The essence of the method and types of cases
The case method is an active learning technique, which allows to include in the educational process the individual elements of professional activity. The most successful cases are based on primary and statistical data of real companies. Top managers of these companies can take an active part in the process of writing the case.
Case study is very popular in the international practice of teaching, recently he has been actively applied in Russia. Case studies can be used not only in the learning process, but when applying for a job. This technique allows to assess management skills and ability to analyze and to show how well the worker can cope with complex tasks. Evaluators of personnel in large companies can use cases created on the basis of the data about your company.
Qualitative case studies on financial planning, management and marketing must contain a large amount of information about market dynamics and currencies, about the company's history. Additional external and internal information allows you to make SWOT analysis more reliable.
The cases are diverse in structure and length. If you want to evaluate the ability to apply certain formulas or methods of solution, we used structured case studies, which are short a situation with concrete figures and data. If you want to assess the creative thinking of the worker, the use of unstructured or complex cases, they contain a large volume and variety of data and can have multiple solutions.
The method of solving cases
To solve the case is a matter of finding one or several options out of a difficult situation.
The first step is to carefully read the text of the case, to identify the problem of the enterprise and to define the tasks. For example, if the problem is low profits, the challenge is to increase profit.
The next step is to structure the information and identify what data is important to solve and which are not. Next is to identify the causes of the problem situation and to offer some solutions. Of several options you must choose one and develop a strategy of implementation, because the proposed recommendations should be enforceable.
In the last step, we prepare a presentation solving the case. The presentation should be clear and evident, for processing the results can be used graphics, photographs, tables and charts. During the presentation must convince the audience that all information has been thoroughly studied, and the proposed solution will allow to change the situation for the better.