Page 784 - The Case Lab Book

Pitfalls & Errors

General Reminders

• remember you will never have enough information
• the most critical aspect of case analysis may be "identifying the problem"
• you will never be sure you have identified the real problem
• there is rarely one "right" answer-different answers may be somewhat right
• accept that cases and managerial situations involve:
• ambiguous situations multiple causality inadequate information
• no elegant solution
• acknowledge that personal values play a role in case analysis
• no one (including the instructors) can "solve" the case
• try to imagine "living" with the problem and your recommendations
• try to avoid: confusing symptoms with problems making premature
evaluations
• blindly applying stereotypes to problems accepting information at face value
• judging behavior-we assume no one is "good" or "bad"; labelling people as
such is an easy way to dispense with problems of trying to figure out why
someone does what he does
• don't assume you are so much smarter or better informed than managers you
observe or read about that you can readily solve problems they have been
dealing with for years

managers involved may understand their problems better than you do and act the
way they do for reasons that are sound to themselves