Case studies, Case interviews and Case discussions.
Posted 10-25-2009 at 10:42 PM by sidgoyal
I am sure many of MBA aspirants are puzzled about Case studies, case solving, and cases. Often even I used to wonder about the much hyped Case Study. I used to imaging a few thick pages of information, lot of graphs, charts, data, number crunching etc. Most important aspect of the case study which seemed puzzling to me was what to do with it? I am just trying to make things a little clear here, so that the term, hence forth, sounds friendlier than actually menacing.
Typically there are Case studies, Case interviews and Case discussions. They are largely 3 different things to test 3 different attributes and used in 3 different processes.
Case Studies
Typically, small to elaborate material, used in B School curriculum and assessments. These are used to simulate a particular situation. Most of the managers are hired in already established and running concerns with 50 or more years behind them. So, they are always initiated in a situation. Similarly in a Case Study you are given a history and a situation. You are also given certain numbers to quantify the current status in order to add objective decision making than totally subjective one. Sometimes you may be just testing in your subjective understanding and may not be given many details.
In Data intensive Case studies you are expended to see trends in the data, or calculate ratios to spot the problem areas or the major strengths. This basically tests a real life scenario in which how you use various data available around you to take business decisions, how to pick the useful data and discard the irrelevant data. You may also be expected to fill in assumptions based on some other data, to get the actual number of work with.
For example, if you are asked to increase the sales of petrol of an oil company in a state. You might need to estimate the need for more petrol pumps. You may not have this data ready, but may have data on the Car sales in the state. So you may calculate average run of car per day, fuel consumed by the car and total number of cars , thus the incremental requirement for fuel.
The emphasis is to test the interpretation of the situation, data mining or drawing Knowledge from the random piece of data, reading the situation, and determining the forward steps. This may involve testing your academic knowledge strongly. But at times, it may also test your soft skills like ethics, human relations, creativity etc.
Case discussions
These are typical small situations - like a business scenario, or a newspaper article or any small set of facts. This is typical used in a Group Discussion to facilitate generation of ideas, communication of the same and adapting with the discussion trend. Here it’s unlikely to be much of data, so there is no objective or well specified conclusion or objective of the case. Mostly subjective cases are given so that they can easily provoke ideas in multiple directions giving each participant a fair chance to contribute. It’s a total open field and as long as a person’s responses are logical, it doesn’t matter which direction or side one is headed.
A Case discussion doesn’t necessarily require any pervious background, technical knowledge or any academic knowledge. It’s a level playing field to give each participant a fair chance. It’s largely tests the self kills of the candidates and having good business skills can be a definite plus.
Furnishing external information may not be required and in fictitious setups, adding industrial data to your discussion may not be seen as very positive also. You need to argue the case within the scope of given facts; you need to draw conclusions from the same. However, you can comment on the nature of the industry which can be considered a common knowledge. For example, if the cases talks about a fictitious Hotel X, then the candidate can right fully point to higher inventory costs of hotels or the Hotel industry, more emphasis on customer care, servicing, etc. But, relating to the hotel to Taj President, Mumbai having a 300 rooms and Monthly Revenue of Rs. 15 crores, may not be welcomed or to say the least add to your discussion.
The emphasis is on Communication, Ability of introspect all angles of the problem, adapting to the conversation and sense of reasoning.
Case interviews
These are favorites of Interviewers when Recruiting from B School campuses or entry into corporate jobs (general management), consulting, etc. Here, you walk to mid way between a Case study and case discussion. You are given a situation or business problem. A case interview is a very unique method of interviewing a candidate.
A Case interview may start in two ways
In both cases the data seems to be inadequate and you cannot solve the question upfront and come to an answer or solution by working anything on your paper. You need more information, most assistance to answer these questions. That’s why it’s an interview (now commonly called interaction) not an examination. This method clearly tests your problem solving skills – How you approach a problem, can you come of your clutter and evolve into a clear path to solve the problem, how you learn more about the problem through interaction.
To put it more aptly, the candidate is expected to interview the interviewer. While the first type gives the candidate a head start in terms of direction to think, the latter can be a very open problem. Similarly, in the former you are expected to arrive at a number of cycles, in the latter your are like to come up with decision framework. The key is to arrange the problem into a custom framework.
Like in the first problem, you need to estimate the number of cycles produced and the plant to be chosen. But what is the product? Which is the market? Apart from capacities what is different among the plants. So, the questions which appear in your mind, create a framework like “ok, I will first investigate the existing products, and the new product, Then I will investigate the Customers and the market. Then I will investigate the Plants and the capacities. “ . Then you can take one part and get deeper into it, the key is to ask pertinent questions, seek answers and increase your clarity. You can add your domain knowledge or industry knowledge to the discussion, but having the same is not necessary or expected.
The emphasis here is on testing your approach the problem, the kind of questions you ask, your comfort level while solving the problem, and your reasoning skills.
Typically there are Case studies, Case interviews and Case discussions. They are largely 3 different things to test 3 different attributes and used in 3 different processes.
Case Studies
Typically, small to elaborate material, used in B School curriculum and assessments. These are used to simulate a particular situation. Most of the managers are hired in already established and running concerns with 50 or more years behind them. So, they are always initiated in a situation. Similarly in a Case Study you are given a history and a situation. You are also given certain numbers to quantify the current status in order to add objective decision making than totally subjective one. Sometimes you may be just testing in your subjective understanding and may not be given many details.
In Data intensive Case studies you are expended to see trends in the data, or calculate ratios to spot the problem areas or the major strengths. This basically tests a real life scenario in which how you use various data available around you to take business decisions, how to pick the useful data and discard the irrelevant data. You may also be expected to fill in assumptions based on some other data, to get the actual number of work with.
For example, if you are asked to increase the sales of petrol of an oil company in a state. You might need to estimate the need for more petrol pumps. You may not have this data ready, but may have data on the Car sales in the state. So you may calculate average run of car per day, fuel consumed by the car and total number of cars , thus the incremental requirement for fuel.
The emphasis is to test the interpretation of the situation, data mining or drawing Knowledge from the random piece of data, reading the situation, and determining the forward steps. This may involve testing your academic knowledge strongly. But at times, it may also test your soft skills like ethics, human relations, creativity etc.
Case discussions
These are typical small situations - like a business scenario, or a newspaper article or any small set of facts. This is typical used in a Group Discussion to facilitate generation of ideas, communication of the same and adapting with the discussion trend. Here it’s unlikely to be much of data, so there is no objective or well specified conclusion or objective of the case. Mostly subjective cases are given so that they can easily provoke ideas in multiple directions giving each participant a fair chance to contribute. It’s a total open field and as long as a person’s responses are logical, it doesn’t matter which direction or side one is headed.
A Case discussion doesn’t necessarily require any pervious background, technical knowledge or any academic knowledge. It’s a level playing field to give each participant a fair chance. It’s largely tests the self kills of the candidates and having good business skills can be a definite plus.
Furnishing external information may not be required and in fictitious setups, adding industrial data to your discussion may not be seen as very positive also. You need to argue the case within the scope of given facts; you need to draw conclusions from the same. However, you can comment on the nature of the industry which can be considered a common knowledge. For example, if the cases talks about a fictitious Hotel X, then the candidate can right fully point to higher inventory costs of hotels or the Hotel industry, more emphasis on customer care, servicing, etc. But, relating to the hotel to Taj President, Mumbai having a 300 rooms and Monthly Revenue of Rs. 15 crores, may not be welcomed or to say the least add to your discussion.
The emphasis is on Communication, Ability of introspect all angles of the problem, adapting to the conversation and sense of reasoning.
Case interviews
These are favorites of Interviewers when Recruiting from B School campuses or entry into corporate jobs (general management), consulting, etc. Here, you walk to mid way between a Case study and case discussion. You are given a situation or business problem. A case interview is a very unique method of interviewing a candidate.
A Case interview may start in two ways
- With some preliminary information on an industry/company/product. For example, A Cycle manufacturing firm have 5 type of products depending on the age group and gender targeted. They have 3 plants situated at 3 locations to capture 3 markets. The capacity of A is 1500 cycles a day, B is 1000 cycles a day, C is 1000 cycles a day. The company is currently producing at 60% capacity. They are planning to launch a new product, Advice which plant to be used to produce the product and how much to be produced.
- A business statement like A company wants to expand his telecom operations in a new country. How will you estimate project feasibility?
In both cases the data seems to be inadequate and you cannot solve the question upfront and come to an answer or solution by working anything on your paper. You need more information, most assistance to answer these questions. That’s why it’s an interview (now commonly called interaction) not an examination. This method clearly tests your problem solving skills – How you approach a problem, can you come of your clutter and evolve into a clear path to solve the problem, how you learn more about the problem through interaction.
To put it more aptly, the candidate is expected to interview the interviewer. While the first type gives the candidate a head start in terms of direction to think, the latter can be a very open problem. Similarly, in the former you are expected to arrive at a number of cycles, in the latter your are like to come up with decision framework. The key is to arrange the problem into a custom framework.
Like in the first problem, you need to estimate the number of cycles produced and the plant to be chosen. But what is the product? Which is the market? Apart from capacities what is different among the plants. So, the questions which appear in your mind, create a framework like “ok, I will first investigate the existing products, and the new product, Then I will investigate the Customers and the market. Then I will investigate the Plants and the capacities. “ . Then you can take one part and get deeper into it, the key is to ask pertinent questions, seek answers and increase your clarity. You can add your domain knowledge or industry knowledge to the discussion, but having the same is not necessary or expected.
The emphasis here is on testing your approach the problem, the kind of questions you ask, your comfort level while solving the problem, and your reasoning skills.
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