On The Case Method

Service Category: Training / Coaching

One Day Workshop on The Case Method for Management Faculties

I conducted a one-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on The Case Method for the teachers of management education recently. It was organised by Sri Kaliswari Institute of Management and Technology at Sivakasi. About 25 faculty members of various institutions participated in the event.

Though I kept writing case studies, especially for software companies, I had never conducted an workshop on the subject before. But the reason why Dr Valarmathy, the Director of the Institute, chose me for the program was different. She had attended one of my Change Management workshops and she found that the workshop had many business cases. That convinced her that I could do justice to the programme. Dr Valarmathy gave me sufficient time (about 3 months) for my preparation.

What’s The Case Method?

Management students are taught business concepts and frameworks such as benchmarking, balanced scorecard, and Porter’s five forces. But lectures alone would not help them understand and internalise these concepts. As in any subject, effective learning happens when ideas are presented with real world examples. That’s why the Case Method is still popular in B Schools.

Programme Objective

It is considered that B Schools in India do not make full use of this teaching tool. The reasons could range from faculty members not having enough exposure to the Case Method teaching to the lack of budget for case studies. Also, most case studies are created abroad (Harvard is the market leader) and they mostly feature foreign companies - hence are not appealing enough for the Indian students.

The objective of the FDP was to introduce the Case Method, and to rekindle the interests of the teachers in it.

Programme Structure and Outcomes

Here is the presentation I used to provide an overview. The key components of my presentations included an introduction to the case method, anatomy of a case study, methods of creating case studies, how to use case studies in teaching, and importantly, the ways of engaging the students in creating case studies.

My expectation was that upon understanding about these aspects, the teachers can not only use the Case Method in their classrooms but also create cases based on local organisations. They could also involve students in the creation of case studies. They can assign projects to students in this regard. The case studies created thus can add value to the institutional knowledge.

At the least, it should make learning fun for students - for every case is a story. Who does not like stories?