Table Of ContentREVISED
EDITION
THE
CASE
STUDY
HANDBOOK
A STUDENT’S GUIDE
REVISED
EDITION
THE
CASE
STUDY
HANDBOOK
A STUDENT’S GUIDE
William Ellet
Harvard Business Review Press
Boston, Massachusetts
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C opyright 2018 William Ellet
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be
directed to [email protected], or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School
Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.
The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the book’s
publication but may be subject to change.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ellet, William, author.
Title: The case study handbook : a student’s guide / by William Ellet.
Description: Revised edition. | [Boston, Massachusetts] : Harvard Business
Review Press, [2018] | Includes index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2018000145 | ISBN 9781633696150 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Management—Case studies—Study and teaching.
Classifi cation: LCC HD30.4 .E435 2018 | DDC 658—dc22 LC record
available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018000145
eISBN: 9781633696167
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and
Archives Z39.48-1992.
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CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................ 1
1. What Is the Case Method? What’s in It for You? ............ 5
PART I
ANALYZING CASES
2. What Is a Case? ........................................ 11
3. The Skills You Need to Read and Analyze a Case .......... 17
4. How to Analyze Decision Scenario Cases ................. 29
5. How to Analyze Evaluation Scenario Cases ................ 47
6. How to Analyze P roblem- D iagnosis Scenario Cases ........ 67
PART II
DISCUSSING CASES
7. How to Prepare and Discuss Cases ....................... 95
PART III
WRITING ABOUT CASES
8. How to Write Case- Based Essays ........................ 113
9. How to Write Decision Scenario Essays .................. 131
vi(cid:2)CONTENTS
10. How to Write Evaluation Scenario Essays ................ 145
11. Writing about P roblem- D iagnosis Scenarios ... . . . ....... 159
PART IV
CASES FOR ANALYSIS AND WRITING
General Motors: Packard Electric Division .................. 173
Malaysia in the 1990s (A) ................................. 193
Allentown Materials Corporation:
The Electronic Products Division (Abridged) ............. 213
PART V
STUDY GUIDES FOR CASE ANALYSIS
AND WRITING
Study Guide for Decision Scenario Cases ................... 229
Study Guide for Evaluation Scenario Cases .................. 235
Study Guide for P roblem- D iagnosis Scenario Cases .......... 241
Acknowledgments ............................................ 247
Index ..................................................... 249
About the Author ............................................ 255
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INTRODUCTION
A
re you a student who is new to the case method? Are you a student
who feels that you aren’t learning as much as you want from the
case method? If you belong in either of these categories, this book
was written for you.
The fi rst edition of T he Case Study Handbook emerged from my sixteen
years of work with business school students. This new version follows over
a decade more of working with students and refi ning the ideas in the fi rst
edition. The initial motivation for the book was frustration. I had been
trying to help Harvard Business School MBAs write better case-based
examinations. I gave them what I considered to be good advice about
writing, such as using a logical essay structure and being concise. There
was nothing wrong with the advice—I’m still giving it to this day—but
it didn’t have the positive impact I expected on the quality of students’
exam essays.
Eventually, I realized that I didn’t fully understand what the students
were having trouble with. First, my advice started in the wrong place. I
assumed that students knew how to analyze cases to provide the content
needed for their exam essays. Actually, many weren’t sure how to do that.
Their uncertainty compromised the depth and quality of their thinking
about cases.
Second, case examinations usually ask students to take a position on
the central issue of a case. Although many students had no problem taking
a position, they weren’t certain what else they needed to do. A common
strategy was to fi ll the essay with case facts the students thought were rel-
evant to their position and let the reader sort out the relationship between
the facts and the position. I assumed that they knew how to write an
argument to prove their position.
The two issues had nothing to do with how smart the students were.
They weren’t at fault for not knowing what they needed to do because no
one had ever told them. Students are usually expected to fi gure out how
to analyze cases on their own. Many do and many don’t. But the process
of making cases meaningful is too important to leave to chance. The rich
2(cid:3)THE CASE STUDY HANDBOOK
learning that the case method off ers can’t be completely realized unless
students—meaning you—understand what a case is and how to analyze
it. The same is true of understanding how to make evidence-backed
arguments.
One other aspect of the case method causes problems for a signifi -
cant number of students: classroom discussion of cases. They’re unsure
of the purpose of discussion and their role in it. Much of this uncertainty
stems from students’ educational backgrounds. They’re used to the lecture
method and have honed the skills needed for that method of instruction:
listening and taking notes. They emphatically aren’t used to the professor
asking them questions or having a major share of the responsibility for
learning in the classroom.
It’s telling that three critical aspects of the student role in the case
method—analysis, discussion, and argument—are often ignored. The
case method has been defi ned largely from the point of view of professors,
not students. Professors concern themselves with analyzing cases in order
to teach them and are skilled in argumentation. However, what matters
most in the classroom is what students, not professors, know—or don’t.
I’m not blaming professors. They’re focused on their subject-matter
expertise, and the academic reward system tends to be biased toward what
the professor knows, not how well she or he can teach that knowledge.
Showing students how to analyze cases and make arguments about them
falls outside the lines of business disciplines and the organization of busi-
ness departments or schools. You’ll look in vain for a Department of Case
Analysis.
This book fi lls the gap I’ve just described in traditional business cur-
ricula. (It also is relevant to programs other than business that use cases,
including medicine, nursing, and engineering.) It provides:
• Analytical tools that help you sort, organize, and refl ect on the
content of a case and use the concepts and frameworks taught in
business courses more eff ectively.
• Advice on how you can participate in and contribute to classroom
discussion of cases.
• Guidance on how to develop arguments about cases and express
them in writing that is logical, clear, and succinct.
It’s a fair question to ask whether the advice in this book works. Is it
worth your time to read? Here’s what I can tell you. For over a decade
since the publication of the initial edition, a group of writing coaches,
including me, has used the fi rst edition of the book as a foundation for our
INTRODUCTION(cid:3)3
work with hundreds of Harvard MBAs. Almost all of our students sig-
nifi cantly improved their ability to analyze cases and to write about them.
Our metric was the grades that students received. I’ve had similar results
in my teaching at Brandeis University, George Washington University,
and the University of Miami.
One of the best examples from my own coaching is a fi rst-generation
college graduate from a family that had emigrated to the United States
when he was a child. He received poor grades on his fi rst-year exams
at HBS and was understandably demoralized. He used the concepts in
this book to enhance his understanding of how to analyze a case and
write a persuasive argument about it. In his second year, he received high
grades in all of his courses—a complete turnaround from his fi rst year.
There were several reasons for his academic improvement, the primary
one being his hard work. But he said he also benefi ted in class discussion
and on exams from the concepts drawn from this book.
This book uses Harvard Business School cases as examples and includes
analyses of them. Don’t assume, however, that the analyses give the “right
answers” to the cases. The evidence in them can sustain other conclu-
sions. The book also includes essays about the cases; they are based on the
writing of MBA students. Because the original essays were examinations
written under time pressure, they inevitably had errors, unclear sentences,
and lapses in logic. I debated whether to present the essays as is or correct
and revise them. I chose the latter. No essay is perfect, and I don’t want to
set a standard of unobtainable perfection. But I want you to have the best
examples of the points made in the book without confusion over what is
correct and what isn’t.
This book is intended for you—case method students current and pro-
spective. My wish is that it will enhance your learning from cases and
provide benefi ts for others associated with your learning—your peers,
professors, employers, colleagues, and communities.
