how to answer mba case study

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The HBS Case Method

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Take a Seat in the MBA Classroom

• Harvard Business School

How the HBS Case Method Works

How the Case Method Works

• Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page document written from the viewpoint of a real person leading a real organization. In addition to background information on the situation, each case ends in a key decision to be made. Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by design, and decide what you would do.
• Discuss the case. Each morning, you’ll bring your ideas to a small team of classmates from diverse professional backgrounds, your discussion group, to share your findings and listen to theirs. Together, you begin to see the case from different perspectives, better preparing you for class.
• Engage in class. Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with classmates the best path forward for this organization. The highly engaged conversation is facilitated by the faculty member, but it’s driven by your classmates’ comments and experiences. HBS brings together amazingly talented people from diverse backgrounds and puts that experience front and center. Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and your job is to better understand the decision at hand, what you would do in the case protagonist’s shoes, and why. You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way you thought about it coming in! In addition to learning more about many businesses, in the case method you will develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.
• Reflect. The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. Reflecting on each class discussion will prepare you to face these situations in your future roles.

Student Perspectives

“I’ve been so touched by how dedicated other people have been to my learning and my success.”

Faculty Perspectives

“The world desperately needs better leadership. It’s actually one of the great gifts of teaching here, you can do something about it.”

Alumni Perspectives

“You walk into work every morning and it's like a fire hose of decisions that need to be made, often without enough information. Just like an HBS case.”

Celebrating the Inaugural HBS Case

“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it? That skill – the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry, to choose a course of action – that skill is as relevant today as it was in 1921.”

How To Review MBA Case Studies Like An Executive

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Harvard Business School

The case method has been the dominant way of learning in business school since it was pioneered at Harvard Business School in the early 20th century. The case method, in Harvard’s description , is simply a discussion of real-life situations that business executives have faced.

If you’re headed to business school, you need to know all about it. Here are some tips on how to review MBA case studies like an executive.

First things first: If you don’t have time to read an entire case study, at least read the abstract — the first few paragraphs — so you have a general idea of what’s being discussed. The abstract is a summary of the study that has a logical flow, and lets you know what the main issues are.

You should probably know more about what a case study is talking about, though. If you want to make the most of your time, then you’ll want to know a method I learned from the past winner of a global case study competition. It’s not as speedy as just reading the abstract, but it’s a quick, structured, and thorough way to understand the main ideas.

1. Create an outline based on the abstract

• For each point in the abstract, create a header and sub-header. My headers typically include the Problem, the Story, the Theory (why this happened), the Response, the Result.
• Number each header and sub-header so that later on, it’ll be easier to reference. You’ll thank me.

2. Read the case study, take notes. Make a key problems and issues document.

Each time you read the case study, have a different goal in mind, a different way of looking at what’s been written. This is more efficient than reading the case study many times and trying to remember everything in it.

• On your first read, quickly scan it to get a general impression.
• Do a second, more thorough read. Highlight important facts, write notes in the margins. Assign these to each header in your outline.
• Read the case study a third time. In a separate document, write out the key problems and issues that stood out to you.

3. Review all 3 documents — your revised outline, key problems and issues, the case study

• It’s time to put it all together. Reference key problems and issues from your 3rd read, and notes from your 2nd read, against each header in the outline.
• Identify some considerations and questions that come up when you map these against one another. I recommend noting that in your outline. Ask yourself what concepts, rules, or principles are being questioned?This creates context. Context, not content, is king (or queen).

4. Analysis

• Try and answer these questions with a simple qualitative or quantitative analysis. Base your analysis on assumptions that were in the case study. For example, numerical data presented in tables. Chances are it will look something like this.

• Look for similarities and differences that prove or disprove what is being claimed as true or “feels true.”

This is important. Rely on the case study’s evidence, avoid personal judgment, and other influences like politics or ideology. Speculation isn’t evidence, unless it’s in the case study.

5. What would you do about it?

• Develop a set of recommendations around a logical flow, using your analysis. If the situation plays out in the way that’s described, your recommended course of action should make sense to people who don’t know the case study as well as you do.

• Come up with an effective way to present your findings. Think about how to quickly convince people your thinking makes sense. For example, quickly drawing a diagram or chart on paper or chalkboard.
• Use a framework you’ve previously discussed in class, if you really want everyone to know you’ve been paying attention.

Philip Chang is a researcher and past Student Council president at National Taiwan University.

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.

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MBA Case Studies: How to Solve Effectively 

• July 28, 2023

Case studies play a crucial role for all MBA aspirants, during their MBA all students go through a lot of case study reading. In this blog post, we will discuss the 5 interesting MBA case studies every MBA aspirant should read. 

First, let’s get a brief about MBA case studies.

What are MBA Case Studies?

MBA case studies are like real-life stories that are used to teach business students how to learn and apply what they have learned. They show specific problems or challenges that businesses have had to deal with in the past. Students look at these cases, think about different options, and come up with ways to solve the problems. MBA students learn how to solve problems and gain valuable insights into how business decisions are made by working on case studies. It’s kind of like “learning by doing” because they can see how theory works in the real business world.

How to Solve MBA Case Studies?

Follow these easy steps to solve an MBA case study :

• Carefully read the case: Learn about the problem and the situation of the company.
• Analyze the facts: Find the important issues and information.
• Apply theories and ideas: Analyze the case by using what you’ve learned in class.
• Consider alternatives: Think of different ways to solve the problem or what to do.
• Make a decision: Pick the best answer and tell why.
• Provide supporting evidence: Use facts or logical reasoning to back up your choice.
• Be practical: Think about the challenges of implementation and the possible results.
• Conclude effectively: Summarize your answer and any suggestions you have.

Remember that you can get better at solving problems if you practice and talk about them with other people.

How can I get free MBA case studies?

You can get free MBA case studies from various sources:

Business School Websites: Many business schools provide free access to their case study collections online.

Opencourseware Platforms : Websites like MIT OpenCourseWare and Harvard Business School Online offer free case studies as part of their educational materials.

Online Case Study Databases: Some websites curate and offer free case studies for business students and professionals.

Public Libraries: Check with your local library for access to business-related databases and resources that may include case studies.

Business Journals and Magazines: Some publications offer free case studies on their websites or through their archives.

Case Competitions: Look for case competitions or events where organizations release cases for participants to solve.

Well, don’t worry! We have also compiled a few examples of MBA case studies for you. Let’s check them out.

Also Read: Top MBA Colleges In India: The Ultimate List

 A Few Examples of MBA Case Studies

Ipl – the right pitch at the right time .

Since it started in 2008, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has changed what cricket and cricket leagues are all about. It has turned cricket from a slow, gentleman’s game into an exciting three-hour sports story.

A great example of marketing. The Indian Premier League (IPL), which is run by BCCI, created the kind of energy that usually comes from basketball, soccer, and baseball teams. What else did the Indian Premier League do to become a global company besides bring in cricket-crazy Indians?

• The Indian Premier League (IPL) is famous all over the world, and the fact that it has international star players makes it even more popular. Shane Warne’s role in the success of the Rajasthan Royals is well known in Australia, for example.
• The media coverage of the IPL is a big reason why it is so famous.Even when the season is over, it is still talked about by local, national, and foreign news outlets.
• The fact that famous people like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Shilpa Shetty owned franchises and promoted the show gave it a lot of glitz and style.
• The IPL uses cheerleaders, the opening ceremony, and live music as part of its marketing plan. Players and franchises are also sold at auction.

The IPL has grown by leaps and bounds, but it has also been involved in a number of scandals involving cheating, fixing matches, and bad management. The BCCI can keep the IPL’s success going by making it easier to run, keeping a close eye on it, and making players more aware of what’s going on.

Byju’s- the Edtech Giant

The case is about the fast growth of the Indian e-learning platform Byju’s (Think and Learn Private Ltd), which is based in Bengaluru. Byju Raveendran is the founder and CEO of the EdTech start-up. He used to work for Pan Ocean Shipping, a shipping company based in the UK. Raveendran helped his friends pass the Common Admission Test for Management Courses in India for 12 long years. After that, he made Byju’s learning app. BYJU: The Learning App was the company’s main product. It could be downloaded on Android devices from Google Play and on iOS devices from the Apple App Store. The app has full learning programs and special programs for kids in India who are getting ready for competitive exams or are in grades 6 to 12.

Since its start in 2015, the company has gotten money from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Chinese internet giant Tencent. After three years of 100% growth each year (2016–2018), Byju’s started making money in 2019. Its value rose to US$5.5 billion in July 2019, making it the most expensive EdTech company in the world. As Byju expands into other countries, it will be interesting to see if the tactics that worked in India will also work in other countries.

The case is set up to help teachers reach the following goals:

• Understand how important technology is to India’s school system.
• Look at how educational technology start-ups run their businesses.
• Find out if teaching technology in India is well-liked or not.

Starbucks MBA Case Studies

In 2008, Starbucks said it would close 600 of its stores in the United States. Starbucks shops were getting new things like wi-fi and music, but they were losing their cozy “neighborhood store” feel and becoming more like chain stores. Harvard Business Review says that Starbucks is a mass brand that is trying to charge a high price for something that isn’t any more special. So, to keep up with its price-conscious customers and keep its brand selective, Starbucks would have to either cut costs or cut the number of stores.

The HBR study says that Starbucks’ growth has been slowed by three things: turning off early adopters, getting too much attention, and moving too slowly with new locations and goods. Harvard Business Review says that Starbucks should have stayed a private company and grown slowly if it wanted to keep being a top brand.

Hindustan Unilever Limited

HUL is India’s largest Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company. It has set up a number of programs to help its workers find a good balance between work and life. This case study looks closely at HUL’s HR policies and shows how they helped workers do their jobs and take care of their personal lives better. HUL goes into great detail about what it does to meet the different needs of its female workers. There are references to how the company tries to keep up with the changing needs of new-age workers. Will HUL continue to be one of India’s “Employers of Choice”?

• Learn what “quality of work-life” (QWL) means.
• Keep an eye out for changes in the QWL field.
• Find out how letting workers work from home affects how happy they are with their work schedules as a whole.
• Create plans for keeping and handling talented people.
• Make a plan to hire more people from different backgrounds.
• Look at the HR rules to stop gender-based discrimination.

Tesla’s convertible bonds MBA Case Study

This business case study looks at how Tesla, Inc., a company with a credit rating below investment grade, has been able to issue convertible bonds and support its electric car business at a low interest rate since 2013. But over time, things changed. Some people thought that this meant that the company would no longer be able to use convertible notes. The CEO is now looking for a new source of long-term, low-cost financing for Tesla’s business.

• Learn about convertible bonds and other types of financial tools.
• Bonds and debentures are both types of investments, but they are not the same.
• Think about the pros and cons of long-term borrowing through convertible bonds.
• Check out the different ways that new businesses can get money.

Through these real-life business examples, you can learn skills like asset management, acquisition strategy, business administration, and so on, without having to take any real risks or lose money. This helps students think quickly and gives them a good idea of what it’s like to face a challenge.

When looking at the same business situation from different angles, the same facts can lead to very different conclusions. By talking about cases with your peers, you can learn new ways to look at the problems your company is facing, which you can then use at work. So, using case studies is very helpful for business school students.

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• How to Approach Case Study Questions in an MBA Interview
• Admissions Consulting
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• MBA Interview Prep Videos

This detailed MBA Interview Preparation video will help you answer Case study questions that are rare in MBA Interviews but when asked, they become crucial. The pointers offered in this short MBA Interview Preparation video will prevent you from being overwhelmed and equip you with an efficient approach to answer this question and leave a positive impression on your interviewer.

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How to Approach the Case Study Question in an MBA Interview

Break the Problem

Assume Reasonable Numbers

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How to Answer Case Study Questions In MBA?

MBA or the Master of Business Administration is one of the most popular 2 years full-time post-graduation professional degree courses. There are some specializations in MBA like marketing, finance, Human Resource Management (HRM), systems management, operations management and many more.

Writing case study assignment on various MBA subjects and specialization forms a major part of the course. It is very much crucial for the students having marketing management as the man subject to specialty.

In any managerial course, there is a lot of pressure on the students for their semester exams. Thus, they get a very little time and energy to concentrate on their Case Study Assignment Papers . But they need to write those papers with a lot of research and studies. Under this challenging situation, they need to avail the best online case study report help service from any reliable and trustworthy provider.

A case study is a give business situation or problem-related to management given to the MBA student for solving. You need to solve this business issue by applying your managerial skills, knowledge and analytical skills. There is a definite rule to give the best answers to the case study questions in MBA. Some of these tips will be discussed in this blog.

How to Answer the Managerial Case Study Questions?

• Read the case study topic thoroughly: The case study topic will be given to you as per your subject of specialization. You need to go through the presented case study issue along with the questions submitted to you. The students need to undergo an in-depth study and research to answer the case study questions thoroughly. Thus, you need to read and understand it very well.
• Apply your subject knowledge and analytical skill: After reading the topic carefully, you need to analyze the problem with your managerial expertise and analytical skills. Here you can also give some practical examples from the present industry to justify your statements.
• Find out the central issue and define it: You need to read the assigned case study issues very well and determine the fundamental question from it. After pointing out the main problem, you need to study it in depth. This will help you to analyze the business issue accurately and find out the best solution.
• Define the goals: You always need to define the firm’s goals while answering the case study questions. The ultimate goal of the firm is the most important thing to you while writing the case study paper. While solving the given problem, you always need to keep in mind that your ultimate aim is to maximize future profits of the organization.
• Identify the firm’s constraint: A company might have some obstacles like a financial shortage, intense competitor, sagging economy and many more. You cannot solve the given issue if you do not have an idea on the firms’ constraints.
• Find all the possible alternatives: In any particular case study identify all the possible options for the solution. Then, choose the best one from them. You can pick which one is the best by analyzing and scrutinizing every alternative in many details. This will give you more options in finding the best solution of the given problem.
• Choose the best choice: From all the other options you have identified, choose the best one as per your knowledge. You always need to find the most effective as well permanent solution of the corporate issue given to you.
• Develop an ideal implementation plan: It is the very final stage of answering MBA case study question. Finding the best solution is not the last thing. You also need to write the best way to implement the given solution stated by you. The solution needs to be performed in such a way that the firm can get maximum profits from the process. This implementation process also requires serving for future long-run earnings for the company. Thus, you also need to keep in mind all these factors while suggesting the best implementation of the solution proposed by you.
• Always write 100% original content: Write the entire report with a hundred percent original content. Never copy from any sources. You can get an idea from various sources but never directly copy from anywhere. Your assessor will instantly reject your case study report if they ever find traces of any plagiarism or copy-pasted content anywhere in your case study assignment report. Also make your report free of any errors.

A few examples of common marketing Case Study Assignment Topics are based on individual analysis like SWOT, PESTEL, BCG, market segmentation, market survey, market positioning, creating brand loyalty, market pricing, international marketing, market targets, market strategies, etc. On availing the best online case study assignment Help service, you can get detailed guidance on all the points mentioned above.

An Ideal Case Study Answer Paper Needs To Contain the Following Elements:

• An executive summary: It is a briefly written statement less than 1 page in length and is placed in front page of your case study report. This part summarizes the main aims of your case study solution paper. Here you need to describe the significant issues, logic and proposed ways to solve the given case study issue.
• The Problem statement: Here you need to present the primary problem or central issue of the case. Take care not to repeat anything in this part.
• Alternatives: Here you need to discuss about all the relevant alternatives and state your arguments for or against each of these alternatives. You always need to ensure your assumption and effects of these proposed solutions.
• The Conclusion: Here you need to present the logic and analysis that lead you select this particular final solution. In this part, you also need to state the reading why you rejected the previous solutions.
• The Implementation: Here you need to outline the best action plan and implement it in the most effective way for ensuring company profits and advantages for the future.

If you follow the tips suggested above in the case study analysis assignment writing task, you can get the highest grades. An excellent case study assignment essays writing service inline ca also assist you in this regard.

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How to Prepare for MBA Case Interviews

Jatin bhandari.

• September 19, 2023
• MBA Consulting

Introduction to MBA Case Interviews

Case interviews have become an integral part of the MBA admissions process, testing a candidate’s analytical abilities, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal aptitude. The essence of a case interview lies in the presentation of a business problem or scenario, and the task for the candidate is to analyze it, offer solutions, and justify their recommendations. Whether you’re looking at some challenging mba case study examples or diving headfirst into the process , thorough preparation is key.

Key Tips for Effective MBA Case Interview Preparation

Improving analytical skills for case interviews.

Analytical prowess is indispensable when navigating the intricacies of case interviews. Here’s how you can sharpen your analytical skills:

• Practice Regularly: The age-old saying, “Practice makes perfect,” holds in this context. Delve into as many MBA case interview preparation tips and examples as you can find. The more cases you solve, the better you’ll get at swiftly identifying the crux of a problem.
• Diversify Your Case Pool: Don’t just stick to one kind of case. From market sizing to operational problems, ensure you cover a spectrum.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Every candidate is prone to certain errors during their interview preparations. Here are some to watch out for:

• Overcomplicating Analysis: Avoid getting bogged down in unnecessary details. While deep dives are great, they shouldn’t sidetrack you from the main issue.
• Losing Structure: A structured approach is paramount. Outline your thought process before diving into problem-solving to ensure you address all key areas.

The Role of Industry Knowledge

While the primary aim of the case interview isn’t to test industry knowledge, being acquainted with sector-specific nuances can give you an edge. Prioritize high-impact industries like tech, finance, and healthcare. Dive into MBA applications to understand the most sought-after industries.

Diverse Case Types and What to Expect

Each case interview can be a unique experience based on the type:

• Market Sizing Cases: These require you to estimate the size of a particular market or segment. For instance, estimating the market for electric cars in Europe.
• Business Strategy Cases: Here, you might be tasked with devising a growth strategy for a stagnant company.
• Operational Cases: These cases can revolve around improving the efficiency of certain business processes.
• Merger & Acquisition Cases: Involve analyzing whether a company should acquire another, merge, or perhaps even divest a part of its operations.

Breaking Down the Case Analysis for MBA Interviews

The essence of a successful case interview lies in a structured analysis. This means dissecting the problem, identifying key issues, and arranging them in a logical manner. Lean into analytical skill development for MBA interviews to refine this approach. Remember, every case has hidden traps. Your job is to unearth them, address them, and build a compelling solution.

Crafting Comprehensive Answers to MBA Case Study Questions

Once you’ve analyzed the case, presenting your findings is crucial. Here’s a guideline:

• Structuring Your Response: Begin with a brief summary, delve into the core of the problem, present your recommendations, and then offer a conclusion.
• Incorporate Data: Use qualitative and quantitative data to substantiate your arguments. If a company’s sales are falling, use percentage drops, and figures to highlight it.
• Provide Actionable Recommendations: Merely identifying problems won’t suffice. Offer solutions that are actionable and feasible.

Case Interview Example:

A leading manufacturer of sports shoes is facing declining sales in Europe. The CEO wants to understand the reasons behind this drop and strategies to turn the situation around.

Approaching the Case:

• Understand the Problem:
• Clarify any doubts regarding the case.
• Ask questions like: How significant is the sales decline? Over what period did this decline happen? Are specific segments of the market affected more than others?
• Structure the Problem: Break down the larger problem into smaller segments you can analyze.
• Market-related issues: Is the whole sports shoe market in decline or just our brand?
• Company-specific issues: Product quality, marketing effectiveness, distribution channel issues, etc.
• External factors: Regulatory issues, economic downturn, etc.
• Hypothesize:
• Based on the data provided and common business sense, hypothesize potential reasons for the decline. For example, “There might be new entrants in the market offering products at a cheaper rate” or “There might be a shift in consumer preferences.”
• Analyze the Problem:
• Market Research: Look into market trends. Are consumers buying more of a particular type of shoe (like sustainable shoes)?
• Company Data: Analyze the company’s sales data, customer feedback, and product lineup.
• Competitive Analysis: How are competitors faring in the same period? Are they facing declines as well?
• Conclude & Recommend:
• Summarize findings: “The sales decline is due to a combination of increasing competition from sustainable shoe brands and ineffective marketing campaigns.”
• Offer actionable recommendations: “Introduce a new line of eco-friendly shoes and revamp the marketing strategy to target the environmentally conscious audience.”
• Feedback Loop:
• Be prepared to answer follow-up questions or delve deeper into specific areas. If the interviewer provides new information, incorporate it into your analysis.

Remember, in a case interview, the journey and approach to the solution can be as important, if not more so, than the solution itself. Interviewers are keen to understand your thought process, analytical skills, and problem-solving approach.

In summary, MBA case interviews can seem daunting, but with meticulous preparation and a structured approach, they are very navigable. Dive deep into MBA case study examples, capitalize on all the MBA case interview preparation tips, and refine your analytical skills. Remember, every interview is a learning opportunity. Whether you ace it or not, the experience will be invaluable in your journey towards an MBA and beyond.

For over 15+ years as an Entrepreneur, and India’s Top Educationist, Jatin has led a range of initiatives in the Education Industry. In this role, he has created many successful educational services and products geared towards generating success for professionals aspiring to join IVY League and global Top Tier Universities for MBA Programs, Masters Programs, and undergraduate courses. He is the Founder and CEO of PythaGURUS Education, and has been recognized as a thought leader in the Higher education sector. Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Times of India, India Today, Business Today, Tribune, and many other national newspapers have recognized his work, and have given him numerous opportunities to be a regular columnist. He has also served as a panelist for NDTV, and other national news channels.

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• Acing the MBA Essay Questions – Tips & Reviews

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Focusing on Harvard Business School application essays written by candidates who won admission, our previous guide in this series presented general principles for writing compelling long-form MBA essays. However, this guide takes a different approach. In this article, we present specific tips for writing short-answer essays constrained by tight word limits.

The current trend in favor of the short-answer essay continues to gain momentum. Schools that currently require short-answer essays include the Harvard Business School, the Columbia Business School, and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Harvard only requires a 400-word short-answer essay from joint program applicants. At Columbia and Darden, all applicants must submit short-answer essays, and the word limits are brutally tight. For example, one Darden prompt imposes a 50-word limit, and one of Columbia’s questions only permits a 50 character response.

Below we present some effective strategies for writing short answer essays required by a popular MBA program: the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We selected Kenan-Flagler for several reasons, not the least of which is that UNC provides a good example of a school with a tradition of exclusively requiring the short-answer essay format for the past several years.

Moreover, Kenan-Flagler offers MBA@UNC, one of the finest online MBA programs in the world which currently holds the #1 ranking from U.S. News and World Report . But another benefit that makes UNC especially attractive to online MBA students involves the school’s liberal GMAT waiver policy. As we discussed in this guide , all applicants to UNC with five or more years of work experience automatically qualify for waivers, and 86 percent of a recent UNC incoming class of online MBA students won admission without either a GMAT or a GRE score.

For these reasons, the best-qualified candidates who are committed to the benefits of online graduate management education apply to UNC. In fact, data from U.S. News shows that UNC’s MBA applications during 2022 exceeded the school’s two closest competitors in the publication’s online rankings. About 45 percent more candidates applied to MBA@UNC than applied to the University of Southern California online MBA program, and more than four times as many applied to UNC than to Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School Online Hybrid MBA.

Clearly, a lot of applicants to both UNC’s on-campus and online MBA programs care about how they might win admission. Writing effective short-answer essays comprises a critical component of these candidates’ strategies.

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General tips for short-answer essay writing.

“Short” hardly means “easy.” The word limits often make writing compelling responses far more challenging. Here are a few general tips:

Case Study: UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School 2018-2019 Short-Answer MBA Essays

Question 1: Required (500 words)

Please respond to the questions below that will assist us in learning more about you:

• Part 1: Tell us what your immediate career goals are and how you will benefit personally and professionally from earning an MBA at Kenan-Flagler Business School.
• Part 2: As the business world continues to evolve, circumstances can change and guide you in a different direction. Should the goals that you provided above not transpire, what other opportunities would you explore?

Part 1 Analysis

More than 40 percent of MBAs switch to unanticipated industries after graduating, according to a 2022 report from the Graduate Management Admissions Council .

Given this new research we first reported on in our Guide to MBA Careers , it makes sense that admission committees would cut questions about long-term career objectives and ask about short-term objectives instead. The prompts about short-term goals like this one from UNC and other schools like Columbia reflect admission officers’ up-to-date awareness of this trend.

Nevertheless, this prompt contains a couple of hidden questions. Ostensibly the prompt only asks about short-term goals. However, it’s not effective to talk about short-term objectives without at least briefly suggesting how they fit within a larger, long-term context.

In the first sentence or two, candidates need to present a big-picture vision into which their short term objectives will fit. Then they need to declare their short term goal and establish a rationale for why that goal is necessary for them to achieve their long-term objective.

We agree with MBA Mission’s analysis that UNC next wants evidence from the candidate that they have thoroughly considered business school as their next career step, and the school expects the candidate to explain some very clear, specific reasons why this is a necessary step for them at this time.

The candidate needs to be careful not to discuss their background and explain how they reached such a choice; the question doesn’t ask about those aspects, and any more than briefly establishing a long-term context up-front will waste badly-needed space. However, an effective transition to the next section might talk about how the candidate’s career progress will continue to be hindered by personal and professional deficiencies that only the UNC MBA program can remedy.

The second hidden question amounts to asking, “Why UNC?” We would even suggest that most candidates will not be able to effectively write a compelling narrative that satisfies this admission committee without visiting the business school, attending several classes, and talking with professors and student ambassadors at some length. Indeed, this kind of trip seems even more essential for candidates applying to online MBA programs like MBA@UNC.

Furthermore, the narrative ideally needs to cite competitive advantages unique to UNC and emphasize that other business schools offer no viable substitutes that will benefit this particular applicant in comparable or better ways. The applicant should also portray how they aspire to interact with these features of the program and the benefits these features provide the candidate that will help them achieve their objectives.

Part Two Analysis

This question asks about a candidate’s “Plan B” career choice in the likely event that the “Plan A” short-term objective no longer seems attractive or satisfying.

The committee wants assurance, in the words of MBA Mission’s analyst, not only that “you are prepared to switch gears and recommit to a different path, if necessary, but also that you are fully capable of doing so.” That means the fallback career needs to appear “just as connected to your skills, interests, and ambitions as your original plan.”

In other words, the committee probably does not want to read that if a planned career as a management consultant with McKinsey fizzles, the candidate always wanted to write mystery novels, anyway. No, instead they want reassurance that the Plan B career plan is closely related to the original plan to seem practical and realistic.

For example, one possible option might involve a move to an internal consulting role working for a McKinsey client in the same industry sector in which the applicant practiced.

Question 2: Required (250 words)

The UNC Kenan-Flagler community lives by its core values: excellence, leadership, integrity, community, and teamwork.

• Pick a core value that resonates most deeply with you.
• Identify the most challenging situation that you have encountered and how you responded while upholding that core value.

This is a difficult topic made even more challenging by the severe 250-word constraint.

Like the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Kenan-Flagler is a values-driven school. The committee wants assurance that a candidate will fit with these values as Kenan-Flagler defines them, definitions which potentially differ somewhat from those that candidates might assume. For that reason, applicants first should study the school’s statement, Core Values in Action , and reflect on situations that had involved values defined in these ways. The prompt does not rule out interactions from one’s personal life as well as career.

Candidates need to select one of these five values with which they most deeply resonate—and that a particular challenge has threatened. Then, they need to explain how one or more potential ways of overcoming this challenge would have compromised their value. However, the candidate needs to illustrate how they didn’t back down, didn’t take the easy way out, and instead took steps that—despite added costs or consequences—upheld that value while nevertheless overcoming the threat.

The best situations show the candidate to be adept at managing tradeoffs by balancing business considerations with their values. Extremely imbalanced situations where the candidate displayed value leadership along with severely compromised business judgment probably will not offer the best choices for this narrative.

This is the kind of essay that lends itself to shocking introductions that grab the reader’s attention, as described in our previous essay guide . In other words, a dramatic moment of recognition might offer an effective plot device. Detailed narratives that explain one’s thought process, analysis, or considerations before key decisions or actions would also work well.

Douglas Mark

While a partner in a San Francisco marketing and design firm, for over 20 years Douglas Mark wrote online and print content for the world’s biggest brands , including United Airlines, Union Bank, Ziff Davis, Sebastiani, and AT&T. Since his first magazine article appeared in MacUser in 1995, he’s also written on finance and graduate business education in addition to mobile online devices, apps, and technology. Doug graduated in the top 1 percent of his class with a business administration degree from the University of Illinois and studied computer science at Stanford University.

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A century of MBA case studies: exacting examples from business life

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In 1921, Harvard Business School produced its first, single-page mimeographed case study for students (view here and bottom) , about the practical dilemmas faced by managers at the General Shoe Company. Intended to prompt class discussions, the case method has since been adopted by schools around the world as a core part of teaching.

Today, Harvard , Ivey Business School in Canada and The Case Centre are leaders among 50 producers and distributors of thousands of cases, of which millions of copies are sold annually. They are written by a growing number of institutions, in formats including video, describing challenges on an ever broader range of issues, geographies and protagonists.

Below is an abstract of one of Harvard’s most recent cases, on the African media company EbonyLife.

One unusually quiet morning in Lagos, Nigeria in December 2020, Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu, founder and chief executive of EbonyLife Media and one of Africa’s biggest names in the business, brought her laptop to work on the rooftop patio of EbonyLife Place, the company’s flagship lifestyle and entertainment resort.

Founded by Abudu in 2012 with a mission to bring high-quality African stories to the world, EbonyLife was the company behind many of Nigeria’s biggest movies and television shows. It began with a linear TV channel on the Africa-wide direct broadcast satellite service DStv. By 2020, it had produced more than 5,000 hours of TV content and Nigeria’s top-three highest grossing movies.

With a desire for greater control over production and following the end of its relationship with DStv, EbonyLife launched EbonyLife ON (EL ON), an on-demand streaming service. However, it struggled to grow the number of EL ON subscribers.

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Abudu started to think about whether she should continue fighting to grow EL ON. Should EbonyLife focus instead on co-production deals with international media distributors such as Netflix, Sony and AMC? Abudu, who had been in the media business for nearly 20 years, needed to make this significant decision for EbonyLife.

Her interest in the media and entertainment industry emerged from a desire to correct harmful stereotypes about Africa. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she grew up in the UK and Nigeria. Drawn to African stories, she wanted to address the fact that there was so much the world did not know about Africa. “I think somewhere deeply buried in my subconscious was a need to tell Africa’s story,” she says.

Growing up in the UK, she routinely encountered misconceptions about Africa and was surprised by how they persisted when she was an adult. “The same questions I was being asked in England [40 years ago],” she says, “are the same questions my children were being asked when they went to school in England.” Questions like, “Do you guys live in trees?”

In July 2020, following its exit from DStv, EbonyLife publicly announced EL ON, with plans to make the platform its main distribution channel. While EbonyLife had already created extensive programming, “a lot of that content was consumed on a daily basis and had a very minimal shelf life”, Abudu explains.

She began to explore the new opportunity of co-productions with global partners that would eventually be distributed through Nigerian TV channels. She signed a multi-title co-production deal with Netflix to make several movies and TV series. Partnering with such companies reduced the upfront financial risks of production. But it was difficult to assess the size of the global audience “ Nollywood ” (Nigeria’s Hollywood) films gained because of the reluctance of the international platforms to share viewership data. Also, Nollywood producers could not interact directly with these viewers. As a result, it was difficult for them to learn who had viewed the content and what aspects of the stories the audience had enjoyed, and then use this insight to plan their future productions.

Beyond producing content, EbonyLife sought to build its own media and entertainment ecosystem. It helped grow the pipeline of local talent through a creative academy that enabled students to attend classes free of charge, funded by the Lagos state government. Abudu also believed EbonyLife could grow further by investing more in its audience’s experiences. In December 2019 in Lagos, she opened the multi-purpose resort EbonyLife Place, which included two restaurants, a boutique hotel, five movie theatres, meeting rooms and a larger multipurpose function hall.

A year later, Abudu was at EbonyLife Place to plan for its relaunch after the lifting of pandemic restrictions. However, she faced other pressing concerns. She reflected on her options around how EbonyLife would distribute its content. Was it too early to make judgments about EL ON? What changes should EbonyLife make to EL ON? Equally, she considered the alternative: could she realistically build a sustainable media business just on international partnerships with streaming services? Was there a scenario in which she could keep EL ON operational while pursuing these international partnerships? After two decades in the industry, pivots were no longer quick or painless. Abudu wondered which option she should pursue. 

The above is an adapted abstract of Harvard Business School’s teaching case study EbonyLife Media, written by Andy Wu, Feng Zhu, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding

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Case Study: Tips and Strategy

• Analytical Skills: The core competence of an MBA is analysis of the situation: breaking down data, formulating it into a pattern that makes sense and deriving an efficient conclusion or recommendation. You should display this skill through targeted and accurate piecing together of the data while simultaneously wrestling the group towards a solution for the case. After self-analysis, you should cogently present the findings and recommendations for the group to discuss further.

Quantitative Skills: Some case studies involve working with numbers to reach an effective solution. In such a situation, a quick calculation on rough sheet to present the relevant figures for the group will make you stand in very good light with the evaluator.

Flexibility:  This refers to the ability of the candidate to consider the opposing point of view in light of the facts/figures presented in the case. There is no single solution to the case and thus a flexible candidate should not leave out good options in his analysis even if they were presented with an opposing point of view.

• Leadership Skills: Leadership is demonstrated by taking charge of the discussion and trying to achieve a consensus. The consensus does not have to be the best; instead, it should aim to incorporate all viewpoints.

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• Presentation/Communication Skills: Just like group discussion, effective communication forms an integral part of case study too. The skills tested are: articulation in presentation, fluency, body language, eye contact and coherence. Remember, when speaking, it is always better to take a small pause rather than babble!
• Behavioral/Personality traits: The personality traits being evaluated during case studies are: attitude, well balanced conduct, patience, team work, cogency and assertiveness.
• Goal Orientation: This parameter is evaluated through the candidate's willingness to arrive at a solution and intelligent use of other's content.
• Confidence: Last but not the least, the level of confidence, pro-activeness and action orientation form an important part of a candidate's performance in a case.
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Action plan to handle challenges in case studies

The following action plan should enable you to sail your way past the case study with ease:

• Situation/Context Analysis: The first step in a case analysis is to go over the case line-by-line and jot down the relevant points, facts and data. The aim of this exercise is to capture the crux of the case in brief. Both the internal as well as the external factors relevant to the case should be elucidated. This analysis provides a shape for things to come in further analysis. The factors external to a case , say, related to an organization would comprise things like level of competition, market share, raw material prices, tight labour market conditions, price-cutting, customer preferences, etc. The factors internal to the organization comprise mainly of its labour policies, dispute-redressal systems, project approval schemes, marketing strategy, capacity expansions, etc.
• P- Problem Definition: The problem should ideally be defined in a crisp, single line, incorporating the most important decision issue to be solved in the case. To have a better grasp of the problem, being quantitative at this stage helps. An important thing to remember is not to mistake the symptoms for the root problem. For example, a falling market share or a decline in sales is, invariably, a symptom while the real problem may lie with the nature of the industry or the quality of the product.
• A- Alternatives Generation: The next step is to list down the various alternatives to resolve the problem and achieve the objectives set out in the case study. At this stage, all the alternatives that come to mind should be listed even if an alternative provides only a part solution to the problem at hand. Sometimes, this part solution can be later combined with some other alternative to provide a complete solution.
• C- Criteria for evaluation of alternatives: List down the parameters that are important to the solution of the problem at hand. These parameters can be profitability, growth in market share, image, sales, etc.
• E- Evaluate the alternatives:  This stage uses the criteria to evaluate the various alternatives generated earlier. The positive and negative aspects of each alternative are to be kept in mind while evaluating the alternatives.
• R- Recommendations:  At the end of the analysis, provide recommendations to resolve the situation. Also look at short-term as well as long-term implications of the recommendations in solving the problem.

Popular “Do's” and “Don'ts” in a case study

• Take time to analyze and think through the case
• Weigh the pros and cons and various trade-offs between two or more choices
• Break down the complex problem into small, distinct pieces to enable better articulation
• Listen attentively, even to conflicting ideas, as they might provide part solution to the problem
• Summarize the analysis periodically
• Be consistent, and not monotonous
• Jump to a conclusion at the start
• Worry about speaking all the time
• Worry about not having specific industry knowledge
• Worry if you are not able to completely solve the case. Remember, the structure of thoughts is as important as the final result

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How to Read MBA Case Studies Quickly The Case Study method, popularized by the Harvard Business School, is a common feature across all B-schools. For you as a marketer and a B-school student, it becomes important to befriend case studies right away. In this discussion, I will reveal important aspects of case studies and how to read MBA case studies quickly and efficiently.

The Case Study Method initially popularized by Harvard Business School is now a dominant feature in the curriculum of all business schools, worldwide. And the fact is they are all over your curriculum too. Probably that's why you want to know how to read MBA case studies quickly.

If you are looking to get into a management course or are currently in a management program, my advice to you is - fall in love with Case Studies already! 

They are going to be around you day and night. And the best way to fall in love or to make that love last is to first befriend it.

In this discussion, I will reveal important aspects of case studies and how to read MBA case studies quickly and efficiently. Let’s begin.

What is a Case Study?

Before answering how to read MBA case studies we need to first understand what is a case study .

A Case Study is a document of real-life business scenario or an imagined business scenario. The case study will present to you a problem, issue, conflict, report or impending decision-making that needs to be addressed, solved or analyzed for a business.

As you would know, the Harvard Case Study method is the most widely accepted pedagogy for MBA teaching and training. In fact, a good number of cases in your B-school would be Harvard published cases.

Won't you be interested to learn first-hand from the Harvard Business School about what their case study method is? During my MBA, I was lucky enough to come across this video which shares an insight on what this pedagogy entails for the students.

I urge you to go through this video. This isn't just a description of what the case study method is, but more importantly this is a sneak peak into what is the classroom experience for an MBA student. There would definitely be massive takeaways.

MBA Case Studies - Not Completely Unknown

While it might look to be a big deal, but most of you who have cracked a competitive exam like the CAT, GMAT, XAT or the others of the like have already dealt with a case study like creature before. 

An MBA case study may also be looked at as an amalgamation of Reading Comprehension (RC) and Data Interpretation (DI) type of questions.

Yes, the RC and DI sections that you practiced for CAT. A case study may at times resemble an RC set alone and at time may seem like a cross-over between RC and DI set when charts and graphs are given.

I guess now you know why you are tested on Reading Comprehension and Data Interpretation in CAT? These sections check your reading skills, ability to interpret data given to you, evaluate alternatives and make a right decision; which, are all important and required in your management studies and your management career.  

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Why are MBA Case Studies Important?

A case study is designed to make you step into a manager’s shoes and think like one. What if you are the manager, how would you solve this problem.

Solving a case study would make you explore your analytical , reasoning , leadership and decision-making skills and most importantly make you trust your educated instincts.

Case study method helps you to go a long way in applying your theoretical knowledge and its practical application in a very dynamic and a VUCA world. VUCA, as you may know, is an acronym based on leadership theories that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

As a Manager (or a management student) you should be able to provide realistic solutions to the problems presented in a case study. You should be able to explain and justify your decision.

Application of such critical faculties while solving a case study makes it an important feature in the curriculum of an aspiring manager. With each case, you need to change how read and perceive the information and, ultimately, how you think

With the importance of case studies explained, next, is a very important question - How do you solve a case study?

How to Solve MBA Case Studies? 

There is no one way to solve a case study. Once you start solving an MBA case study you will have your own take on it. However, listed below are general guidelines that, more or less, remain the same and are effective in solving an MBA case study:

• Place yourself in the role of a leader/manager or as the Harvard Business School likes to call it – Protagonist
• Identify the problem that you face as a protagonist 
• Examine the causes for the problems and the issues that are there. Don't worry, you might find conclusive evidences for them. But just form your hypothesis.
• Create alternatives or possible courses of actions that are within the purview of the organization’s goals and objectives
• Get back to your hypothesis and assumptions and choose a course of action that is the most favorable. You most likely will need data from the exhibits to decide on one strategy. 
• Put it to vote. Discuss. Brainstorm. Identify possible trade-offs for each alternative
• Suggest a final alternative and justify it
• Discuss the case study with fellow students, professors, colleagues, and note all interesting/new/innovative solutions that others have to offer
• Enjoy the learning and process

Want a step-by-step framework to analyse Marketing Case Studies?

This guide on How to Analyse Marketing Case Studies tells you the methods to tackle a case. What I suggest in the book is an elaborate explanation of how you can present your case study analysis most effectively, in just 5 slides.

But, How to Read MBA Case Studies Quickly?

To the above question I would also like to add “and efficiently”. How to read MBA case studies quickly and efficiently?

I would suggest two ways reading MBA case studies quickly:

• Reading the case study thoroughly when you need to really understand and present it
• Reading the case study super -quickly when you are super -pressed for time

Here's a little thumb rule that you should follow while picking the right method to read your case study.

Just to not spoil you with a slightly lesser honest way of reading cases, I would first be talking about what the correct approach of reading an MBA case study should be.

Reading an MBA Case Study Thoroughly [Honest Method]

     Here is my standard method of reading MBA case studies efficiently and quickly:

• Before the case is given to you, you would know where it fits into the curriculum . Marketing, Finance, Operations etc.
• You would also know the topics that you have covered or are about to start in the next discussion. This will definitely give you an idea of what you need to do.
• For me, reading a case study for is a 2-3 round affair . And that what makes it quicker, because you are not committed to reading it with full attention in one shot. That's just too much pressure.
• In the first read, which should be a super-speed round , read the sub-headings, read each and every line but extremely brazenly – in speed. No regressing at all. Identify the core scenario of the case and what it is that you are required to do.
• You will experience that there are mostly two kinds of case studies that you will encounter:
• Where you have to take decision as a protagonist or a team leader
• Where no decision making is required, you have to only discuss and analyse the case at hand
• Identify the key players or stakeholders and identify key issues/problems
• Keep your pencil or pen handy . You will be taking notes while solving a case study. Underlining, highlighting would help to reduce the time spent in writing.
• Slow down on statements which have some ‘quotes’ from any of the characters or a line which has numbers . These are things to be read properly and even noted down if required.
• Skim through the discussion questions. Write relevant pointers for each question that you would have picked up from the case’s preliminary reading. Run the scenario in your brain and raise questions as to what happened and why it happened and most importantly what needs to be done.
• Form two or three hypotheses based on your reading. Create a situation analysis, what-ifs, and try to fit the data and the facts in each of them. This could require the 2 nd  and 3 rd  rounds of reading to cull-out that data
• Go back to the case - this could be your 2 nd read and look for any data that you may have missed. Fill the gaps in your hypothesis . This is where you need to find data from the exhibits.
• Go for a 3 rd read if some data is still missing or if you have realized that your initial hypotheses aren't shaping up well an you need to form new ones. Some would prefer to do the 2 nd  or 3 rd  read question-wise while others may prefer analyzing the case as a whole
• Now start working on the solving these problems with the data collected

Other way to solve a case is to first read the discussion questions carefully. Then, read the case keeping the questions in mind as a guide to what’s important in the case and what can be ignored.

Now that you know how to read an MBA case study in the most proper way, I am sharing with you a way to read MBA case studies quickly when you are super-pressed for time.

Let me tell you that, this strategy may give you a broad understanding of the case study to do some sort of class participation. But it will not give you enough knowledge which allows you to present the case with its full details.

Reading an MBA Case Study Quickly [ Partially Honest Method]

I would not be calling a dishonest method. Instead, I am calling it the 'partially honest method' for the reason that I am giving you a benefit of doubt - that while you truly wanted to analyse it and do a meaningful class participation, you happen to be pressed for time.

• The first step would be to quickly flip the pages and get a feel of the case. The headings , sub-headings and words which are in bold will be of help.
• Go to the last page and read the last paragraph . This  could be titled as 'Conclusion' in the case study. It could also be titled something else as per the context of the case or their simply may be no heading on this last paragraph.
• Get back to the first page and completely read the introduction paragraph. This would help you understand who is the 'protagonist' of the case.
• From the next heading onward, start reading the first two sentences and the last two sentences of each sub-section/sub-heading.
• By now, you would know three things about the case; the protagonist, the context and what needs to be done by you on behalf of the protagonist
• The next step is where the dishonesty comes in. This is where we go and look for a case summary over the internet.
• Most of the cases that you will encounter will be Harvard Business School (HBS) Cases. The copies of cases handout to you are also available on the HBS website for sale, along with their synopsis.
• Read up the summary and quickly fill up the gaps that you may have in your understanding. In quite a few cases, you may find the summary on other websites.

A big DON'T in any case is this - most of the cases are already solved by students of other B-schools and their presentations are already available on Slideshare or other places. 

Do not read these. These would go ahead and 'analyse' the case for you. This would end up making you rigid in your thought process and the class discussion will also not be as fruitful.

Some Examples of MBA Case Studies

MBA case study could be on number of topics.

• A Marketing case study example could be about competitive strategy, pricing, entering a new market, ad campaign, target audience, positioning, etc.
• A Finance case study could be about adopting new accounting policies, evaluating cash flows, debt equity mix balance of the company, etc.
• A Human Resource Management case study could focus on adopting new appraisal format, conflict between employees and management, union conflict, employee benefits etc.
• An Operations case study may include warehousing issues, effective inventory management, improving supply chain management, evaluating raw material suppliers etc.
• A Strategic case study is where you would be presented with problems/issues spanning more than one topic or domain.

Is the solution always going to be foolproof?

No, remember it is a VUCA world. Today’s approach may be cause doom tomorrow. You need to be in tandem with the market trends and give your pinch of innovative thinking.

Will there always be a solution and a conclusion?

No. Just like this article, most of the case studies will not have a conclusion or a single solution. Such cases are more about understanding what happened and why it happened.

Author of this post

Amandeep is devout student and learner of Marketing Trends and Business Strategies. Aman is an MBA in Marketing from the 2015-17 batch. She has spent the better part of her education and subsequent work experience, in gauging, learning and honing the skills that are important for the businesses to remain relevant among competition. To that end, this blog encapsulates the best business and marketing practices for professionals.

Amandeep Kaur Jakhar

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• Case Studies

Case Study Basics

What is a case study *.

A case study is a snapshot of an organization or an industry wrestling with a dilemma, written to serve a set of pedagogical objectives. Whether raw or cooked , what distinguishes a pedagogical case study from other writing is that it centers on one or more dilemmas. Rather than take in information passively, a case study invites readers to engage the material in the case to solve the problems presented. Whatever the case structure, the best classroom cases all have these attributes: (1)The case discusses issues that allow for a number of different courses of action – the issues discussed are not “no-brainers,” (2) the case makes the management issues as compelling as possible by providing rich background and detail, and (3) the case invites the creative use of analytical management tools.

Case studies are immensely useful as teaching tools and sources of research ideas. They build a reservoir of subject knowledge and help students develop analytical skills. For the faculty, cases provide unparalleled insights into the continually evolving world of management and may inspire further theoretical inquiry.

There are many case formats. A traditional case study presents a management issue or issues calling for resolution and action. It generally breaks off at a decision point with the manager weighing a number of different options. It puts the student in the decision-maker’s shoes and allows the student to understand the stakes involved. In other instances, a case study is more of a forensic exercise. The operations and history of a company or an industry will be presented without reference to a specific dilemma. The instructor will then ask students to comment on how the organization operates, to look for the key success factors, critical relationships, and underlying sources of value. A written case will pre-package appropriate material for students, while an online case may provide a wider variety of topics in a less linear manner.

Choosing Participants for a Case Study

Many organizations cooperate in case studies out of a desire to contribute to management education. They understand the need for management school professors and students to keep current with practice.

Organizations also cooperate in order to gain exposure in management school classrooms. The increased visibility and knowledge about an organization’s operations and culture can lead to subsidiary benefits such as improved recruiting.

Finally, organizations participate because reading a case about their operations and decision making written by a neutral observer can generate useful insights. A case study preserves a moment in time and chronicles an otherwise hidden history. Managers who visit the classroom to view the case discussion generally find the experience invigorating.

The Final Product

Cases are usually written as narratives that take the reader through the events leading to the decision point, including relevant information on the historical, competitive, legal, technical, and political environment facing the organization. A written case study generally runs from 5,000 to 10,000 words of text supplemented with numerous pages of data exhibits. An online raw case may have less original text, but will require students to extract information from multiple original documents, videos of company leaders discussing the challenges, photographs, and links to articles and websites.

The first time a case is taught represents something of a test run. As students react to the material, plan to revise the case to include additional information or to delete data that does not appear useful. If the organization’s managers attend the class, their responses to student comments and questions may suggest some case revisions as well.

The sponsoring professor will generally write a “teaching note” to give other instructors advice on how to structure classroom discussion and useful bits of analysis that can be included to explicate the issues highlighted in the case study.

Finally, one case may inspire another. Either during the case writing process or after a case is done, a second “B” case might be useful to write that outlines what the organization did or that outlines new challenges faced by the organization after the timeframe of the initial case study.

* Portions of this note are adapted from E. Raymond Corey, “Writing Cases and Teaching Notes,” Harvard Business School case 399-077, with updates to reflect Yale School of Management practices for traditional and raw cases.

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MBA Case Studies From Top Business Schools

Where to Find Them

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Many business schools use the case method to teach MBA students how to analyze business problems and develop solutions from a leadership perspective. The case method involves presenting students with case studies , also known as cases, that document a real-life business situation or imagined business scenario.

Cases typically present a problem, issue, or challenge that must be addressed or solved for a business to prosper. For example, a case might present a problem like:

• ABC Company needs to increase sales substantially over the next several years to attract potential buyers.
• U-Rent-Stuff wants to expand but is not sure whether they want to own the locations or franchise them.
• Ralphie's BBQ, a two-person company that makes spices for BBQ products, needs to figure out how to increase production from 1,000 bottles a month to 10,000 bottles a month.

As a business student. you are asked to read the case, analyze the problems that are presented, evaluate underlying issues, and present solutions that address the problem that was presented. Your analysis should include a realistic solution as well as an explanation as to why this solution is the best fit for the problem and the organization's goal. Your reasoning should be supported with evidence that has been gathered through outside research. Finally, your analysis should include specific strategies for accomplishing the solution you have proposed. 

Where to Find MBA Case Studies

The following business schools publish either abstracts or full MBA case studies online. Some of these case studies are free. Others can be downloaded and purchased for a small fee. 

• Harvard Business School Cases - Harvard offers thousands of case studies on every business topic imaginable.
• Darden Business Case Studies - Thousands of MBA case studies from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
• Stanford Case Studies - A searchable database of MBA case studies from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
• Babson College Case Studies - A large collection of business case studies from the Babson faculty.
• IMD Case Studies - 50 years of case studies from the IMD faculty and research staff.

Using Case Studies

Familiarizing yourself with case studies is a good way to prepare for business school. This will help you familiarize yourself with various components of a case study and allow you to practice putting yourself in the role of a business owner or manager. As you are reading through cases, you should learn how to identify relevant facts and key problems. Be sure to take notes so that you have a list of items and potential solutions that can be researched when you are done reading the case. As you are developing your solutions, make a list of pros and cons for each solution, and above all, make sure the solutions are realistic.

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Creating a Business Case for the MBA

When you enroll in an mba, you’ll spend rather a lot of time with cases—reading cases, discussing cases, packing (suit) cases..

However, there is an important case you may wish to prepare before you start a programme—a business case for your employer, forming a persuasive argument for company support of your MBA.

• By Rachel Waites
• January 22, 2014
• Executive MBA - Admissions
• Share This Page

Before you get started, it’s useful to ask yourself some questions.

What are your reasons for choosing the Chicago Booth Executive MBA? Why is this school and programme a better choice (for you) than others on the market?

Will this programme help meet a specific need at the company (can a business challenge or issue be addressed by the content of the course)?

Does this programme fit in with my career development plan at the company? Does it address a need that has been identified in a performance review?

Is there a precedent for MBA support at the company? What level of support has been given in the past? Is there an in-house company training programme I need to compare the MBA against?

What am I prepared to commit to the company (ie, lock in periods, bonus or salary sacrifice, tuition refund in the event I leave)?

What do I want the company to commit? (be specific about funding and time off).

Who will make a decision on my request? This question will help you develop the right level of content for your case.

The important thing to remember is that your case, at least in the first two sections, should not focus on your needs . The case is an opportunity to highlight business needs that can be met by the Executive MBA, to outline the ROI and to create a persuasive recommendation that your company should provide support accordingly.

Like any other business case, your case should include sections on:

1. Identify Business Need (specific, current business challenges or needs faced by the company)

2. Analysis (ie, how the programme will help the company meet these specific needs. Think about the ROI from your company’s point of view, of the additional benefits the company gets from accessing the school network, intellectual capital, etc)

3. Recommendation (of yourself, as a suitable candidate. This section should focus on your commitment to the company, your dedication to meeting business needs and challenges, and your desire to take on further roles and responsibilities).

4. The Request (with specific details of the financial support and/or time support you require. You should also demonstrate the investment that you are prepared to make, via your own financial contribution, by sacrificing holiday time, by working overtime or by being available outside office hours).

5. Appendices (your audience may know very little about the school and programme, so include as much supplementary information as possible. It may also be useful to include specific info, for example, research articles or school press clippings relevant to your industry or company).

Good luck! We’re here to help, so please let us know if you need a hand.

Rachel Waites

Director of Recruitment and Admissions, London

Follow Rachel’s posts for information on admissions, particularly in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. Rachel also chronicles women’s initiatives and Chicago Booth’s global network.

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How To Write Case Study In MBA

Be it any time of the year, an MBA degree has been most popular among students. This two years degree holds excellent value in the e-commerce world. Trending and out there, millions of students opt for this particular subject. Of course, if students have chosen this subject to be their major, time and again, they will be surrounded by several MBA assignments, thesis, or case studies.

Though assignment writing is an easy task to accomplish, writing a case study in MBA is something all the students dread to the next level. The in-depth analysis and research can surely take the sweet night’s sleep away. Hence, students search for an ultimate ready-made savior to help them. To write any kind of MBA case study paper is not every student’s work. Case study writing involves a lot of attention and energy. Moreover, if the course is MBA, then a student can easily double all the attributes of research writing like more energy and more attention.

The Helpful 12 Tips To Get Your Case Study Done in MBA

With every hardship comes ease. Just like your worries related to MBA case study , our top tutors have collected some valuable points that can ease down your tension related to case study writing.

The list goes down as follows:

Proper Knowledge OF The Subject

The foremost thing while writing a case study in MBA includes knowing your subject well. The subject should be clear in your mind, like clean water. All your views and knowledge about your subject should be on point with nowhere close to any type of confusion, whatsoever.

Extensive Research

No case study can turn out to be an excellent piece without an extensive research process. Carrying out a lot of research for your case study in MBA is the crucial part of writing a flawless case paper. With proper research done, your case study can easily stand out among your peers.

Requires Too Much Study

To create an error-free case study, the most important factor is to master the art of studying. A lot of studying is essential to write an ideal MBA case study paper. The common domains for studying include books, blogs, journals, magazines, online, websites, newspapers, etc.

On-Point Writing

It’s equally crucial to make your case study in MBA on point. No unnecessary or confusing points should be added to your case study. Avoid as many fluffs as possible. The related information will always hook the reader while making it more and more engaging.

Conform To Your Subject

MBA holds a lot of sub fields in it. So, it is important to strictly stick to one sub field at a time. Like, if the discussion is about the finance subject, the writing should only focus on that. This aspect is one of the most useful tips to write an MBA case study that restricts jumping from one subject to another.

Say No To Plagiarism

It is one of the Vital aspects of case study writing . No plagiarized content should be there in your paper. Try to use an authentic and unique style of writing.

Add Up Diagrams And Examples

Always fancy your case study with diagrams and examples. Like swot analysis, Boston matrix, BCG matrix and supply chain management, etc.

Proofreading

It is the primary duty of the students to make their case studies classic by making them error-free. When the paper is finalized, proper proofreading is a must. Check for all the frequent grammar or spelling mistakes. Double-check the facts and figures stated.

Unique Ideas

The students mostly ignore this particular aspect. The common mistake is to repeat the ideas that instantly lose the grip of the case study. Always make sure to use authentic and unique ideas for every paper. Remember, repetition creates boredom.

Clear Formatting

When you are stuck with your case studies, the only thing that comes to your mind is to buy a case study assignment online. But, if you wish to write it on your own, one vital aspect of it is to format it as clearly as possible. It will later help the reader to get impressed with your work.

Proper Indexing And Numbering

It is also important to correctly index and number your case studies. Try to mention the page number at the bottom of the page. Hence, it will greatly help the reader to locate every topic properly.

Meet The Deadline

There is always a proper time frame for writing an MBA case study. Thus, the students should adhere to it. The whole case study should end within due time.

These workable tips will lend great support in gaining good grades in your class. Keenly follow these and make a remarkable case study.

Get Our Best Services For Your MBA Case Study

Our platform thecasestudysolutions.com has been serving thousands of students worldwide with their impeccable writing assistance. These tips are specially crafted by our top tutors. As they believe in excellence, they leave no stone upturned in formulating the workable step-to-step guide for the students.

Since writing a case study is a tricky task to accomplish, our writers do make sure to provide easy and feasible help for it. The MBA case study does require extra effort and time to finalize. Luckily, with the help of our useful tips, any student can try to attempt writing it on their own. Moreover, we also provide a sample case study to the students. So, students can freely try working on their case studies with the help of the samples provided by our experienced writers.

So, next time whenever you feel helpless with your case studies, always keep our assistance in your mind. We have a pool of qualified MBA writers who can assist you in the best possible ways. You will find our prices reasonable also. We don’t believe in distressing the students with hefty amounts. Students can feel unburdened with our affordable pricing criteria.

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Case study interview | tips from bain, bcg & mckinsey.

Bain, BCG, or McKinsey, the case study interview is a key part of the consulting interview process ©Philip McMaster

If you want to work in consulting, you’ll have to sit a case study interview. Here’s everything you need to know about the case study interview with tips from experts at Bain, BCG, and McKinsey

Mon Oct 11 2021

The consulting case study interview might just be one part of the application process, but it’s where you can stand out to your prospective employer and show you’ve got what it takes to crack cases day in day out.

Whether you have your eyes set on Bain, BCG, or McKinsey, or a smaller boutique consulting firm , here’s everything you need to know about the case study interview: 

What is the consulting case study interview?

The consulting case study interview requires you to solve a simulated problem for a client. There are two types of case interview: The interviewer-led approach and the candidate-led approach.

“We use a client-like problem such as how to reduce a carbon footprint, how to make a workforce more diverse, how to leverage technology, or how to grow a customer base, and ask you three questions that simulate the kind of problem-solving our teams do in a client engagement,” says Amy Ross ( pictured) , senior expert in McKinsey’s global assessment team based in New York.

The three questions aren’t in a set order, but you can expect to focus on identifying the issues, then doing analysis based on information the team collects (that McKinsey provide), then coming up with insights and developing a conclusion. The McKinsey case study interview is consistent across global offices.

The interviewer-led approach of the McKinsey case interview means you’ll be guided through the process by your interviewer. However, there’s a caveat, explains Eugene Goh, the cofounder of HR tech startup, HireQuotient, who worked as a principal for BCG for more than eight years.

“They’re expecting a lot more detail and depth,” says Eugene, who’s recently cowritten From the Interviewer’s Seat: The Insider’s Guide for Aspiring Consultants , a book on the consulting interview.

Candidate-led approach

The candidate-led BCG case study interview will similarly present you with a real BCG case from previous client work. You’ll then be presented with the client’s challenges and have 45 minutes to walk your interviewer through your solution, rather than being led question by question. The BCG case study requires you to build your solution step by step. 

“They’re looking for people who can structure their approach from end to end,” Eugene explains.

How can you stand out in your case study interview?

The case interview is supposed to simulate the problem-solving approach of the firm you’re interviewing with, which at McKinsey involves a lot of back-and-forth between team members, says Amy. You'll need to tackle case study interview questions that mimic a real consulting case. 

“Candidates should listen to the client context and think about what it means, rather than repeat back everything the interviewer says.

“If the case covers an industry that is unfamiliar, candidates might consider whether there is an analogous industry they are familiar with and see if that helps them think of good ideas.

You should ask questions to clarify your understanding of the data and the issues at hand. Amy advises that you take a moment before speaking to collect your thoughts. 

“Listen carefully, making sure you consider the information provided and the meaning behind the specific questions. You’ll stand out by putting the client front-and-center and by sharing interesting insights.”

The Bain case study, like the BCG case study, is often  candidate-led. To stand out, your interviewers are looking for your analytical skills; the ability to break down challenging problems into parts you can tackle in a sequence; strong communication skills; the ability to simplify complex concepts; teamwork; and the ability to work successfully among others. That's according to Keith Bevans, head of global consultant recruitment at Bain & Company. 

He explains that tackling a Bain case study is akin to playing in a jazz quartet. There’s no script, so you’re going to play a bit, and improvise. Improvisation is a key thing interviewers are looking for when you're solving a Bain case study. 

“I think some students want to be perfect and play classical music and don’t want to share their insight or preliminary analysis until it’s right," says Keith. "The truth is I need them to share because what they share may not be perfect, but it’ll spark something in somebody else. I need students who are comfortable in that sort of environment.”  

That's why MBA and business master's graduates are so well placed to enter consulting. They develop the skills that the Big Three consulting firms are looking for through live consulting projects, and constant group work that tests their ability to manage and lead diverse teams of peers to solve complex business problems. 

Skills that will help you stand out

How to prepare for your case study interview?

The best thing you can do ahead of your consulting case study interview is prepare. Make sure you work with real case study interview examples. 

Your business school will likely have a consulting club that offers consulting case study prep sessions, which will give you ample opportunity to work through mock case study interview questions. You may also have on hand a network of business school alumni who likely work in consulting, as well as professors—use them.

Amy from McKinsey recommends going to the website of the firm you’re applying to—McKinsey have case interview examples you can use to brush up on your casing. That way, you’ll know what to expect when you face your case study interview questions in real time.

She adds that there are many coaches and preparation services available to candidates, but the firm doesn’t expect you to use them. 

“Frankly, we are worried there’s a lot of misleading advice out there so, again, we advise to consult our website, and feel free to ask your recruiter to arrange for you to meet one of our consultants who can be your interview coach,” she asserts.

Approach the case study interview like a McKinsey consultant

→ Make sure you understand the information provided.  

→ Ask questions.

→ Collect yourself before diving into your answer.

→ Alongside logical ideas, challenge yourself to provide a few that are more ‘out there’, things you and a client team would want to test first. Sometimes, those bolder ideas are the best ones and often they really show McKinsey how you think.

Beware though, as you can see too many case study interview examples and overprepare. Angela Michalik, MBA recruiter at BCG, says that to avoid being overprepared focus on the quality not quantity of your prep.

Do one case, then get feedback, she says. At the end you should know where you were weak, and then in your next case go hard on the areas in which you’re weakest. 

“I feel by doing that, students really improve,” she says. “You have to reflect on what you need to work on and practice.” 

If you notice that you’re going straight into applying a framework to a case before you take the time to think, you might be overpreparing. 

“Each client problem is different and deserves an initial approach that meets their needs. We realize interviews are filled with uncertainty, but the link between preparation and success in our process is not so strong,” Amy from McKinsey notes. 

“Practice enough so you know what to expect, stay current with what’s new in the business world, and then bring curiosity and an open mind to your case interview.”

READ:  Bain, BCG, McKinsey: How To Get Hired By The Big Three Consulting Firms

Granted, you need to be ready for ambiguity, something that can be hard to prepare for. But there’s a step-by-step approach Eugene says can help break away from the fixed framework approach:

- Define the objectives. What are you trying to do? Understand a bit about the client’s constraints. What’s the timeframe for the project, their budget, for example.

- Dive into the diagnosis. Why does the client have a problem? 

- Option generation. What approaches could the client take?

- Option evaluation before coming to a decision

“It sounds generic but almost every problem, even in the real world, requires you to roughly go through those steps,” Eugene ( pictured ) says.

“That is a more helpful approach as it applies to all problems, therefore all cases.”

Case study interview prep is a key component of your overall application. But don’t stress. Focus on the quality of your preparation and lean on your business school network of MBA alumni in the consulting sector, as well as the resources available from your school’s consulting club.

Run through case interview examples from the firm’s you’re interested in and breathe before you approach a problem. That way, you’ll be best placed to ace your interview and launch your post-business school career as a consultant.

Where Do McKinsey, Bain, BCG Hire The Most MBAs?

Main image in this article is credited to Philip McMaster and used under this  license  

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More From Forbes

New study finds that a guaranteed income does not guarantee benefits.

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A man in a gray T-shirt holds dollars in his hands. Bank. Casino. Salary. Rates.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea of a guaranteed income (or universal basic income (UBI)) took off. Cities from Philadelphia to Compton partnered with philanthropists to conduct several experiments to examine the health and economic impacts of giving people money with no strings attached. The results of these and other programs have been mixed, providing support for both critics and fans.

A recent, comprehensive study that uses a randomized controlled trial provides new evidence that largely supports the critics who worry that a guaranteed income will undermine work and investment while doing little to promote healthy behaviors.

The study gave 1,000 people, chosen randomly from select counties in Illinois and Texas, $1,000 per month for three years. A control group of 2,000 people received $50 per month for three years. The $1,000 per month payment was approximately a 40% increase in total household income for the average participant. This substantial increase in income combined with the three-year time frame should have been enough to improve various outcomes, but that is not what happened.

The authors examined several health outcomes , including stress, mental health, and physical health, the latter measured via both self-reporting and clinical blood tests. Initially, the treated group reported improvements in stress and mental health relative to the control group, but by the second year the gap closed. Similarly, there was an initial decline in food insecurity for the treated group, but that effect also disappeared by year two.

The cash payments had no impact on physical health, nor did they induce better health behaviors such as more sleep or exercise. People in the treated group made more hospital and emergency room visits relative to those in the control group and used more dental care, but greater use of these services did not translate to better health outcomes.

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What about the economic impacts? One prediction from economic models of cash transfers is that recipients will work less and spend more time on non-work activities. Sure enough , the people in the treated group worked less than those in the control group and increased the time they spent on leisure activities. The decline in work hours led to smaller paychecks, which offset some of the cash transfer. For every $1 received from the program, total household income only rose by around $0.80.

One argument proponents of guaranteed income programs often make is that people receiving the cash can use it and their newfound free time to train for or find a better job that provides more benefits or greater flexibility. While possible in theory, the authors find no evidence that job quality increased in the treated group and only weak evidence that more people enrolled in post-secondary education.

No single study is definitive, but the scale of this study, its methodology, and its findings strongly suggest that guaranteed income programs are unlikely to dramatically improve people’s health. The findings also refute the notion that by providing a financial cushion, a guaranteed income encourages people to find better jobs. Instead, it appears most people respond by working less and spending more time doing other non-work things.

Despite these findings, I remain convinced that cash benefits are superior to in-kind assistance for mitigating poverty and improving people’s lives. In-kind assistance invites too much meddling from government officials, with different political factions arguing for or against different bans, such as a “junk food” ban in SNAP or the smoking ban in public housing. Cash empowers individuals to make decisions about what they need. Mistakes will be made, but mistakes are learning opportunities that help people improve their decision making over time.

Cash benefit programs should be means tested, however, to avoid the excessive taxation that is necessary to fund a $4 trillion nationwide universal income program. Targeting assistance to those who need it most is the fiscally responsible thing to do, even though phasing out benefits as income increases modestly discourages work. Ideally, there would be one means-tested cash benefit program to avoid the benefits cliff that arises when multiple programs with different eligibility rules and phase out schedules overlap.

This new study weakens the case for a nationwide guaranteed income program, but the case was never very strong to begin with. Such a program would be expensive, inefficient , and largely duplicative if layered on top of other programs. Even worse, it implicitly signals that as a society we think a significant portion of our fellow Americans are incapable of supporting themselves. A competently administered cash benefit program that targets those most in need is superior, and that should be our focus.

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9 Case Study Examples, Plus a Useful Case Study Template

Writing a case study can help you pitch your services to prospective clients. Learn how to write one by studying successful examples and using a free template.

If you can write a résumé, you can write a case study. Just as a résumé shows potential employers how your experience can benefit their team, a case study highlights an existing client’s success story to demonstrate your business or product’s value to prospective clients.

A compelling case study includes relevant data without overwhelming your reader, considers the customer’s perspective, and demonstrates how you handled a specific challenge.

The best way to learn how to write one is by reading a stellar business case study example.

What is a case study?

A case study is a document business-to-business (B2B) companies use to illustrate how their product or service helped a client achieve their goals. A winning case study introduces the featured client, gives a brief description of their challenge or goal, and showcases the results they achieved with your help.

Businesses that provide software, tools, or consulting services often provide case studies to potential customers trying to choose between several options.

A company’s marketing team is typically responsible for writing case studies, but if you have a small business without a dedicated marketing team, don’t worry. Anyone can write a case study, and it’s a straightforward process if you use a template.

Why should you create a case study?

A case study brings your product or service to life for future customers with real-world examples. These success stories offer tangible results. Case studies are, thus, a form of social proof , but their power goes beyond a mere testimonial or review.

Since B2B services often are expensive and require approval from multiple decision-makers, typical forms of social proof often aren't enough to convince potential customers. Business customers want to be able to share compelling data with their teams, and that’s where the case study is beneficial.

How to write a case study

• Choose a template
• Interview your client or customer
• Describe the situation
• Identify the solution
• Present the results

1. Choose a template

You don’t necessarily need a template to write a case study, but it can make the process easier—especially if you haven’t written one before or need to write several at once.

You’ll notice that most business case studies take the same general format; after inputting the basics into the template, you can add your own personal flair. (That is, your branding and voice.)

2. Interview your client or customer

The client or customer interview is the heart of the case study. Identify several current or past clients willing to chat with you about their experiences. Look for repeat customers and those who reached out independently to tell you how much they enjoyed your product or service.

A phone interview is the best way to get conversational quotes, but you can correspond via email if your subject is short on time. Not sure what to ask? When social advertising agency Biddyco interviewed the VP of Marketing at Fellow , they asked him the following questions , according to their case study:

• What were the obstacles that would have prevented you from choosing/hiring Biddyco?
• What have you found as a result of hiring Biddyco?
• What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?
• Would you recommend Biddyco and why?

The goal of the interview is to better understand your client’s experience with your product or service and grab a soundbite you can use as a testimonial in your case study. If you didn’t work directly with the client, you may also want to interview someone on your team who did to get more context.

3. Describe the situation

Give context to your case study with a brief description of the client’s business and the desired outcome that led them to seek your product or service. You can follow this general formula:

[Client’s name] is a [type of business] with [unique feature]. [Client’s name] came to [your business] seeking [client’s desired outcome] while [requirement].

Here’s an example of a one-sentence situation summary in the case study for Sharma Brands ’ client Feastables:

“Feastables, a better-for-you snacks company, came to us in need of a team to take the DTC setup off their plate.”

Advertising company Adgile, which created moving billboards for the non-alcoholic aperitif brand Ghia , has a longer description in its case study that provides background on the marketplace, but the heart of it is this:

“Ghia was seeking creative ways to break through the clutter of a crowded—and big-budgeted—adult beverage market, all while managing customer acquisition cost (CAC).”

4. Identify the solution

This section can vary depending on your field. Also described as “the action,” “the work,” or “the strategy,” the solution describes the strategic insights your company brought to your client’s problem or how your customer used your product to achieve their goals.

The basic formula: [Client’s name] partnered with [your business] to [service received].

Here’s an example from email marketing software Klaviyo’s case study featuring olive oil brand Graza:

“Graza uses Klaviyo’s granular segmentation tools to send automated flows and promotional campaigns to small, targeted groups of customers based on purchase frequency.”

This section describes exactly which of Klaviyo’s features Graza used (granular segmentation) and how they used it (to send automated flows to small, targeted groups), without getting into any outcomes or results yet.

5. Present the results

This section is where you’ll win over prospective customers and build trust. The basic formula is:

[Client’s name] used [service received] to [desired outcome].

Share how your product or service positively affected the client’s business, whether that’s cost savings, more clients, or improved company culture. According to a case study from community platform TYB, the results it delivered for skin care company Dieux were as follows:

“Dieux was able to create thousands of authentic, personalized referrals ahead of its new product launch plus live out its brand promise of transparency.”

Depending on your product or service, your results may include quantifiable outcomes (like thousands of referrals), intangibles (like living out your brand promise), or both, as in the case of TYB.

Real-world examples of case studies

Sharma brands for feastables, adgile media group for ghia, meta for lulus, tyb for dieux, biddyco for fellow, outline for heyday canning, klaviyo for graza, culture amp for bombas, kustomer for thirdlove.

A great way to write a case study is to look at a sample case study—or better yet, many. You’ll notice that wildly different businesses have case studies that follow roughly the same structure, which is why we recommend using one of our free case study templates to write yours. Learn from this mix of business, design, and marketing case study examples:

Sharma Brands is a branding agency founded by Nik Sharma , “The DTC Guy.” Sharma Brands keeps its case study featuring snack company Feastables short and sweet, breaking it down into three chronological sections: the situation, the work, and the outcome.

The Sharma Brands case study is a good example of how to incorporate meaningful results without sharing actual numbers (which the client may not wish to make public) or getting into an in-depth analysis.

Instead of metrics, Sharma Brands lists the tasks it executed: 

• “Successfully launched their DTC site.” 
• “Simultaneously launched on GoPuff with no downtime.”

It also lists some general achievements: 

• “Broke Shopify records in the first 24 hours of launch.” 
• “All revenue and engagement metrics were highly exceeded.”

Adgile Media Group creates outdoor advertising by providing brands with mobile billboards. Unlike traditional outdoor advertising, Adgile also tracks the digital impact of its IRL campaigns.

Adgile’s case study featuring the non-alcoholic beverage brand Ghia is the perfect place to show off the metrics it collects, like:

• 78% homepage visit lift
• 91% conversion lift
• 82% lift on its Find Us page
• Increase in brand awareness and recall, more than 75% over the competition

Meta, the social media and digital advertising platform, does something in its case studies that every company can replicate. Instead of saving the numbers for the results section, Meta provides a brief overview near the top. This breaks up the text visually, provides a quick snapshot for anyone who doesn’t want to read the full case study, and intrigues those curious to know how they achieved those numbers.

Meta’s case study for the clothing company Lulus starts by teasing its most impressive stat:

“The women’s fashion ecommerce company compared the performance of a Meta Advantage+ shopping campaign with Advantage+ catalog ads versus its usual ad campaign setup and saw a 47% increase in return on ad spend using the Advantage+ products.”

It then presents three key figures in a visually appealing design, drawing clear attention to the impact it had on this customer.

TYB is a community platform that rewards fans for creating user-generated content . TYB’s case study for Dieux details how the skincare brand used its platform to involve customers in product testing.

It also does something small worth noting: Instead of sticking the call to action at the bottom of the case study, TYB places a “request demo” button at the top of the page. That way, anyone compelled by the results of the case study can take the next step immediately.

Advertising agency Biddyco took a unique approach to its case study for the coffee- and tea-gear company Fellow . Unlike other business case study examples that use the typical situation-solution-results format, Biddyco structured its case study as an extended testimonial, with a series of questions like, “What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?”

In addition to client feedback, Biddyco also highlights a few key accomplishments under the heading “All You Really Need to Know.”

A branding studio like Outline won’t approach case studies in the same way an advertising platform like Meta would. What matters here isn’t cost per impression or ROAS, it’s how everything looks.

That’s why Outline’s case study for ​​ Heyday Canning is relatively light on words and heavy on imagery. If your work is more visual than numerical, your case study is a great place to show your behind-the-scenes process.

For example, Outline shows the label design alongside images of the cans on the shelf and provides a brief description of the design inspiration. This example shows how you can have a design-focused case study that still tells a compelling story.

Klaviyo , an email marketing software company, puts numbers front and center in its case study for the olive oil company Graza . If your product or service involves tracking metrics like email open rates, revenue, and click rates, highlight those stats in a larger font size, as Klaviyo did.

Klaviyo’s case study for Graza also shows you don’t necessarily need to fix a problem to create a great case study; you can also simply help your client achieve their goals. According to Klaviyo’s case study, Graza’s challenge was to create strong customer relationships.

How do you write a compelling case study if your service doesn’t involve tangible metrics or flashy design? For the performance management software company Culture Amp , it’s highlighting key statistics about the subject of its case study , sock company Bombas .

Like Meta and Klaviyo, Culture Amp highlights three numbers in large font. But these numbers are stats about their client Bombas, not Culture Amp’s services: “120+ employees,” “25M+ items donated,” and “$100M+ in revenue for 2018.”

Instead of showing off the results it achieved for Bombas, these numbers let prospective clients know that Culture Amp works with big, important companies on their performance management process.

Choosing a customer relationships management ( CRM ) platform is a big decision. Switching platforms—as bra company ThirdLove did in this case study from customer support platform Kustomer—can involve lengthy data migration, customization, and employee onboarding.

That’s why it makes sense that Kustomer’s case study for ThirdLove is a four-page-long PDF and not a blog post. If your case study involves a long, detailed analysis, follow Kustomer’s example and make two versions of your case study.

The first page is an executive summary, with about a paragraph each describing the challenge and results. If after reading the first page, you want to learn more, you can dive into the rest of the case study, but you don’t have to read the entire thing to get a sense of how Kustomer collaborated with ThirdLove.

Case study examples FAQ

How do you write a simple case study.

To simplify the case-study writing process, download a template. Shopify’s fill-in-the-blanks case study template can help you share your customers’ success stories in an easily digestible, well-designed format.

Why are case studies important for businesses?

For the business reading a case study, the contents can help them decide between different products or services. For the business writing the case study, it’s a chance to connect more deeply with potential customers.

What is an example of a case study?

An example of a case study is a mobile billboard company’s overview of the services it provided to a client. The case study might include an overview of the client's goals and how the advertiser addressed them, plus a list of outcomes—increased website visits, decreased costs per visit, and a rise in brand awareness.

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What caused the great CrowdStrike-Windows meltdown of 2024? History has the answer

[Updated 24-July with details from CrowdStrike's preliminary post-incident review]

Microsoft Windows powers more than a billion PCs and millions of servers worldwide, many of them playing key roles in facilities that serve customers directly. So, what happens when a trusted software provider delivers an update that causes those PCs to immediately stop working?

As of July 19, 2024, we know the answer to that question: Chaos ensues.

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In this case, the trusted software developer is a firm called CrowdStrike Holdings, whose previous claim to fame was being the security firm that analyzed the 2016 hack of servers owned by the Democratic National Committee. That's just a quaint memory now, as the firm will forever be known as The Company That Caused The Largest IT Outage In History . It grounded airplanes, cut off access to some banking systems, disrupted major healthcare networks, and threw at least one news network off the air.

Microsoft estimates that the CrowdStrike update affected 8.5 million Windows devices. That's a tiny percentage of the worldwide installed base, but as David Weston, Microsoft's Vice President for Enterprise and OS Security, notes, "the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services." According to a Reuters report , "Over half of Fortune 500 companies and many government bodies such as the top US cybersecurity agency itself, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, use the company's software."

What happened?

CrowdStrike, which sells security software designed to keep systems safe from external attacks, pushed a faulty "sensor configuration update" to the millions of PCs worldwide running its Falcon Sensor software. That update was, according to CrowdStrike, a "Channel File" whose function was to identify newly observed, malicious activity by cyberattackers.

Although the update file had a .sys extension, it was not itself a kernel driver. It communicates with other components in the Falcon sensor that run in the same space as the Windows kernel, the most privileged level on a Windows PC, where they interact directly with memory and hardware. CrowdStrike says a "logic error" in that code caused Windows PCs and servers to crash within seconds after they booted up, displaying a STOP error, more colloquially known as the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

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In a Preliminary Post Incident Review posted on its website July 24, CrowdStrike confirmed some details about the incident that had previously been reported and added a few more. The code that failed was part of the Falcon sensor, which runs in the Windows kernel space. Version 7.11 of the sensor was released on February 28, 2024. According to CrowdStrike, this release introduced "a new [InterProcess Communication (IPC)] Template Type to detect novel attack techniques that abuse Named Pipes. This release followed all Sensor Content testing procedures..."

Three additional instances of the IPC Template Type were deployed between April 8 and April 24, without incident. On July 19, the company says, "two additional IPC Template Instances were deployed. Due to a bug in the Content Validator, one of the two Template Instances passed validation despite containing problematic content data." Those instances were deployed into production. "When received by the sensor and loaded into the Content Interpreter," the report continues, "problematic content in Channel File 291 resulted in an out-of-bounds memory read triggering an exception. This unexpected exception could not be gracefully handled, resulting in a Windows operating system crash (BSOD)."

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Repairing the damage from a flaw like this is a painfully tedious process that requires manually rebooting every affected PC into the Windows Recovery Environment and then deleting the defective file from the PC using the old-school command line interface. If the PC in question has its system drive protected by Microsoft's BitLocker encryption software, as virtually all business PCs do, the fix requires one extra step: entering a unique 48-character BitLocker recovery key to gain access to the drive and allow the removal of the faulty CrowdStrike driver.

If you know anyone whose job involves administering Windows PCs in a corporate network that uses the CrowdStrike code, you can be confident they are very busy right now, and will be for days to come.

We've seen this movie before

When I first heard about this catastrophe (and I am not misusing that word, I assure you), I thought it sounded familiar. On Reddit's Sysadmin Subreddit, user u/externedguy reminded me why . Maybe you remember this story from 14 years ago:

"Defective McAfee update causes worldwide meltdown of XP PCs." Oops, they did it again. At 6AM today, McAfee released an update to its antivirus definitions for corporate customers that had a slight problem. And by "slight problem," I mean the kind that renders a PC useless until tech support shows up to repair the damage manually. As I commented on Twitter earlier today, I'm not sure any virus writer has ever developed a piece of malware that shut down as many machines as quickly as McAfee did today.

In that case, McAfee had delivered a faulty virus definition (DAT) file to PCs running Windows XP. That file falsely detected a crucial Windows system file, Svchost.exe, as a virus and deleted it. The result, according to a contemporary report , is that "affected systems will enter a reboot loop and [lose] all network access."

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The parallels between that 2010 incident and this year's CrowdStrike outage are uncanny. At its core was a defective update, pushed to millions of PCs running a powerful software agent, causing the affected devices to stop working. Recovery required manual intervention on every single device. Plus, the flawed code was pushed out by a public security company desperately trying to grow in a brutally competitive marketplace.

The timing was particularly unfortunate for McAfee. Intel had announced its intention to acquire McAfee for $7.68 billion on April 19, 2010. The defective DAT file was released two days later, on April 21.

That 2010 McAfee screw-up was a big deal, kneecapping Fortune 500 companies (including Intel!) as well as universities and government/military deployments worldwide. It knocked 10% of the cash registers at Australia's largest grocery chain offline, forcing the closure of 14 to 18 stores.

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In the You Can't Make This Up Department… CrowdStrike's founder and CEO, George Kurtz, was McAfee's Chief Technology Officer during that 2010 incident.

What makes the 2024 sequel so much worse is that it also affected Windows-based servers running in the cloud, on Microsoft Azure and on AWS. Just as with the many laptops and desktop PCs that were bricked by this faulty update, the cloud-based servers require time-consuming manual interventions to recover.

CrowdStrike's QA failed

Surprisingly, this isn't CrowdStrike's first faulty Falcon sensor update this year.

Less than a month earlier, according to a report from The Stack , CrowdStrike released a detection logic update for the Falcon sensor that exposed a bug in the sensor's Memory Scanning feature. "The result of the bug," CrowdStrike wrote in a customer advisory, "is a logic error in the CsFalconService that can cause the Falcon sensor for Windows to consume 100% of a single CPU core." The company rolled back the update, and customers were able to resume normal operations by rebooting.

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At the time, computer security expert Will Thomas noted on X/Twitter , "[T]his just goes to show how important it is to download new updates to one machine to test it first before rolling out to the whole fleet!"

In that 2010 incident, the root cause turned out to be a complete breakdown of the QA process . It seems self-evident that a similar failure in QA is at work here. Were these two CrowdStrike updates not tested before they were pushed out to millions of devices?

Part of the problem might be a company culture that's long on tough talk. In the most recent CrowdStrike earnings call, CEO George Kurtz boasted about the company's ability to "ship game-changing products at a rapid pace," taking special aim at Microsoft:

And more recently, following yet another major Microsoft breach in CIS' Cyber Safety Review Board's findings, we received an outpouring of requests from the market for help. We decided enough is enough, there's a widespread crisis of confidence among security and IT teams within the Microsoft security customer base. […] Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. CISAs now have the ability to reduce monoculture risk from only using Microsoft products and cloud services. Our innovation continues at breakneck pace multiplying the reasons for the market to consolidate on Falcon. Thousands of organizations are consolidating on the Falcon platform.

Given recent events, some of those customers might be wondering whether that "breakneck pace" is part of the problem.

As part of its initial response, CrowdStrike says it plans to take additional measures to improve "software resiliency and testing." More importantly, it plans to implement a "staggered deployment strategy ... in which updates are gradually deployed to larger portions of the sensor base, starting with a canary deployment." The company also committed to provide customers with "greater control over the delivery of Rapid Response Content updates by allowing granular selection of when and where these updates are deployed."

Meanwhile, the United States House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee plans to call CrowdStrike's CEO up for hearings on what went wrong, and CrowdStrike's Chief Security Officer, Shawn Henry, posted an apology on LinkedIn , admitting "On Friday, we failed you. ... The confidence we built in drips over the years was lost in buckets within hours, and it was a gut punch."

How much fault should Microsoft shoulder?

It's impossible to let Microsoft completely off the hook. After all, the Falcon sensor problems were unique to Windows PCs, as admins of Linux and Mac-focused shops were quick to remind us.

Partly, that's an architectural issue. Developers of system-level apps for Windows, including security software, historically implement their features using kernel extensions and drivers. As this example illustrates, faulty code running in the kernel space can cause unrecoverable crashes, whereas code running in user space can't.

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That used to be the case with MacOS as well, but in 2020, with MacOS 11, Apple changed the architecture of its flagship OS to strongly discourage the use of kernel extensions . Instead, developers are urged to write system extensions that run in user space rather than at the kernel level. On MacOS, CrowdStrike uses Apple's Endpoint Security Framework and says using that design, "Falcon achieves the same levels of visibility, detection, and protection exclusively via a user space sensor."

Could Microsoft make the same sort of change for Windows? Perhaps, but doing so would certainly bring down the wrath of antitrust regulators, especially in Europe. The problem is especially acute because Microsoft has a lucrative enterprise security business, and any architectural change that makes life more difficult for competitors like CrowdStrike would be rightly seen as anticompetitive.

Indeed, a Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that it can't follow Apple's lead because of antitrust concerns. According to the WSJ report , "In 2009, Microsoft agreed it would give makers of security software the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets." That concern might be open for debate, but given Microsoft's history with EU regulators, it's understandable why the company hasn't wanted to get tangled up in that argument. 

Microsoft currently offers APIs for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint , but competitors aren't likely to use them. They'd much rather argue that their software is superior, and using the "inferior" offering from Microsoft would be hard to explain to customers.

Nonetheless, this incident, which caused many billions of dollars' worth of damage, should be a wake-up call for the entire IT community. At a minimum, CrowdStrike needs to step up its testing game, and customers need to be more cautious about allowing this sort of code to deploy on their networks without testing it themselves.

CrowdStrike caused Windows outage chaos for airports, banks, and more. Here's what happened

Who needs ransomware when a faulty software update can shut down critical infrastructure, microsoft releases a crowdstrike recovery tool - here's how it works.