to learn is to commence
writing at least small case studies.
Then you will develop the art of writing
case studies
Good Luck
Email: maxran1@yahoo.com

How to write simple business case studies

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