Techniques of Strategic Case Analyses - Essay Example

Techniques of Strategic Case Analyses There are five lessons that I have learned from conducting strategic case analyses. First, read the materials carefully. Every detail in the case studies that are presented during the class is there for a reason, but one should avoid getting stuck in the details. The main objective of the case materials is to help the student understand the company, because a case study is like a snapshot of the company at some point in time. Like photographs of people, the materials only give the reader a partial view of the company, and to get a clearer view, one has to understand well why those materials were included in the first place.

Some details in the case materials are there to explain a few key points, such as the initial success and subsequent failure of a strategy, or the way the management misread the market, or how they failed in the execution. Like in real life, there are often no clear answers to the problems that managements confront when they perform their job, so they could have come up with solutions after correctly following the strategic exercise process, but for some reason the assumptions they used had changed and their strategy failed.

Second, learn to connect what you know with the case materials you read, and read a lot. There is no substitute for reading beyond what is recommended in class, and more important, to retain what you read in the newspapers, see on CNBC, or learn from your friends. There were cases when what are learned in the case materials differ from what one understands of the company. This is unavoidable, since most case materials are dated and circumstances may have changed: managers have been replaced and the company's strategies were changed with the new management.

When this happens, the best would be to read about what the company did, find out what happened, and put the two together and propose an elegant solution. What must be avoided is solving a 1990s case using thinking that applies now, e.g. the resurgence of China that was unclear a decade ago.Third, ask questions, especially the basic ones that seem stupid. The usefulness of case studies is the way they make students like me think, ask questions, and learn from the answers. We learned from the strategic case analyses that management work is challenging, exciting, and require a lot of thinking, asking, reading, and analyzing information that likewise changes on a regular basis.

This is why strategic case analysis is a very good experience and introduction to managerial work, with the advantage that like the scientists of chemistry and physics, we are able to stand on the shoulders of those who faced the real life challenge of running companies and learning from their mistakes and their successes.Fourth, think outside the box. Each case study is like a movie with many actors: managers, directors, supervisors, workers, customers, politicians, competitors, etc. One very helpful technique in understanding the case is to think like a movie director who is reviewing a script and the scene it describes.

Each actor in the case is an intelligent person who thinks in ways different from the way we think, so it is good to expand the horizon and try to understand how each actor thinks and why they behaved that way. A person's attitudes, background, personal goals and preferences all have an impact on why the events turned out that way, so one needs to go beyond the normal mode of thinking in order to better understand the case.Lastly, analyzing strategic cases is the easy part; the more difficult is execution, so learn from the successes and mistakes of manager to come up with good solutions.

A case involves a problem that needs to be solved. Finding solutions based on certain assumptions and experiences is only the first step. The more important next step is putting together the resources needed to carry out the solution. One thing learned from class is that the most important letter in the CEO title is the E: Execution. Often boring, requiring attention to detail and the ability to digest large amounts of information, "execution" is a tedious but valuable learning experience just like case analysis.

Class TextbookBarney, Jay B. & William B. Hesterly. Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005.