Guidelines for Written Case Reports

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Guidelines for Written Case Reports

• The written case reports are due according to the
  following schedule
• Teams 4, 5, 6
• Case 8 BMW Films 04/02/09
• Teams 7, 8
• Case 9 Maria Sharapova 04/09/08
• Teams 1, 2, 3
• Case 10 Sony Eyetoy 04/16/08
• Written case reports are due at the start of the
  respective class. Please turn in a hardcopy to
  me.

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• Format Requirements
• Font Times New Roman, 12 pt.
• Spacing 2 lines
• Margins 1 inch each
• The written case report should have a
• management report section followed by the
• case analysis section.
• The structure is as follows
• 1. Management Report Section
• Title page
• Executive Summary
• Problem Analysis
• Opportunities and Objectives
• Alternatives
• Strategic Recommendations

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Title of the CaseThis part of the paper is the
management report section.

• Imagine you are doing this report for your own
  company. This is a report that will be seen by
  top executives of your company. The report should
  be based on thorough analysis, demonstrate your
  strategic thinking skills, and your overall
  professionalism.

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Instructors note All team members are expected
to contribute equally to this project. I will not
accept case reports without signatures of all the
team members. If you have a situation where all
your team members did not participate equally,
please bring it to my notice immediately. Please
list names in Alphabetical order.

• This case report was jointly prepared by the
  following team members. All members of the team
  contributed equally to the project.
• NAME _____________________________ Signature
  _______________
• NAME _____________________________ Signature
  _______________
• NAME _____________________________ Signature
  _______________
• NAME _____________________________ Signature
  _______________
• NAME _____________________________ Signature
  _______________

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Executive Summary

• The executive summary is a summary of your
  management report. It is not an introduction to
  the case report.
• You should briefly present the stated problem in
  the case, the groups diagnosis of the critical
  issues underlying the problem, and the objectives
  that emerge from the analysis of the problem. It
  should also mention the key alternatives
  considered and an overview of the strategic
  recommendations.
• View this section as a one-page memo that
  explains the entire report.

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Problem Analysis

• Stated Problem Most cases begin with some
  explanation of the decision problem being
  considered. The stated problem is also the point
  at which case analysis should begin. Briefly
  describe the stated problem. You may also want to
  add your comments on what you see is right or
  wrong or vague about the way the decision makers
  in the case are viewing the problem.
• Problem Definition
• Outline the core issues you identified in your 5C
  analysis and show how it logically leads to your
  problem definition. You have to ensure that the
  arguments are well structured and well
  synthesized and supported with facts and figures
  from your analysis. You must cite your analysis
  and numbers presented in the case analysis
  section of the report in the problem definition
  section.
• Scope of the problem
• Discuss the scope of decision making involved
  Is it a problem limited to the brand, to the
  portfolio, to the market, to the company, to the
  industry, etc.?
• What makes a great report
• Incisive understanding of the problem Discuss
  the problem succinctly and persuasively. Back
  your statements and arguments with facts and
  figures from the case and from your analysis.
  Refer to your case analysis exhibits. Support
  your arguments with real data and real analysis.
  Mention them.
• You have to be logical, precise, and factual in
  your arguments. Anything that does not makes
  practical sense to you will not make sense to the
  reader.
• This is the most important part of the analysis.
  If your problem definition is off track, your
  entire report will be off track!
• Opportunities and Objectives
• Opportunities
• Describe what possible long-term and short-term
  opportunities open up once the real problem is
  recognized.
• Objectives
• Based on your understanding of the problem, set
  long-term, medium-term and immediate objectives
  that must be addressed.

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Alternatives

• You should discuss only the serious alternatives
  you considered for thorough analysis.
• Make sure you have generated a number of
  different real alternatives or options addressing
  each objective. Do not present pseudo
  alternatives alternatives which are really not
  different from each other. Each alternative
  presented should be a viable meaningful option or
  course of action available to the company to
  achieve its objectives.
• Alternatives should be generated and grouped
  according to the objectives they are addressing.
  It is always a good idea to start looking at the
  long-term objectives first, then medium-term, and
  then the immediate short-term objectives. For
  example, let us say the long-term objectives
  were
• Arresting the change in market structure.
• Protecting the brand equity.
• Ensuring long-term financial survival of the
  company.
• With each of these long-term objectives, present
  the key alternatives that address them.
• You may want to briefly present your evaluation
  of the alternatives on identified criteria (your
  decision along with the alternative itself) or
  you may want to discuss the evaluation separately
  at the end. Both approaches are good and you
  should choose one that is best suited for the
  particular case.
• You should refer to your exhibits and
  calculations done in the case analysis section
  while discussing the evaluation of alternatives.
• As a final set, you may choose the best
  alternatives and explain why you think they are
  the best. Sometimes you may be able to combine a
  few alternatives to make a more powerful
  alternative.
• Page Limit Ideally this section should not be
  more than 3 pages. If you are exceeding the page
  limit, you may want to use tables to summarize
  information instead of adding more pages.

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Strategic Recommendations

• Explain your strategic recommendations. Develop
  your ideas as much as possible.
• Present this part as a complete strategic
  marketing plan. Include ideas for campaigns,
  promotions, organizational structuring, etc. if
  they are relevant to your case.
• Again, as in earlier sections, you should cite
  analysis and figures from the case analysis
  section.
• Page Limit 4 pages maximum.

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Case Analysis Section

• Instructor Memo
• In this section, you should attach the various
  qualitative and quantitative analyses used to
  arrive at your final report. You can attach your
  working sheets, graphs, financial tables, and
  statements in raw form as long as everything is
  clearly explained or highlighted. Looking at
  these working papers, I should be able to follow
  your analysis. You must cover all the essential
  sections, such as Environment, Industry, Market,
  Competitor, Company, and Consumer Behavior
  analysis.
• In addition to presenting your working papers,
  make sure that you clearly state the insights
  from each element of the analysis done and
  presented in this section.
• The analysis done in this section should tie into
  your report. Cite your figures and exhibits from
  this section in your main management report.
• Page Limit There is no page limit for this
  section.

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5C ANALYSISInstructor Memo This is
a checklist. Not all details under each C may
apply to your case. You must, however, present
analysis of each of the 5 Cs to get a
comprehensive view of the case. Please DO NOT
JUST REPEAT CASE FACTS. Present analysis and
derive meaningful insights and implications.
Present core issues that arise from each C
analysis.

• CONTEXT
• Environmental analysis
• Industry and market analysis
• Understand the business models, industry
  structure, critical factors for success, business
  phases or cycles, etc.
• Try to decipher the trends (projections from the
  past into the future). This might be extremely
  important in most cases.
• COMPETITION
• Understand why some company is the market leader.
  What could be the critical factors for success?
• Understand the competitive models.
• Try to understand the financial picture and
  financial strengths, if relevant to the case.
• COMPANY
• Probe the hard numbers as well as the soft issues
  such as culture, leadership etc.
• Look for critical strengths and weaknesses.
• Project companys brand and revenue figures 5-10
  years into the future to get at the emerging
  scenario, if applicable.
• CONSUMERS
• Analyze in depth.
• What is the decision making unit?
• Who are the influencers?
• Trace the entire decision making sequence.
• Get into the minds of the consumers and see if
  you can understand how they make decisions.