What is a Case Study ?
A case is a report about any incident/ individual/ group/ organisation or a series of events happened at a particular place and time. Case study involves carefully investigating, analyzing and studying the case to solve the problem hidden in the case thereof or to give solutions.
Benefits of Case Study Methodology:
- It simplifies the complex concepts
- It helps in relating the theory to real – life situations and incidents
- It improves analytical thinking
- One case solving may have more than one solution. Therefore, it helps in developing multi-facet solution plan.
Steps involved in solving a Case Study:
Solving a case study involves thoroughly understanding the concept underlying in the case study. To make the steps understandable, let’s take an example case:
You are a salesperson in an insurance company posted out of Mumbai. You are currently in Delhi for a sales meeting. You have been trying to crack a sales deal with a business tycoon of Mumbai and have been pursuing to get the dates for the initial meeting. Suddenly, you receive a confirmation for the meeting to be held tomorrow at 10 AM in Mumbai. It is 1 PM and you are in Delhi. What will you do ?
Here are few simple steps that may help in solving the case study:
Step 1 : Problem Identification:
After studying the case properly, one should be able to identify the problem underlying in the case. In the above case, clearly the problem is that you have a very little time to go back to Mumbai.
Step 2: Define Boundaries:
We need to define the boundaries or framework of a case. Some information is clearly mentioned in the case, while the other information has to be assumed to solve the case. In the above case, needless to say, you will have to travel by air to reach Mumbai for your most awaited meeting.
3. Workout the alternatives:
In a case study solution, one has to bear this very clearly in mind that every situational case has more than one possible solutions or alternatives. Therefore, one has to try and brainstorm all possibilities before finally deciding for the solution. In the above case, we might have the following possibilities:
a) you might not travel at all as you may request for a meeting change
b) you might request your Delhi Meetings to be cancelled to reach Mumbai as soon as possible.
c) you finish of all your Delhi Meetings till the evening and catch a flight late night to Mumbai and attend that meeting too.
Now, here the most important considerations to make are analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each possibility to reach to the final conclusion.
Step 4: Conclusion:
Select the best alternatives among the different possibilities after carefully analyzing the pros and cons of each possibility. Once you have done choosing the best solution, you may conclude your case by summarizing the case and its solution.