Do you remember Aesop’s fables, Panchatantra stories and Jataka tales? A common characteristic among these stories was ‘the moral of the story.’ Today’s cases used extensively in management education are derived from this concept of “learning through stories” approach. Learning through case methodology has been used in many disciplines such as medicine, law, business and even science.

Harvard Business School (HBS) pioneered the use of case analysis as a pedagogical tool. HBS published its first case study, The General Shoe Company, in 1921. HBS cases are widely used across the world; approximately 60 lakh HBS cases are sold every year. In India, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad adopted case based teaching in 1964 and today case analysis is an integral part in the life of a B-school student in all the top schools of India.

Various teaching-learning techniques are used in B-schools such as the ubiquitous lecture method, role-plays, simulations, discussions, presentations, projects and business games. The case method is a radical shift from the lecture method and the essential difference lies in the role of the faculty. While in the lecture method a faculty is a sage on the stage (disseminating knowledge) in the case method, the faculty is a coordinator of ideas (stimulating critical thinking). Lecture method is teacher-centred whereas case method is student-centred.

What is a case?
A case is a story of a business situation; Cases recount objectively and meticulously, real events or problems so that students experience the complexities, ambiguities, and uncertainties confronted by managers in real business life. According to Dr M J Arul, Director, Presidency Business School, Bangalore, who has worked at IIM-Ahmedabad, IRMA-Anand and SP Jain-Mumbai, a case represents a ‘slice of real life’. Dr Arul opines that the case method is holistic because it generates an opportunity for you to utilise various learning modes. The learning cycle (David Kolb, 1984) involves concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation — resulting in a new situation/experience. Given a case, you immerse yourself in the given case situation (experience, though vicarious); reflectively observe and sift through the myriad details provided in the case; relate selected details to existing concepts/theories (or conceptualise them afresh) and identify/formulate the problem; generate alternatives to solve the problem; and explore/anticipate the consequences of implementing the alternatives – thus taking a peek into the resultant scenario. The case method brings the “field” to the classroom and stimulates the participant to learn by all the four modes of the learning cycle.

The case method is equally popular among academicians and corporate managers. Mr K S Ramanan, Senior Manager, of Learning and Development at Ersnt and Young, Bangalore, vouches for case based learning in corporate training programmes. He has extensively used case methodology for a decade in training workshops.

Tips to crack cases
Prepare yourself mentally to read a case, most cases span anything from 6-40 pages.

Read the case atleast three times, a first brief reading to get the overview and feel of the case, second thorough reading with the objective of understanding  the case and a third detailed reading to identify issues, crunch numbers (financial or other data), develop alternative solutions and justify the same.

Keep an open mind, do not presume or assume while reading the case.
Try to think as creatively as possible.

Remember, there are no right or wrong solutions! Every business situation is unique and different managers may address the same problem with different outcomes.

Dr R Nargundkar, Director PES Institute of Management is of the opinion that cases used in B-schools should be contextual. Faculty can either write their own cases or involve groups of students to generate context specific, Indian and current cases from both primary and secondary sources. Dr R  Nargundkar has successfully used this methodology at IIM K, IIM L and XIM Bhubaneshwar.