Case Study : Key To Success For MBA Students
Case study as the name suggests is the study which is written account giving detailed information about a person, or thing and their development over a period of time. Case can be a problem, an event, process, activity, program, study of a single person or a group. According to Young P.V. (1984) : Case study is a comprehensive study of a social unit, be it a person, a group of persons, an institute, a community or a family. Techniques Used For Case Studies are: 1) Observation : In this segment one has to figure out the primary and secondary information and collect it or document it. 2) Interview : A case study becomes more credible with the addition of genuine sources like public interviews or the one post by credible news firms. One can infact take interviews by oneself to get insight of the case and add it to the documented work. 3) Secondary :- Secondary sources are the sources like magazines, newspapers, books or research works of other people. One can mention the reference of books and journals in their research work to proof a point or to cover the topic. 4) Document :- Legal documents like the data collected from government departments through RTI or other means. Personal letters, historical manuscripts and documents are very imperative part of a case study. 5) Record:- Government records and statistics can help in getting a right idea or understanding about a case. Sources Of Data For Case Study are:- 1) Life Histories :- For example if one is doing case study on Mahatma Gandhi. His life history as per the details known through relatives, personal documents and historians of those times come under this point. 2) Personal Documents :- Life certificates, letters, manuscripts, etc. are helpful for a great deal in research work. 3) Letters And Records :- Letters used as correspondence for exchange of messages and official works are part of case study. Things in record like the documents kept by government are also vital in research. 4) Biographies :- Book written on oneself by people speak a lot about ones personal views, experience and life. This is a very significant part of study. 5) Information obtained through interviews : As I mentioned before interviews are things under record and are very helpful in case study. 6) Observation :- Observations is the pillar of case study it makes way for conclusion. Case studies are of many types like subjective study in Ph.D. or studies done by law firms, government, teachers etc. It has emerged as a new form of becoming more productive. As a teacher who does case study on a student poor in studies can find solution to bring improvement on the student by using different teaching techniques and documenting that case study for others to take help in the future. But, today we will be talking about importance of case studies for an MBA student :- 1) Rigorous study :- Case study is a rigorous or detail study of an event, person, a company or situations. 2) Gives Insight Of Work : Case study is very imperative for MBA students as it gives them a rough idea of how to respond to different situations in business and thus makes them capable of making right decisions for their firm. 3) Interview Ready :- Questionnaires related to case study are very often asked in interviews and it is made in such a way that it would grill a naive man. So, more and more case studies of corporate world makes an intern or a job seeker interview ready. 4) Profit Material :- A firm mainly depends on good decisions of their head and employees so a person with good knowledge of different challenges and indicators required in their firm become profit material. 5) Better Decision :- Case studies make a man more mature in making decision. e.g. Good H.R. will have a good knowledge of case studies of corporate world and thus they can employ good employees. 6) B-Schools :- Case studies are taught in B-schools and college level to make students accustomed of business environment. 7) Strategically Strong : Case study is a tonic to become strategically strong in the corporate world. 8) World Corporate :- In this world of tough competition among business firms, every firm does case study of another firm to over take it the race of profit earning. 9) Legal Solutions : Case studies also give firms legal solutions in case of certain problems. 10) Best Tool : It is one of the best tools to impress the interviewer as the interviewers seek such people who not only have knowledge of the field but also know how to find solutions in difficult times. Top 8 Case Studies an MBA student must know:- 1) Tylenol Scandal : In the year 1982, seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol tablets due to drug tampering. This incidents led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws. This caused great loss to the company. Tylenol was not responsible for the tampering of the product, but to maintain the product’s reputation, Johnson & Johnson pulled all of the Tylenol from the shelves, absorbing a loss of more than $100 million dollars. Tylenol was successfully reintroduced with tamper-resistant packaging, discounts, and sales presentations to the medical community. The brand survived due to swift action and effective public relations from Johnson & Johnson. Similar thing happened with Maggie India when it was found that maggie was not fulfilling the required norms of quality. This caused maggie India a huge loss. 2) Partnership for profit : “In this new wave of technology, you can’t do it all yourself, you have to form alliances.” – Carlos Slim Helu, business magnate. Many small and big companies shake hand of partnership or alliance with leading one to expand their influence and to increase their returns. Due to the partnership, co-branded products like the Aros WiFi-connected AC unit are already for sale in 2,000 Home Depot stores across the U.S. and on Amazon. 3) Maintaining Good Employees Consistently :- Some times, promoted employees do not work hard after getting promotion as a result of which the company has to face serious difficulties and losses. Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager believes this situation may want to have been avoided with short meetings and a review or feedback system, with the help of these we can become aware of troubles earlier than they become actual problems. 4) Background check for job candidates : The role of HR in selecting new employees is very imperative as it determines the results of the firm. So, the background is checked very minutely like certificates, medical status and so on. 5) Finding Rightful Successor : This is very crucial to fill the gap of the employee leaving a firm. In such case the employee is asked to fill the gap by looking for a apt replacement or to teach someone in the firm itself how to work in his place. 6) Loss Of Knowledge And Experience : Experts say that loss of knowledge and experience of employees is a major set back for a company. There many cases in which the company had to face major loss owing to poor knowledge and experience of the person. 7) Advertisement spending : A person going for an interview should know how an advertisement expenditure is decided by a company and what are its impacts. 8) Crisis Management:- This is the most important part of a case study as it can help a company to recover from loses. With the introduction of smartphone Nokia company had to face many difficulties but it recovered from the loss. The study of crisis management can help a candidate to become a big asset for the company in the future. When you for an interview you might be asked that lets take a situation. There is company called Mike. Ltd. It workers are unable to work on hi-tech machines imported by the company to fulfill the increased demand. Therefore, the workers are seeking extra guidance from the supervisors. The supervisor is overburdened with the frequent calls of workers. Suggest how the supervisor by increasing the skills and knowledge of workers can make them handle their work independently? Know it will be your answer that will decide whether you are in or out. So, you should have good knowledge of what is done in such situation. What are the different types of training, then only you will be able to give the answer. Well the answer, to the above question is Vestibule Training. Even after giving the answer one should know what does it mean and how does it work. Similarly, there are lot of Case study questions asked in interviews or the situations that one has to face in job. Therefore, every Business School or B-school focuses on building this part of the students. So, before you go for an interview, go through case study related to your field. It will make you interview ready and will help you a lot in your job. There are many books related to case study which one can take help from to have a good understanding. Read case study of Indian entrepreneurs who came up with pioneer ideas, jugaad technology and the one who managed to withstand difficult times. Why not to start with Connecting The Dots by Rashmi Bansal and interview centric business books. I hope you will consider case study very important part during your study and touch heights of success. Good Luck