Theory into Practice: Business Case Study

How to write a case studyIn order to write a good business case study, you should have a good understanding of the actual case itself. Before you follow the suggested steps, read the case carefully, and highlight key points. It is also a good idea to read the entire case 3-5 times to get all of the details and fully grasp the issues facing the company or industry.

Once you are comfortable with the information, begin the basic steps offered below to write a better business case study analysis.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Investigate and Analyse the Company’s History and Growth using the latest annual report, independent information from government sites, think tanks, and reputable business sources.

2. A company’s past can greatly affect the present and future state of the organisation. To begin your case study analysis, investigate the company’s fundamentals, critical incidents, structure, and growth.

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses Within the Company

Using the information you gathered in step one, continue your case study analysis by examining and making a list of the value creation functions of the company. For example, the company may be weak in people development, but strong in sales.

3. Gather Information for the business case study using PESTLE or SWOT analysis

The third step in a case study analysis involves identifying opportunities and threats within the company’s external environment. Special items to note include competition within the industry, bargaining powers, and the threat of substitute products.

4. Using the information in steps two and three, you will need to create an evaluation for this portion of your case study analysis. Compare the strengths and weaknesses within the company to the external threats and opportunities. Determine if the company is in a strong competitive position and decide if it can continue at its current pace successfully.
Identify Corporate Level Strategy

5. To identify a company’s corporate level strategy for your business case study, you will need to identify and evaluate the company’s mission, goals, and corporate strategy. Analyse the company’s line of business and its subsidiaries and acquisitions. You will also want to debate the pros and cons of the company strategy.

6. Identify Business Level Strategy

Thus far, your case study analysis has identified the company’s corporate level strategy. To perform a complete analysis, you will need to identify the company’s business level strategy. (Note: if it is a single business, the corporate strategy and the business level strategy will be the same.) For this part of the case study analysis, you should identify and analyse each company’s competitive strategy, marketing strategy, costs, and general focus. You may use Porter, Blue Ocean, or other theoretical frameworks. 

7. This portion of the business case study analysis requires that you identify and analyse the structure and control systems that the company is using to implement its business strategies. Evaluate organisational change, levels of hierarchy, employee rewards, conflicts, and other issues that are important to the company you are analysing.

8. The final part of your business case study analysis should include your recommendations for the company. Every recommendation you make should be based on and supported by the context of your case study analysis. Try not to introduce new material here, but just highlight the most important findings. 

9. Look over your business case study when you have finished writing. Critique your work to make sure every step has been covered. Look for grammatical errors, poor sentence structure, or other things that can be improved.

Categories: Academic

Comments are closed.

Malcare WordPress Security