A Suggested Methodology for your work on Cases

You may find the case method somewhat perplexing when you work on your first case
assignment. This happens because you may not have built up a background of knowledge
about marketing and you may not have developed a logical framework of analysis for problem
solving.
Your first effort should be to read the case assigned carefully enough to remember many of the
details presented in it. Most students find that they need to read the materials several times.
After reading with great care it is important to identify the major problem(s) or question(s)
involved.
Step 1: The Problem(s) or Question(s)
Every case analysis requires the identification of the principal question or problem that requires
an answer. Unfortunately, business problems do not arrive labeled problem. Therefore the
student must learn to identify the problem(s)raised. It is often appropriate to state the question in
the form of agreement or disagreement with the decision or recommendation made by on of the
persons in the case. Such a question might be. Do you agree with Belmonts proposed price
change? Or you might state your question in the following form: What should the price be?
On occasion the main question needs to be broken down into sub-questions, such as the
following. What should the price be? Should some one have the authority to adjust the price in
dealing with customers and if so, in what range? Should the price have a specified period of
time in which it is in effect?
It is imperative that you locate the basic What should locate the basic problem(s) or
question(s). For examples, it is not meaningful to assert that low sales volume is the problem,
since low volume is only symptomatic of an underlying problem such as poor supervision and
control by sales managers, inadequate coordination of the several kinds of promotion, a poor
compensation plan, or something else.
Step 2: The Facts
Some persons find it very helpful to visualize the system under consideration and to identify who
is managing the various systems or subsystems. See if you find this of assistance. You may
want to prepare a diagram depicting these relationships. Some students like to use the systems
framework around the system under consideration, so that they can perceive the inputs and
outputs of the system, the goals, the organizational structure, the resources available, the set of
products and/or services offered in the market, the routine operations, the accomplishments,
and the past and probable actions and responses of competitive and complementary systems.
It is vital that you sift and sort the facts of the case, even if there are a large number of them. A
time-consuming technique but many persons find productive is to rank order the facts. List the
most important fact first and least important fact last. Between them fill in the various facts in
descending order of importance for answering the question. Use your proper judgment in
building this list, but always ask yourself, Just what do I need to know in order to answer the
question? Note that some of the facts may be irrelevant , but care must be taken in discarding
any fact. Let your imagination play with the fact and see if it fits together with another seemingly
irrelevant fact to make one highly relevant fact. When the facts have been completely arranged
in order, you should review and revise your list once again based on logic and even your
intuition
A necessary categorization is to separate objective facts from particulars that are opinions,
assumptions, or premises of persons in the case. The latter are by no means unimportant, but
they should be correctly labeled for future use and suitable weighting. Moreover, try to identify
your own speculation and opinions that you may have formed, for they are not facts of the case.
Remember the human factor in all of this. You must be alert to personal characteristics and
personal relationships among the principals of the case. Given their life-style, sex, age, rank in
the organization, job background, socioeconomic background, personality and other factors,

what would you expect them to do or say? What would surprise you or appear atypical? Not
only must you look for these aspects but you must use them substantively and use them to help
you judge the degree of objectivity in supposedly objective facts.
Enough facts have been presented in each case for you to develop intelligent solutions.
However if you feel it is imperative that you make a reasonable assumption. Be sure to state
that assumption clearly in your write-up.
Lastly one must not postpone a decision until every conceivable information resource has been
exhausted. Such a behavior is both uneconomical and unreasonable. No manager has in front
of him every piece of data that may have a bearing on his problem. Time, cost, cost/benefit
relationships and lack of access to some data preclude such an extreme view.
Step 3: The alternative a courses of action
What can be done to take care of the problem? Stated in a more formal manner, what are the
actions and alternative courses of action?
Often you will come up with five or six alternative courses of action. However, you may need to
dismiss some of these alternatives as unfeasible. For examples, some course of action may
clearly violate the long-term objectives of the organization or some short term goals of the
operating period. These objectives and goals are sometimes stated but more often must be
inferred. Capital constraints might rule out some of the alternatives and behavioral factors may
rule some out. If practicable, you should reduce the list of alternative course of action to those
three or four that need to receive the most careful, detailed consideration.
These remaining alternatives must be formally evaluated. You should list the advantages and
disadvantages of each. Think in terms of utility that each action alternative can deliver and the
risk that it entails. This procedure requires great care but if it is one well it puts you in a good
condition for step number four.
Step 4: Your decision and reasoning
You should now select the action alternative that provides you the best answer to the problem.
In doing so compare and contrast the sets of advantages and disadvantages developed in Step
3. Make your selection. Be sure that you articulate the main reason why you select one
alternative over the others. For each rejected alternative, state why your chosen alternative is
better. This not only clarifies your own thinking but also enables you to coherently ask other
students during the class discussion why they chose an alternative that you rejected and equips
you to defend your choice. Your process of reaching a decision is a crucially important analytical
ability- and you must do everything you can to make it a smoothly working ability. Articulating
the process and trying to communicate orally and in writing to other persons is excellent practice
for developing and sharpening this vital managerial ability.
Step 5: Implementation of your decision
Your decision is not complete until you prepare at least a gross operational plan for its
implementation. Draw up a statement of (a) what must be done to carry out your decision (b)
what personnel must be assigned to do it (c) when this act(s) must be carried out: and (d) about
how must will it cost to do it. You are dealing with acts, existing or new personnel, a timetable
and a rough budget. In most cases you cannot give highly detailed or precise answers to the
questions of Step 5. However, gross estimates are infinitely better than no estimates at all, for
they force you to bring to logical conclusion a logical process of thinking.