Page 34 - CL How to Read a Case Study

In a normal teaching situation, the lecturer will often ask you

to put yourself in the position of a consultant, a football

coach, or an executive in a company whose job is to address

the uncertain future facing the organisation. You are

required to undertake a diagnosis of the current health of

the organisation and give a prognosis on how it can be

improved. Your recommendations must be realistic and you

must address the various functions involved in running the
organisation as well as its overall strategy.

Underpinning this process are three broad questions which

may be asked of the situation in any case study:

1.Where are we now?

What is the critical issue(s) or problem(s) to be

solved? This is probably the most crucial part of

the analysis and sometimes the hardest thing to

do in the whole analysis.

Try to identify:

the key issues in the case;

who is the decision maker in the case and;

if there is a critical decision to be addressed.

2. Where are we going?
How an organisation achieves its objectives is at

the heart of case analysis.

How it builds and implements its strategy is the

last building block in case analysis.