What are cases? Examples of case solutions. Business cases

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

What are cases? This question is usually asked by students who have encountered this term for the first time. However, this concept is becoming popular in business communities. Before answering the question of what cases are and give examples of their solution, let's delve into the history of the origin of the term.

Appearance of cases

The concept first appeared at Harvard University in 1924. Professors at a prestigious university realized that the textbooks of previous years were not capable of preparing graduates for modern professions. The manuals and manuals that are relevant at this point in time have not yet been created, and the previous ones are already outdated. It was then that the professors came up with business cases – actual tasks of our time that graduates had to solve. For this purpose, business owners were invited to Harvard, who instructed graduate students in detail. Entrepreneurs at the seminars talked about the real problems that their companies faced. After that, graduate students had to find their own solution to these problems. The peculiarity of such training is that there are no correct answers. You just need to find the best way out of the current situation. In other words, everyone chooses the solution of cases individually.

The innovation of Harvard professors has proven to be effective. Graduates already at the exit actually had a semblance of experience. They knew the problems and tasks of successful companies, they could easily cope with the tasks. In fact, the solution of cases by the student gave him real practice within the walls of the university. Therefore, since the middle of the twentieth century, this method has spread throughout the world.

Appearance in Russia

In our country, even with the collapse of the socialist system in the nineties of the last century, the education system has long existed on the knurled. The country no longer exists, but there are USSR textbooks. Even textbooks on the history of the CPSU with Lenin on the covers finally disappeared only by the mid-nineties of the twentieth century, not to mention other disciplines.

And only since the 2000s. management cases began to appear in the leading universities of our country. Today this method is actively developed in Russia. In addition, thematic case-clubs are opened. Particularly popular with schoolchildren and students are the MSTU club. E. Bauman, NUST MISIS Career Center and others.

So what are cases? Let's move on to the concept itself in more detail.

Concept

Case (from Latin casus) is an extraordinary situation, a problem, the solution of which cannot be found in textbooks. A more accurate interpretation of the term "casus" is a problem that needs to be solved, however, this term came to Russian from English, in whichthe Latin word casus is pronounced "case".

Students simulate a problem situation that is as close as possible to the real one, and they must find a solution. The bottom line is that there is no right answer. There is only the opinion of teachers and a real way out of this situation, if the case, of course, was taken from life. Solution methods, reasoning, group discussion, etc. are evaluated.

So, what is a case, we explained, now let's move on to the goals.

Goals

Despite the fact that the topics of the cases may differ from each other, the modeling itself, as a rule, has common goals:

1. Checking student intelligence and analytics.
2. Developing an argument for your position.
3. Building resilience to stress.
4. Teaching time management skills.
5. Development of communication skills, ability to work in a team.

Interview cases

This method is used not only in educational institutions. Today, many firms use it during interviews. Every day, the employer looks less and less at the resume of the applicant, at the level of his education, work experience, etc. It is enough to offer a candidate for a position a few cases, and everything becomes clear about a person better than various pieces of paper and recommendations.

Of course, this does not mean that education and experience do not matter. Without them, you may not get to the stage of solving the case at all. However, it is the last stage that becomes the decisive factor inemployee selection. In this regard, Google stands out, which develops its own case modeling techniques. They are specific to each job. Work experience, level of education will not help the candidate if he cannot solve cases. And they sometimes amaze the imagination with their deceptive simplicity.

Case examples

Let's take an example. The company faced the problem of the efficiency of employees in the sales department. Three people work. The first works with 70% of clients, the second - with 20%, and the third - with 10%. With these indicators, the second one shows the highest sales, but it only works with regular customers. The third, on the contrary, works only with new clients, while the first works with both new and regular ones. The task for the manager is to increase the sales plan and redistribute the flow of customers in such a way that the company receives maximum profit.

To solve this problem, you need to answer the following questions:

• What are the opportunities for improvement in this situation?
• What standards can help improve the performance of each salesperson and the sales team as a whole in the long term?

Perhaps the first seller works best with new buyers, or with regular ones. It is also worth trying to swap the second and third seller. Those. the second one will only work with new ones, and the third one will only work with permanent ones. Perhaps they have a professional crisis and need a change of scenery.

Second example

An interview is being held for the position of Head of Human Resources. The candidate must have such a quality as the ability to be flexible and avoid unnecessary conflicts. It is proposed to solve the following case: the CEO insisted that the firm take the daughter of an influential person. The previous manager gave her the position of assistant secretary. The girl herself did not show herself in any way, she did not identify herself with the company, and she had no desire for career growth. Added to this is the lack of experience in other enterprises.

During her work, her main skills have become: receiving incoming documents, keeping records, packing documentation into folders. Six months later, the position of a leading document management specialist was vacated. The CEO insisted that this girl take the position. However, the company has many other employees who deserve a promotion. In this task, the applicant must make a choice: either go against the general management, or work with a disgruntled team.

Perhaps the candidate will find an acceptable option for both the CEO and the team. Case examples do not have correct solutions. Each case is different.

There are not only business cases, but also cases in other areas: pedagogy, medicine, jurisprudence. In every profession, you can simulate a problem situation.